At the NICU where I worked, a respiratory rate of 60-70 was considered the cut-off for allowing any type of PO feed. However, resp rate was just one piece of the picture. So if the baby looked well otherwise, s/he would usually be allowed to nurse, but within the NICU with a pulse oximeter on. I once asked one of the neos why 60 was the magic number for aspiration risk, if there were actually any studies documenting that, and he couldn't tell me. I should think the fact that the baby's resp rate is actually lower while he's at the breast would tell the NICU staff that the breastfeeding (or "just" the skin-to-skin contact) is helping the baby adapt to the extrauterine world!! Jennifer Herrin, RN, IBCLC Germany *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html