Hi All,

The size of the breast and/or diameter of the areola doesn't matter. What matters is the location - depth, distance from tip of nipple, and texture - of the lactiferous sinuses. If mom can get the sinuses inside the baby's mouth and baby can effectively strip them with his tongue - BINGO. If not, they have a problem. I've worked with this before: one mom hand-expressed for 11 months till the baby grew big enough to get his mouth around the sinuses effectively. If baby can latch at all, mom may be able to hand-express into his mouth to help milk transfer at breast. 

Refer back to my earlier post on the "knack of hand expression" for a description of how to find the sinuses, or check out my web page at http://www.bflrc.com/bflrc.htm where I have "The Knack" posted.

Linda Smith, Dayton OH