Jennifer, In Wolf and Glass' book, Feeding and Swallowing Disorders in Infancy, thickening foods to facilitate swallowing is mentioned several times. This is not my area of expertise but I have worked with many babies like this. They all couldn't breastfeed (either well or at all) due to not being able to coordinate their suck, swallow, breathe mechanism or not being able to swallow properly. They might latch but not remove much milk. Test weighing is vital if mom wants to try to breastfeed. She can rent a Baby Weigh Scale. Thicker foods are easier to form into a bolus and then swallow. The way food goes down is that the mouth and tongue form the food or liquid into a bolus at the base of the tongue near the throat. The throat then opens, the tongue drops and the food goes down. The idea of thickening liquids is common to help these babies swallow easier. I would also suggest trying a Medela Haberman feeder because babies can compress to get the fluid rather than just sucking and the flow rate is variable, and baby can control the flow herself. Babies who have trouble forming boluses and swallowing have done well for me on a Habermann feeder. These are babies who couldn't manage a regular bottle and nipple or didn't remove much from the breast. I am not sure thickened milk can go through the Haberman valve, though. I suggest moms feed baby first and then let baby latch to the breast for comfort afterwards. Most of the babies I have worked with had poor stamina so putting them to the breast first meant little intake and then baby shut down (went to sleep) without a good feeding therefore too much weight loss or poor gain. If mom is willing to keep pumping 6-8 times in 24 hours with a rental pump, she can try waiting it out. If baby is aspirating up his nasal cavity, then breast milk without thickener is certainly better than formula. I look for little white balls of mucous in the nose plus "snotty" sounds without a runny nose or cold symptoms. Also I have heard stridor or wheezing sounds after feedings from the babies that I suspect have some kind of oral motor or swallowing/aspiration type problems. Best wishes to this mom. Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC *********************************************** 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