I strongly agree with what you all have said about avoiding negative labels, particularly in newborn babies. I often tell parents of "high-needs" (often translates into likes to be held and fed frequently) babies that they are blessed with a baby who knows what it wants! I will say, however, that in the early days of nursing, sometimes it is a great relief for mom to hear that it is the baby who is struggling to learn to nurse, and not the mom who is incompetent. Some moms feel so awful when the first few feedings don't go well. It seems to be a relief sometimes for them to hear from me that baby just hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, and we need to keep working with him. I remind them that the baby has never done this before, and while most babies have good natural instincts, some need some help to learn how to nurse. I try to then help bolster mom's confidence that we will be able to work it out. It seems to help especially those moms who are telling me "I just can't do this" or "I'm no good at this." Jennifer Tieman Family Physician Mom to 3, and new baby #4 expected 5/31/03 *********************************************** 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(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html