For many years, I too, have been noting that the male is the more fragile of the species! I learned this (too many years ago to count!) from an academician who studies human growth and development. His contention is that a) were no male hormones introduced, all fetus would be born female; b) when the "original model" (read female) is changed, it is weakened; c) hence, greater losses of "new model" (read male) outcomes (read fetuses/babies/children/adults) are poorer. Now, look at the statistics for abortuses (spontaneous), miscarriages, stillbirths, early neonatal losses, later postneonatal deaths, accidents, congenital defects, and on and on. You will find that this is a disproportionate loss of males over females. ALthough he didn't infer this, do you suppose that Mother Nature (in her wisdom) recognized the impact of changing the original model and thus contributes to a margin of safety by having more males (slightly) than females born across cultures? Just a thought. More to the point of the discussion, I too have seen a disproportionate number of male infants with breastfeeding difficulties than females. Not that girl babies can't also have difficulties, but they are less frequently presenting to me than the male babies. I also had a male baby. He had no problems with breastfeeding UNTIL he was taken from me and treated for jaundice in the nursery and sending me home. Don't scream! I didn't know as much then as I knew later and this WAS 27... years ago. But outcome was he was terribly nipple confused when I finally got him out of prison (so to speak) and home with me. As much as I hated it (remember that I was a stricken weepy new mother whose baby was kept in hospital 2 extra days and I was sent home with a "nipple killer" bulb syringe pump and no instructions), I followed the doc's advice to alternate breastfeeds with bottles for two more days. All that did was elongate the time it took for me to get over sore nipples from that damned pump AND the baby's funny feedings. Fortunately, I stuck it out (deep breathing helped and I honestly never really consdiered bottle-feeding) and one day he and I both got the hang of everything and there was NO MORE PAIN with breastfeeding. He nursed til he weaned.... :-) Circs affect some babies far more than others. Since all (in the US) who are circ-ed are males, it makes sense to me that so many early bf problems present with males.... mailto:[log in to unmask] "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask] WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.net/kga/lactation.htm LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html