>Then one of the nurses comes back from a conference on
>breastfeeding and says speaker said "Whoever invented finger feeding should be
>shot".  Local lactation consultant calls me at the hospital and complains that
>babies she is seeing for latch-on failure are so used to finger feeding and
>pressure on palate, that they are similar to nipple confused babies that have
>had  a bottle in hospital.  So, I asked that the nurses stop finger feeding
>and now they are in an uproar because they are not comfortable with cup
>feeding.

Loni, I strongly disagree with the conference speaker who appears to
despise fingerfeeding. While fingerfeeding can be overused in the same
manner as new drugs are over-prescribed, such zealous misuse does not
negate its potential value in some situations.  If I've got a baby who
consistently blocks the breast with a raised tongue and isn't getting
anything out of the breast as a result, some judicious fingerfeeding can
help feed baby AND train that tongue down at the same time, something
that neither bottles nor cups do well.

What may need to happen here, rather than pushing or condemning one
supplement method, is a discussion of when each method may or may not be
appropriate.  It sounds to me like the effort to have one single protocol
is failing, because breastfeeding problems do not all fit into the same
box.  Is it possible to introduce such a dialog? If they know why they
are doing what they are doing, and how to weigh risks vs benefits so that
babies are not supplemented by *any* method too quickly without just
cause, perhaps it will alleviate these knee-jerk reactions to narrow
protocols.   My 2 cents.

Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC