Dear all:

I think there are some parallels between the issues of when and how to introduce solids 
and when to supplement with expressed breast milk when a baby can't yet do the job at 
the breast.  

In both situations think each case must be examined regarding the two individuals 
simultaneously.  While I more often will offer breast first when the baby is vigorous and 
can take more milk from the breast, there are also situations where I do what my former 
mentors called "backing into the breast" by offering the alternative feeding device (bottle, 
tube, etc) first.  They did not present this to me as a new technique back in 1999. I 
thought this was a widely known technique.  They also did not present the "sandwich", 
"assymetric latch", "nipple tilt" or "planting the lower lip first" as new techniques.  I was 
taught from 1999 to use "warm" before draining the breast to release milk and "cold" 
after draining a breast to suppress inflammation and this was not presented as new 
either.

Basically, I think we are often recreating techniques that were once known to many 
women and then continued to exist merely in tiny pockets or cul de sacs.  Like species 
that live on an island sometimes these ideas take a while to drift back into the wider 
world to propagate and flourish (sometimes in a different form than the original).  For 
that same reason, sometimes it is hard to track down who is the person that "instigated" 
the technique and who are the people who are "propagating" the technique with new 
embellishments or more eloquent narrative that makes it more understandable to a wider 
audience.

Best, Susan Burger

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