Yikes - blast from the past is right, but not as distant as in Heather's case.

Looks like another example of dumping, to me.  We have those hideous bicycle horn things being reincarnated as nipple extractors and even sold as pumps, as we have seen other quasi-medical products no longer marketable in rich countries turning up in poorer ones.  

I saw this kind of shield being sold out at in a pharmacy rock-bottom prices less than ten years ago in my town and I was just too cheap to buy them all up to get them out of the way, but I told the pharmacy where I found them that they had no business trying to peddle them as they are beyond ineffective, they are a tool whose only effect is to stop lactation unintentionally and with great discomfort for the woman.  It is not possible to drain a breast with one of these gadgets on it, so of course it is not possible for a baby to feed through one.  The pharmacy was being remodeled and moving and they probably found a stash of the things in some cupboard no one had looked in for decades.

When I first started working as a midwife over 20 years ago, other staff would from time to time put bottle teats on a woman's breast if the baby wasn't taking the breast into its mouth by day two.  I won't go so far as to say we handle that situation well nowadays, but we don't use bottle teats any more.  These shields are probably some kind of evidence that there have been babies who have difficulty finding the breast and attaching their mouths to it for a long time.  The change in practice in my workplace is evidence that hissy fits *do* work sometimes.

Take a look at all three of the photos (resolution so poor you can not read the text on the packaging, looks like the vendor used one of the earliest camera phones to take the pictures) and you will note a new low in the ongoing competition for bad packaging illustrations on so-called aids to breastfeeding.  Mother and baby are regarding each other from what can only be called a 'novel' angle, and The King of Nipple Shields is towering in the foreground.  Can someone tell me what 'Ver más Salud y Belleza' means?  Salud I know, but what is the rest?

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome