Re: hygiene.  I don't think you'd want to scrub your nipples, but normal
showering where you soap up in a general kind of way and rinse seems
beneficial to me.

Suck training description in 3 sentences.  No way.  Oral motor anatomy is a
complex subject.  Lots of things affect what a baby does when you stick a
finger in its mouth -- including how it tastes, how aggressively you stick
it in, how far back you stick it, and what sort of early oral experiences
the baby has had.  If a baby has anything SERIOUSLY wrong with its
oral-motor function it is probably due to either a physical anomaly, a
neurological dysfuction (transient or congenital), trauma, illness, or a
behavioral response to some event. If the baby is sort of confused, some
brief finger sucking to stimulate oral responsiveness and put tongue in the
right place might be useful prior to a latch-on attempt.  How this would fix
those other problems has never been adequately explained to me. If an infant
needs oral-motor assessment and therapy, this should be done by someone who
is trained to do this without harming the infant.  I know a few little
things to do, but I also know my limits.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC
priv. pract. Austin, Tx
Owner LACTNEWS On-Line:  http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html