I understand how extremely stressful it is to be working with a newborn who is not suckling well and not to have staff support in your actions to help a baby nurse. (been there, feel stressed just thinking about it). 

I fully agree with Cheryl who said that some little humans are used to sucking their tongues from their pre-birth life and that the positive reinforcement of breastmilk at the breast helps these little ones learn to nurse. 

I won't add anything new to that just thought I would demonstrate what this means in the psychological model "object relations."   Newborn infants "split" the world into good and bad experiences. The world is made of good or bad objects, called breasts (because the breast is part of the early world). So the tongue is the "good breast". The tongue has provided the baby with good feelings and protection. 
Now we have to create a good breast at the actual breast. So all good experiences have to occur while the baby smells, feels, sees etc etc  the maternal breast. 
The best tool with this model of course, is a supplementer at the breast. "Dr. Newman's feeding tube supplementer". for example. 
The good experiences at the breast include relief from; the sense of being attacked, pain of hunger, cold or being scared. The maternal breast, in conjunction with  mom' s "good enough" mothering (Winnicott) (meaning that a mother does not have to be perfect, in this case her nervousness and similar is accepted, of course) becomes a giving, rather than a withholding environment and the infant will begin to accept the maternal breast as the good breast. 

If we use other tools to provide "relief",( including expressed  breastmilk) i.e. cup, spoon, finger than we risk creating a sense that these tools are the "good breast".  This is demonstrated for example, by infants who seem to display adequate suckling abilities while finger feeding, yet they refuse to "leave" their  "finger good breast" for the maternal breast.

I also agree with all of you who reminded us that the very real harmful effects of providing artificial baby milk in the first few days of life (and beyond) should be considered with the utmost seriousness before using this substance. 

Keren Epstein-Gilboa MEd, BScN, RN,LCCE, IBCLC
PhD(Candidate) 
psychotherapist 
aunt of a 12 year old diabetic niece who was given "just a small amount" of artificial baby milk at birth

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