I was amazed to find myself face-to-face this week with a mother who described just the sort of smooshing the baby onto the breast in order to force it to nurse i've been seeing discussed here. She described that an LC working with her with her first baby did the "cram-jam" technique to get her newborn daughter to nurse..that it never worked inspite of her own persistent efforts, always had sore nipples, but "had to give bottles so the baby wouldn't starve" and finally gave up after a couple weeks. Interestingly enough, I was working with her and 36 hour old son who would latch, slip off after 3-4 sucks and fuss , was making her nipples somewhat tender, had lost 7% from birth...and looked like he might have ankyloglossia to me. Oddly enough, the newborn nurses thought he was "nursing well" and the mother was worried about his obviously concerned about his dissatisfaction with feeding and was ready to give supplement but petrified about the prospect of giving bottles. She was very relieved to be able to offer supplemental formula by cup and was going to keep trying but see a community based colleague if not better in another day or two. Makes me wonder if maybe the first baby had a combination of ankyloglossia and nipple confusion. Thanks for letting me ventilate my frustration with those who don't treat babies like people...and give 'em a little respect!!! (My background in neonatal nursing goes back to those ancient times, only a few years back when we pretended babies couldn't feel pain.) And now, if someone will bring me a ladder, Ill get off MY soapbox!--Phyl