Elisheva Urbas wrote:
> However, I have noticed that most posters, pro and con, assume that the
> finger goes in gloved.
> I understand the principle of "universal precautions."  But is gloving in
> fact safer all around than good scrubbing and using a finger without any
> pre-existing cuts etc, given the possibility of sensitizing babies to latex?

I'm glad you asked, for I hesitated to ask myself. I've noticed more than once,
in fact quite often, that a baby will reject my finger if gloved and accept
happily -or even eagerly- if ''natural'' (scrubbed ofcourse, but uncovered).
I've uptill now presumed that if my finger is cleaned properly I will not pass
germs on to the baby and if my skin is intact I won't get anything from the
baby. I've started to wonder now if this presumption is correct or not. I work
mostly with relatively healthy term newborns and older babies. When I do see a
sick baby or premie in a hospital I do whatever is routine in that hospital (i'm
not hospital-based).

Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, living in Maaseik, Belgium
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac
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