Hi Pamela! You asked for more info on how to open "little jaws". I try to remember to dry off the chin first - slips like crazy if wet! I always use a finger cot on the index finger but really don't like gloves most of the time - a personal issue. With the baby in mom's arms I ask her to encourage an open mouth by perioral tickling (I usually joke with the mom and dad if he is present about the idea of tickling the lower lip that is in much of the available literature is near impossible with a wiggly baby.) Then as the baby is attempting to open gently push along with baby's opening to get wider than baby is accustomed to for latch-on. Sometimes it takes a few attempts to coordinate the whole thing and it can get a bit crazy. I find that making light of the situation rather than getting overly tense loosens things up physically and gives moms a different perspective too. It's so easy to feel despair and misery when things are going poorly. Just shifting perspective slightly we can often see the humor and folly of our situations and laugh a bit which is such a good catharsis when dealing with a crisis. When a baby is not opening sufficiently because some well meaning soul gave an artificial nipple to the baby this method works reasonably well. I've thought that perhaps the baby gets a "muscle memory" of how far they are suppose to open for feeds, so the extra push during the opening process seems to get them past that. Another factor is that sometimes mothers have an expectation that their baby can not open that wide. I usually ask how wide their mouth is opened to yawn or cry and usually get responses about how wide that is. If they can open for other activities then they can certainly be taught to open wide for feeds. When a baby is physically unable to open wide enough to accomodate mother's nipple, I usually teach her to finger feed and try periodically as baby grows and eventually the baby can latch-on well. Hope this answers your question. Gretchen Andrews, BA, IBCLC, LLLL private practice, Redlands, So CA