Is anyone else out there bothered by this terminology when it is applied to
breastfeeding? I believe the origin might have been the "illness" model; when
premies were being gavage fed, they were also given pacifiers to  suck on
("non-nutritive" sucking) bec. digestion worked better when they sucked, even
though no food was being obtained by the suck. Or, using a "wellness" model,
bottlefed babies need to suck "non-nutritively" because they don't spend
enough sucking time while feeding, since the feed is over too quickly. I
don't think this applies to breastfeeding, and it may be confusing to some.
Breastfeeding, nutrition and sucking all tied up in one neat package....
Pearl Shifer, M.Ed., IBCLC
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