Hi All and Elise,
My thoughts on this are this:  This baby went througha traumatic birth that
was made even worse with vacuum rotation and extraction.  When I see babies
who have had this type of treatment I almost always see feeding issues of
some sort - they may be severe enough that while everything looks OK on the
outside, the baby just doesn't do well on the breast - if he can get on at
all.  Sometimes the situation is not so bad and baby does just fine tho with
a little discomfort.

Check this out:  This little man had a cusstion cup attached to his head,
was twisted and pulled out of his mother.  Imagine someone doing this to
you - how do you think your neck and head would feel??  AWFUL!  There is
very likely some real muscle trauma to this poor little guy that is causing
him real problems.  He may very well have cervical vertebrae that are out of
alignment and muscles that are very tight.  I would get this baby to a
neuromusclar therapist (NMT) or a chiro who is highly eperienced with babies
and will also do massage and knows about neuromusclualr therapy, an
excellant cranio-sacral therapist - someone who can correct this type of
issue.  I am very fortuneate because I live in a town (Sacramento, CA) where
there is a gal who is a certified neuromuscular therapist and has done some
phenomenal work with severly damaged babies (as well as with myself) and
they have all gone back to breast with beautiful results.

In some cases, time will help and things will eventually resolve.  However,
in a situation like this I believe that time is of the essence and waiting
to see if it will self-correct should not be done (kinda like waiting to see
if your broken wrist will heal right on its own...).

Fingerf-feeding vs bottle feeding?  Depends on how the baby does with each
one.  Finger feeding may be fine, but may also cause him pain.  What I do is
evaluate the baby's ability to finger feed myself first.  Find out what is
going on with his suck - is it effective, correct, can it be done in a way
that will be beneficial or are things bad enough that finger feeding will
take too long and cause too much stress for the baby?  We all know that
bottle feeding can be very easy for babies...sometimes this is the best
route to protect the baby's intake and emotional issues with feeding.  I
also will evaluate the bottole feeding however to make sure that it will be
safe for baby - if it flows too fast and baby chokes or cannot maintain safe
feeding then paced feeding must be introduced.  Make sure the bottle nipple
will work for baby - sometimes one works fine and another brand doesn't.  It
is all very individual.  And of course, there are the parents.  What will
work best for them as well?  Methods other than supplementation by bottle
sometimes do NOT work for already stressed out parents.

Elise, good luck...the circ certainly did not help the situation, imo.  I
always encourage parents (whenever possible) to hold off on the circ until
BF is well established...

Re: mom buying a pump - she needs a hospiatl grade pump asap.  The
purchaseable ones just aren't for her situation and if she needs to pump for
awhile her milk supply may be at risk (especially depending on what she
bought...).

Good luck, hope this helps...

Jaye Simpson, IBCLC

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