Sometimes a cup or teaspoon is a better alternative for a baby who is too tired to open his mouth, temporarily, until he "perks up". I usually favor supplementing 24 hour old infants with teaspoons onto which colostrum has been hand expressed, then letting them rest skin to skin at the breast. That said, if a baby is really depressed, sometimes you have to get food into him in any way possible, and then work on teaching him the skills he needs to get that food for himself. Once he perks up and starts to realize that he's hungry and actually look for food, the nurses can start to cross his lips with the nipple, so he will open wide to latch onto the bottle, in preparation for latching onto the breast. -- Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC New York City mailto:[log in to unmask] *********************************************** 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