Dear Barbara, I always love reading what you have to say! At LLL conf we were talking about wise women on Lactnet and all agreed that you are one! Yes, I would have suggested a shield in this situation, at this point. My feelings are that it is better to nurse with a shield than never nurse at all! And I've never had a case where baby didn't eventually give up shield--usually sooner than later. It is simply another approach, not a crime. Rigid rules and not looking at the whole picture will get us IN to more trouble than OUT of trouble! I once learned that the causes of behavior are multiple, complex and interrelated. And the most important lesson I learned in nursing school (and life, for that matter...) was to be flexible and go with the flow. We are dealing with human beings-fearfully and wonderfully made. Every situation we deal with is can't be "fixed" by a cookbook approach because of the complexities and variations from mother to mother and baby to baby and mother to baby. Pat in SNJ