OK, everyone. I'm prepared to (partially) defer to personal experience on this issue of getting a clamped-down baby off the breast by pulling him in towards the breast so that he has to open his mouth to breathe. I still am hesitant except as a last resort, since we have no way of knowing how the child will "remember" this in the distant future, nor what his future associations with this will be. I have this feeling that my alarm is not shared by others on the Net. Perhaps this is because I have had several episodes of shortness of breath, literally unable to take a deep breath, no matter how hard I tried to "relax". It is difficult to express how scary this is, so I cannot imagine doing this to a baby. But then again, I've never had one clamp his chompers on me! :-/ Want to share this story of future associations. When my youngest (now 16) was almost 3, we were on vacation at a large water resort. Joey was having a great time with me in the shallow pool area, going underwater for a loooong time and popping up elsewhere. Can you see this coming? We somehow got separated. While I was semi-hysterical, searching for him everywhere (deep water???), he had decided that we were going to leave without him, so he camped out at the park exit, keeping an eye on the car. (Wherever do kids get these weird ideas?) Anyhow, he had severe separation anxiety for YEARS afterwards, into 2nd or 3rd grade, maybe longer. All through 1st grade, I walked him to school and grandma picked him up after school (and you can almost SEE the school from our house....). Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel