Anne,
I think fingerfeeding is a great tool.  Some babies will develop a
preference for fingerfeeding, but this can be ameliorated by temporarily
switching to cup feeding when baby has gained the skills to go to
breast.  Fingerfeeding is most useful when there is a therapeutic aim
that will be achieved by proprioceptive input from the finger on the
baby's tongue or palate.  Some of these aims include teaching baby the
correct placement of the nipple at the junction of the hard and soft
palates, stimulating tongue extension and peristalsis, discouraging
tonguetip elevation (tongue plastered to the roof of the mouth).  Babies
are less likely to get stuck on fingerfeeding if the finger is presented
like the breast is - ticking the baby's lower lip with the fingertip,
then tickling the tonguetip until the baby draws the finger into the
mouth.  Sometimes this is enough to help the baby "get" the idea that he
needs to draw the breast deeply into the mouth.  I find this is often
the case when babies immediately detach from the breast after attempting
to latch - they are not getting the nipple into proper position in their
mouth to stimulate sucking.  This failure to form a teat from the breast
is only accentuated when we shove anything - bottle nipple, finger, or
nipple shield into baby's mouth.  Helping baby learn to latch onto a
finger, or even a bottle nipple if the parents are already using
bottles, can then be generalized to the breast.
--
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC  New York City  mailto:[log in to unmask]