Anne, I agree wholeheartedly regarding our putting a finger into a baby's mouth. The oral area is highly sensitive--therefore, we may be doing harm to the sucking mechanism/reflexes through this intrusion. The only time I think it might be necessary is when we have observational data that says there may be an oral abnormality---i.g.cleft of the soft palate. But we have very little data to support suck assessment using our finger and no research to support intervention using the finger. So, before we put our finger into an infant's mouth we need more data to support what we are doing!
Carol L'Esperance RN, MSN, IBCLC, Albuquerque, NM

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