I'm casting a vote for the philtrum!

I attended an interesting presentation on the rooting reflex during which it was postulated that the function this serves is not to turn the baby towards the nipple and latch rather to help the baby begin to move towards the breast for self attachment.  If you place baby's head between Mom's breasts, the touch to his cheek will cause him to turn and the opposite cheek touches the other breast.  This begins a "bouncing" motion between breasts and baby uses this impetus to move towards the nipple, plants chin in the breast and comes up and over the nipple with a reaching gape.  

When I read the link shared from Christine Smilie, I feel this describes a similar process in step 3.  https://breastfeedingusa.org/content/article/baby-led-latch-how-awaken-your-babys-breastfeeding-instincts

Something I frequently like to show parents is that a touch of anything to the philtrum, such as a finger, often elicits a reaching gape in the baby in which he will lift his chin, extend his neck, and take whatever is on his philtrum (finger, nipple, bottle) into his mouth.  One of the pluses of this sort of latch is baby does not necessarily need to approach the nipple with a wide gape because this will occur as he reaches.  This is much like how any of us take a large mouthful of something - we don't approach with a wide mouth, rather we place the "sandwich" on our lower jaw and then reach up and over with the upper jaw.

Ultimately, the number one approach is whatever works for Mom and baby.  In my experience, I see the most success with the nipple at the philtrum.

Running off to see a Mom now - so I hope my quick typing makes sense!  

Ellen

Ellen Rubin, MA, IBCLC, LLLL

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