Dear Diane
I am not surprised that you find the cup-feeding babies more likely to be breastfed down the track.
Physically, I think the baby's tongue action - pushing the tongue forward, lapping, and swallowing - helps stabilise and strengthen the tongue of babies with difficulties taking the breast.  Many times I have used a cup to reassure the baby, then s/he tries again and is more successful. 
Psychologically, I think the woman sees cup feeding as a temporary measure, she is happy to see her baby taking her milk and settling without introducing bottles.  The baby whose hunger is satisfied learns to trust the mother and vice versa.  By the time cup feeding is implemented there is often a real break-down of bonding and trust, so much restorative work is needed.
On the other hand, a baby who is given the milk via a bottle uses the piston-like action of the tongue, and may forget about bringing the tongue forward.  Also the introduction of bottles to a woman who plans to breastfeed often spells FAILURE to that woman, at least in the community where I live.  
We have all seen women who went on to exclusive breastfeeding after enormous difficulties, and bottles and all.  Cup feeding for well babies is something that needs definitive research.

Cup feeding cuts across the entrenched bottle feeding culture, and it is no wonder that it is strongly resisted by some professionals.  However I believe the authority for informed decision making should be the mother's, and we should empower her to consider each option and support her in her decisions.
Joy Johnston
Midwife and lactation consultant in Melbourne, Australia
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www.webrider.net.au/~aitex/joy.htm


-----Original Message-----
From:   Diane Wiessinger [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Sunday, May 31, 1998 1:28 AM
Subject:        cup-feeding

At a conference yesterday, I told the audience I had realized, in reviewing
the "course" of some of my non-latching babies, that those who were cup-fed
ended up going to breast sooner than those who were fed some other way,
though I hadn't look at enough to know if this was a fair sample.

A member of the audience said she's doing a study on cup-feeding right now,
and they're finding that the babies who were cup-fed not only went to
breast sooner, but ultimately breastfed longer.

How does this fit everyone else's experience?

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY