MHS:   Source date is:     05-May-95 18:15:00 -0300 EDT

======== Original Message ========
Jan,
As the mother slides her finger farther and farther back, slowly, to
eventually
reach the juncture of the hard and soft palate, the baby gets used to having
something (and particularily something that is flesh) reach back much
farther
than he's been used to.  It trains them to take the nipple in past the
bubble
palate and back where it belongs.  I've had some real success with this
method.
Yaffa Stark
======== Fwd by: Judy Canahuat ========
Thank you all for your excellent suggestions.  As I was down-loading the
messages I received a phone call from a vendor of ours, whose wife had just
had a second baby.  He said that her nipples were destroyed and she was
pumping and giving the baby milk in a cup and that his wife was distraught
because she had not had ANY problems with the first.  I suggested that they
check that possibility and apparently they had already been told about the
high arch by the lactation consultant in the hospital where she delivered.
I explained the process of finger feeding to him and faxed them your
wonderful comments.  We received a message today from him that the
information had really been helpful.  I will see him on Monday and learn
more.

The first mom, who originated the message, has not been doing so well.  She
is a first time mom, so there is all of the learning about babies and
breastfeeding in general that is related.  When the baby left the hospital,
she was down to 7lbs. 8 ozs. from a birth weight of 8lbs, 3 ozs.  When I
went to see her last night, I learned that and also learned that at a week
she was at 7 lbs. 7 ozs.  Now, of course, we don't know whether she lost
more weight when she first went home (she was pretty sleepy) and is on the
way up, or is on the way down.

The baby is urinating quite a bit, is "colicky", and the stool seems to be
very watery.  She said that the day before she had hardly stooled at all,
but in the four hours I was there, she passed some stool three times, but
very thin and watery and it was immediately absorbed into the disposable
diaper.  Mom had several let-downs which we could hear and observe when the
baby was on well and the right side didn't hurt at all.  This morning, from
the reports I have received, she had a larger stool and it was more mustard
color and thicker (which I interpreted for the family as a real positive
sign).

The original nipple problem, which was on the right side, had improved quite
a bit by last night, but the left side is now giving her the most problem.
We worked on the position last night and Mom told me this morning that she
slept somewhat better last night.  Today, she decided to pump and give the
baby milk from a cup, which seems to be going well.  The nipple on the left
side definitely had the pointed shape with a white ridge on the side that I
have come to associate with a high arch and the scab, which fell off last
night is on the tip, not the base, which seems to confirm the diagnosis that
we all made.  She has "new skin" where the cracks and abrasions were.

It was not, however, possible for Mom to find any position on the left side
last night that was completely comfortable and I think that is why she made
the decision to pump today.  My question for your collective wisdom is: How
much time off the breast is enough?  Are there any other guidelines Mom can
use to keep her confidence up (I'm concerned that as a first time mom with
no "good" memories, she will get too discouraged).  She was trying suck
training (she was able to confirm everything that you all observed about the
gag reflex, the baby not pulling in the finger, tec.) before every feed.

Incidentally, I don't know if you see the Family Almanac in your local
papers.  Yesterday there was a very positive column on long-term
breastfeeding answering a grandmother concerned about a four-year old who
was still breastfeeding.  If you are interested in a copy, please let me
know.  I will try and give you my private e-mail address.  It is very
complicated as it is on MCI Mail.

Thank you for your input.  You are all wonderful.

Judy Canahuati
Phone: 202-298-7979; Fax 202-298-7988
e-mail: [log in to unmask] or you
may try JCANAHUA<JCANAHUA@[log in to unmask]>