i am not doing a study on oral aversion, just writing about it, but it is
clear to me watching the "normal" procedures in the NICU, that they cause
oral aversion. watching a baby get a bottle forced into his or her mouth,
then wiggled and rotated and shoved and other such cute tricks to "get them
to take their feedings faster," pacifiers shoved forcefully into their
mouths, tubes stuck down their throats after EVERY feeding to "see how much
they got" (invalid, can't possibly measure anything) and then having the
contents of their stomach forced rapidly back down their throats, anybody
getting a clue here?

marjorie meyer palmer, who is quite concerned about this issue and clear
about the causes and results, says it is very difficult if not impossible to
study adequately, because you can't control the procedures enough (true, many
of the things done, like ECMO, are done just to save the life of the baby).
its clear to me, however, in observing, that there are several problems, one
of which is a lack of connection between actions taken with babies and
results. also, caregivers obviously reach a point of complacency with
procedures that enable them to perform acts of casual cruelty without
thinking about what they are doing.

i think this also describes the bathing of a newborn including slopping water
on them, scrubbing them hard, and sticking their heads under running faucets
shortly after birth.

 t. berry brazelton made his mark in medicine early on, by writing a famous
study showing that nursery nurses felt a proprietary interest in "their"
babies, a possessiveness that made them exclude the parents and try to keep
the babies to themselves, because of the innate feeling that "they knew best"
(a natural feeling, i think, who has not wanted to just snatch a baby from a
mom and say, here, do it THIS way, for pete's sake!). this new knowledge was
supposed to revolutionize care and to pave the way for rooming in and a
different approach to mother/baby care.

what happened?

carol brussel IBCLC
laura nevada lactation
www.breastfeedinghelp.com

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