>It has been my understanding (and experience) that if the SNS hangs high
>enough (the tube end lower than the bottom of the bottle) the milk will flow
>like a siphon. That would not require any suction by the baby.

It's well worth taking some time to play with an SNS.  If you hang it up and
let the medium tubing drip, it drips an ounce about every 10 minutes- a
respectable enough "drip rate."  But if you put the tubing in your mouth and
sit there waiting for it to drip in, you'll find that it barely drips at
all. * There's enough counter-pressure from tongue, palate, closed-cavity,
whatever to stop the flow altogether.*  Suck on it (or better yet on your
thumb, finger-feeding yourself) and it flows again.

Another thing you learn from playing with an SNS is just how much suction a
baby uses, even given that much of the extraction of milk from a breast is
from tongue movement.  Those muscular cheeks and fat pads are there for a
reason.  This is *work*, and the thought of taking a baby's amount of milk
through that tubing every day is daunting indeed.

Thanks, I'd rather eat with a knife and fork, and leave suckling to the
babies.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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