I felt the need to quickly join in on the thread related to covering the  
infant's hands with the cuff at the end of the t-shirt. What is started in the  
hospital or modeled by the clinician is something that parents will continue  
doing at home. I saw a patient one time who kept her baby's hands tucked  into 
those miserable cuffs because her health care providers and  family kept 
telling her that the baby would scratch his face if the hands  were not covered. 
She came in to see me because she had sore nipples. When she  went to put the 
baby to the breast, one nipple was oozing so much pus it stuck  to her bra. When 
we went to put the baby to the other breast I noticed that his  hands were 
cuffed and removed the cuffs so that his hands could massage the  breasts (like 
a kitten), as that kneading of the hands is part of the feeding  response. 
What I saw was that every tiny fingernail had an  infected hangnail on each side 
of it. Three quarters of one thumb had  turned black. What a mess. I guess I 
must weigh in on the side of allowing those  little hands to feel the soft 
warmth of the mother's breast and knead the tissue  like they were intended. 
 
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html