Assunta - the baby I referred to (shield with tube) - was 18 days old, fed by fingerfeeding. Baby would not suck at all at first, male, epidural with top off dose prior to delivery and 6 hr or so separation from mom before 1st BF attempt, full term and 7-8 lbs. He screamed, arched and fought off any latch-on attempts. Mom was willing to fingerfeed and pumped easily (1st baby). I can't remember if he had an occasional bottle at night or not. We just fingerfed and tried again a few days later, at which time he did his little act again and so on for 18 loooong days. We only tried every 3-4 days, at the end it was almost a week. We tried alt position, shield. He began to fuss, no milk right there instantly. But he wasn't screaming and arching. I quickly put SNS tube under shield, he latched on and that was it! Three days later mom had worked him off the shield by stimulating letdown, putting shield on, latching him on, then slipping shield off part way through feeding. I think she only used the tubing a couple of times. She had such a wonderful supply and could easily stim a let down. I always worked on the theory that finger feeding gave newborn a chance to forget why he was mad at breast. I saw this behavior fairly frequently where I worked because epidurals weren't continuous yet and a back up dose near delivery seemed to cork the babies. Separation after delivery was common. And yes,it was mostly baby boys. I don't know whether he finally matured enough to do this BF thing, or meds finally wore off or he took a good look at mom and saw she wasn't going to give up so he might as well nurse. The last time I talked with her he was 8 mo old and nursing just fine. He'd be about 5 yo now.