Cutting down a nipple shield is one of the things I tried in my efforts
to get my daughter, Julia, converted from bottle to breast.  I tried
cutting the tip off, which had been suggested.  With a silicon shield it
made a definite sharp edge, which was not acceptable to either her mouth
or my nipples.  The latex shield did not make as noticable an edge, but
still made my nipples awfully sore.  Fortunately, I finally got her to
go from nursing with an intact latex shield, with the Lact-Aid
underneath, right to my nipple and the Lact-Aid tube.

Shortly after I got Julia nursing, I learned that a friend I had met in
Germany, who had nursed her first two adopted children, had had a ten
month old, severely abused baby placed with her.  She felt, as I did
with Julia, that even if he never got a drop of milk, he desparately
needed the nursing relationship to help him learn to trust her and
overcome, as far as was possible, the long term emotional damage that he
had suffered.

I sent her an account of what I had done with Julia.  She took my ideas
and adapted them and succeeded in getting her son nursing by about his
first birthday.  The idea she had which I think was especially good, was
to cut the nipple shield down from the outside edge on in, until all
that was left was a pie shaped piece that covered the part of the breast
where his tongue touched.  It made her a bit sore, but  was completely
acceptable to the baby.

Aloha,
Darillyn