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Lactation Information and Discussion

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Subject:
From:
Winnie Mading <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:16:01 -0800
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One poster mentioned that her husband stoped on the way home from the hospital to buy a pacifier because the baby had found its thumb right away (perhaps even in utero).
My view is that if one must choose a comfort object other than mom's breast, I would choose the thumb over an artificial nipple.  Here are some reasons:
1-At least it is skin like the breast, so one less difference from mom.
2-Older siblings can't pick it up off the floor and right back into baby's mouth (perhaps after a stopover in the dog's mouth!).
3-You can't force a baby to take it to the same extent you can a pacifier.
4-Older sibling can't toss it out the window when you're going down the freeway at 60 MPH!
5-The biggest reason was one given by a dentist many years ago.  I had a neighbor whose baby was one of those"high oral need" babies that wanted something in his mouth 25 hours a day.  (He was nursing just fine).  The little guy found his thumb early on and from that time on through at least the first year, any time he wasn't nursing, his thumb was in his mouth.  Mom was concerned about what this would do to his teeth.  When he had his first dentist visit, she asked whether his thumb sucking had done any harm to his teeth alignment.  The dentist replied that the baby must have been breastfed, because there was no misshaping of his oral cavity.  He went on to state that when a bottle baby sucks the thumb, he tends to press up against the palate and that is what leads to malocclusion.  A totally breastfed baby, on the other hand, tends to place the thumb down and back against the tougue, mimicking how the breast feels in the mouth and thus not
 pushing the teeth out of alignment.  It made sense to me.
Winnie Mading IBCLC


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