Quoting Christine Lichte <[log in to unmask]>: > Hi. During a session by Susan Ludington she mentioned that newborns favor > the right. The notes say: "maternal voice--attention getting when on right > side, should be used as setting event to start feeding sequence" and "For > first feed have infant turn to right to be on breast, and no head turn to > left x3 months is best (lateralization and asymmetric tonic neck reflex)" > that sounds very odd to me- if she has sources I would like to know "fencer's" or asym. tonic neck reflex can be elicited from BOTH sides- I find that most parents are right handed so its more comfortable to put the baby down on a changing table on the parents right side, so the infant will naturally turn to its right toward the parent. I try to get parents to alternate sides b/c toticollis (wry neck) and positional plagiocephally (flat heads) is a common problem- wry neck is more common in boys and it is often co-existing with congenital hip dysplasia- often first child- one theory is it was a tight fit in the womb- the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the neck musc. that sticks out in thin stressed out people) can shorten and be tight on that side and can actually cause facial distortion if not corrected- the first line of treatment is to gently stretch infants neck and make him look to the other side! I find that breastfed babies who co sleep have nice round heads and supple necks- b/c they are constantly switching from one side to the other- bottle fed babies are always being held and put down in the same position- since the "back to sleep" campaign- flat heads is so common and disfiguring too! now they have whole centers "cranial-facial" that make these helmets for the kids to wear to reround their heads! my friend had a really hard time breastfeeding her first son, I noticed that he had a wry neck, and you can really see it in pictures, I pointed it out twice and told her lightly that she should excercise/ stretch his neck- but I think she, and her pediatrician don't see it. I would think that it could make positioning a challange and that the infant would wind up prefering one side b/c of comfort *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html