Carol B says,

<< the reason i brought this up was probably because i had yet another visit
 with yet another mom who had been taught to shove on her baby's chin to
 "make" him open his mouth. i was reflecting on the fact that i never do this.
 never! if a baby needs to have pressure on his chin to open, then to me there
 is something else wrong that needs fixing. i do see oral aversion that seems
 to stem from this sort of interaction with the baby  (rough bottle feeding,
 holding the head, etc.). >>

Well, I've never had any luck *making* a baby open his mouth in this way.  If
he isn't opening, then he isn't ready to eat, regardless of what the clock
says.  A baby who is hungry and ready to nurse will root -- and rooting is
essential in getting a baby to the breast.  Voluntary opening of the mouth is
part of rooting.  If one does have success in pulling the chin down,
generally the baby's tongue goes up in order to protect his airway from
something intrusive -- and what have you accomplished?  Absolutely nothing!
I tell my moms that I'm a good nursery nurse.  I can *make* a newborn take a
bottle.  I can shove that little hummer in the mouth & wiggle it around so
that if the baby doesn't swallow, he will drown.  Shoot -- back in the dim
dark recesses of my checkered career, when I worked midnights in a nursery;
was the only nurse in there and had to get 12-14 babies fed twice (by bottle
-- no one breastfed then), all of them weighed & bathed and changed & charted
on during my 8 hour shift (no bottles to be propped), one learned how to work
fast & work smart whether or not it was in the baby's best interest.  I'm
also a good IBCLC.  But I can't *make* a baby breastfeed.  I can encourage,
position, etc etc, but I can't *make* him open his mouth in such a way that
he'll latch on to the breast.  He needs to do that on his own.  And we have
to be patient and wait for the golden moment which isn't necessarily at the
stroke of 3 or 3.5 hours.  There are waking techniques that we all know.  But
I don't think pulling on a baby's chin is one of them.  ONce the baby is
latched on, I might teach the mom how to GENTLY pull the lower lip out -- but
that is different than pulling down the chin.

I also teach them what I call "The Wide Mouth Frog" game which is looking at
the baby, touching her lips lightly with her finger and saying W-I-D-E while
mom is opening her mouth WIDELY.  As baby learns to mimic, then mom can put
her finger in the baby's mouth to suck on as a reward.  Eventually, babies
being the smart critters that they are, they learn to open widely when mom
says WIDE and is touching the lips with her nipple....

Jan B -- in Wheaton, but leaving for St. Louis this afternoon, hoping that
she hasn't confused the issue even more.

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