Good Morning, Fiona, I have a problem not allowing a premature infant to suck. That is how infants calm and relax themselves. Ideally, the infant would be at mother's breast. If mother is not available, I think the infant should be given something else to suck for comfort and organization whether it is pacifier or appropriate, slow flow artificial teat. We have fast flow teats in the NICU at the hospital where I work that seem to stress some of the little ones. I would prefer cup feed followed by pacifier when mother is not available or bottle feed with slow nipple followed by pacifier as needed. It is true that there will be some nipple confusion. That can be dealt with later. In our zeal to preserve the breastfeeding we must be careful not to overlook the comfort of these very little folks. I do not know whether being deprived of suck can cause an infant to forget how. Sucking seems so basic that I would be suspect of this and want to see studies to document that result. My concern is very different. You may think that I am coming from an institutional practice that is breastfeeding unfriendly. The opposite is the case. We have put an infant less than 2 lbs. to breast and had him do quite well. We have put infants to breast with the oxygen tube hooked through mom's bra strap to hold it in place at baby's face. We tube feed at breast. We offer d/c mom's a free room in the hospital while the infant is in the NICU so they can be close and feed. We encourage KangarooCare. It is not unusual for all of our NICU babies to be receiving mother's milk. The neonatologist tells parents who are not planning to bf that they should still pump milk and send to NICU--that he wants his NICU babies to have mother's milk. Good Luck! Pardee H. HInson, MPH, IBCLC Charlotte, NC