Hi all,
I have just learnt something interesting about nursing supplementers
and just had to share it with you all. This was using an Australian
Supply Line, but I think it would apply to any brand of supplementer.

I have always recommended that the tubing go on the top of the
breast, passing by the baby's nose, as opposed to the corner of the
mouth, and this is what is in the instructions for the Supply Line.
However, I have just learnt that having it underneath the breast and
along the baby's tongue is much better. Now you may all be saying
this is old news and you already do this, but I didn't know this, so
I am assuming there are lots of you out there who didn't either.

A fellow NMAA Counsellor was involved with Peter Hartmann's current
research sponsored by Medela into designing a better breast pump and
this involved feeding a baby with a Supply Line tubing in place to
measure suction pressure. After struggling to get the baby to take
the tubing along with the breast, the Counsellor found that by
tucking it underneath, it was far more acceptable to the baby and
gave very interesting results. She writes:

> When I was involved with Peter Hartmann's studies where we were using the
>supply line to check how strong the sucking pressure was (supply line was
>connected to a device and a reading was charted on a computer) , we found
>that the tubing was scraping the baby's palate when the tubing was on top.
>If a baby is already a bit iffy at the breast, it's quite possible that it
>will refuse altogether when it felt the 'spaghetti' in its mouth. I
>certainly found this to be true. If the tubing is to be located on the
>baby's tongue, you simply get the mum to hold the breast in her hand with
>the supply line held in between breast and fingers (you know, using the
>C-hold). You may find that getting the mum to do this herself will empower
>her to be able to use the supply line alone without problems. It just seems
>easier than trying to attatch the bub with the tubing poking out, or
>alternatively trying to 'feed' the tubing in once the baby is attatched.
>It's really easy using the Supply line this way.

>The LC was
>amazed, she'd never seen it before, and the reading we got on the computer
>was unbelieveable. Every single suck, every fluctuation was recorded. Pretty
>amazing stuff!

One of the great things about this is that it is 'research-based'!
;-D  And it makes sense when you think about how most of the action
is where the tongue is. Can't wait to get my next mum needing a
Supply Line to try it out!
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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