Chris Hafner-Eaton writes about a very floppy baby who is having trouble
feeding.  I think the key may be in mom's severe hypertension immed. before
the birth.  A fairly new issue of Peds in Review had a short blurb on floppy
babies (I picked up the issue at the AAP conf. in Boston last Fall, so it
would be 1996 -- issue is at the office.) Anyway, it discusses over-exposure
to mag. sulfate as a cause of very floppy babies.  Perhaps this is your
problem.  The hypotonia probably extends to the baby's oral cavity, making
it difficult to "feel" the mother's rather flat nipple.  The reason why the
longer teats like the haberman are working is they probably 'wake up' the
oral cavity and trigger normal suck-swallow reflexes.  Once babies get so
sleepy and lose so much weight, the delivery of some extra calories helps
they rouse to feed better.  This kind of "jump start" can be done however,
and can, as you observed, lead to a fairly normal feed as you witnessed.
However, since you don't know how long the hypotonia will last, mom should
be instructed to jump start every feed and weight gain and improvements
should be carefully supervised.  Hate to always be talking about nipple
shields, as I am truly not aiming to be the Queen of Silicone, but I bet the
more formed teat might wake up baby's mouth and get baby sucking, at which
point you could whip it off and see what baby could do.  I'd rather keep
baby at breast than have bottles become the only thing that really works.
If mom is stressed and has lots of company, she won't, in my experience,
stick with cups for long.
Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html