Dear Friends:
    This is in response to the reports about the 38-week old baby that will
neither suck nor bottle feed. What is going wrong that a baby can't do what
all babies should be able to do.
    Baby needs to be seen by a pediatric neurologist for the neurologic
deficit. It is outside the scope of lactation practice to try and solve such
a problem.
    Of course, as much skin-to-skin, bed sharing and other attachment
activities will be helpful. However, I believe that breastfeeding is
everybody's business (Thanks Marie Biancuzzo for that great thought!). If
lactation specialists try and fix everything, we remain isolated from other
healthcare practitioners. Plus I am not trained or licensed to work in such
cases. If a baby is sucking poorly, that is a different matter.
    Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CSTP
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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