I may be a few days late in answering the posting regarding mitts on babies  
hands....one of my personal peeves. People think that babies are going to  
scratch themselves and cause scarring. How ridiculous!  Babies scratch  
themselves in utero also.  Their hands are the only thing they come with  that we 
really shouldn't cover up...they allow the baby to feel themselves and  their new 
world. I liken it to putting a blindfold on a new baby and suddenly  his world 
has changed dramatically and now we blindfold him, bundle him up and  put him 
in a plastic case away from his Mummy. How cruel this new world must be  in 
his preception, no wonder he feels stressed out.  So I tell them to have  
someone who will be visiting to bring the baby fingernail emery boards so if  they 
feel they MUST trim those nails they have a tool.  I tell them to let  the 
fingers fall free from the sleeves of the nightgown when not using skin to  skin 
and to hold these small jewels so they can hear their Mommy's heart and  feel 
her breathing and allow them to transition to their new world.   Sometimes we 
need to give them permission.  Some feel that by allowing the  fingers to be 
free the baby will suck them...Hey isn't that what they were put  there 
for...built in soothies when Mom isn't about?  No, they would rather  give a pacifier. 
 I remind them that if the ultrasound showed their hands  in front of their 
mouths they most likely were practicing sucking on their  fingers...not a 
pacifier. I also remind them that baby chooses his own source of  
contentment....fingers, Mom or a pacifier if its introduced but that they  shouldn't be so 
quick to give the pacifier but to use their own clean  fingers...skin feels so 
much more nicer to their mouths. I also remind Mom that  by looking at those 
beautiful fingers and playing with them they are  communicating to their babies by 
touch.  Babies who suck on fingers with  mittens are  eventually getting to 
suck on wet rags. 
Have just comeback from 10 days in California traveling with one  of 
breastfeeding granddaughters....no tears, just smiles and she is thinking  of naming 
her scrapbook "All the places I have breastfed in my  sling from Miami to 
Monterey to Big Sur to San Francisco to Napa and Sonoma  and Marian and Muir Woods 
and all points in between." 
Back to unpacking, answering mail and laundry.
Fun day.
Fondly,
Leanne Jewell RNC, IBCLC, LCCE, FACCE  

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