In view of the recent discussions about N-- teats, we thought we would like
to share some information with you.
About 2 years ago, we were involved with a law suit conducted by the
Australian Trade Practices Commission against a company advertising these
products in this country. This all arose out of a letter Robyn wrote to the
N-- importers after our frustration levels went beyond boiling point at the
problems we were associating with these teats and dummies/pacifiers - and
finding that in a six year period, their advertising material had gone from
claiming their product was "similar" to "the same as" the breast in the
baby's mouth! We are a bad pair (one eggs the other on), but, this time we
had some esteemed collegues: ie. Maureen Minchin and Michael Wooldridge, on
our side. The outcome was that the company had to change its advertising
regarding its claim that the "teat" encouraged the same action as that of a
baby suckling at the breast.
Our Breastfeeding Clinic sees many babies with severe sucking disorders and
thus we see heaps of "N--" nipples (meaning the real nipples, not the latex
or silicone kind!!) coming out of these babies' mouths. These mothers are
not smiling. They are in considerable pain.
We were very interested to hear from Maureen's research assistant who had
translated the N-- material submitted, that the information regarding the
background development of N-- teats was done in Germany in the 1950's. The
design was based on imprints an orthodontist (? hence the claim Orthodontic
Teats) had done on three year old children with malocclusions!! But it gets
better! They also took plaster casts of a nipple after it came out of a
baby's mouth! ....Well, there's a lot to be said about that, but we would
also suggest that the little baby might have had a "suck" problem!
......hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.

Anne Bovey and Robyn Noble, Brisbane, Australia.

P.S. We have strong reservations about using such teats with newborns who
have suck problems and whose mothers wish to breastfeed. IF artificial teats
have to be used for a short time, we always recommend a much longer,
"conventional" teat and have had good results.