I received a call today from a mother I have helped several times in this past year with other issues and am needing some ideas. Mother has given me permission to post with this dilemma. Son is 18 months old and has changed his way of nursing to the point of rubbing off the end of mom's nipples. She has been telling him to open wider but he keeps slipping toward the end with pursed lips not the nice wide latch and she can feel his tongue working in a pushing squeezing pattern that is so wrong. She has him let go and reattach and he just can't get it. He has had 2 colds, back to back contributing to the poor sucking which has been off and on for the past 6 weeks. He often has trouble when he has sore throats, is stuffy or has an earache (just one, so far). She has really had a time of it since he was 10 months old and had his first nursing strike. She is raw, so I have suggested she be sure to rinse his mouth after eating before she lets him nurse and to talk to her doctor about treatment with APNO or at least a polysporin since she might be in for or have infection. And to watch for the thrush that they have battled in the past. I suggested they use acidopholus again and to get him a chewable or the powder he can suck off of her finger because he hates the texture of the yogurts she has tried giving to him. I feel the big issue might be that he has a sippy cup (several different kinds)EVERY day, with his older siblings and uses a straw sometimes. She has given a regular cup a few times but he spills, so she gives the sippy. He still wants to go to breast every 2 to 3 hours but seems to be forgetting how to do it. I suggested stopping the sippy cups, NOW, and using regular cups even if it takes a little more time. She can hardly let him nurse more than a minute or so at a time, now, so I reminded her to hand express or pump for comfort and to protect her milk supply. She doesn't want to wean but is considering it for the first time. As an idea, would Dee Kassings method of bottle feeding help retrain him to open his mouth wider (with a larger nipple though like the Avent, in the slow flow)? Or some other method to help a child this age to drop his tongue? Has anyone any experience with a suck training, finger walking, charm hold, something method that might work with an 18 month old?. I am stumped. Thank you, Cheryl p.s. We discussed possible pregnancy, too, to cover more bases, but she doesn't think so and her supply is still plentiful, she went through that change with her daughter 2 to 2-1/2 years ago. *********************************************** 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