Sorry, I missed the beginning of this exchange, so I'm not going to talk about this particular situation. But I always think now, when I see a baby doing something unusual and potentially not supportive of its own survival/well-being, of a baby I saw years ago when I worked at the hospital. Perfectly "normal" labor & delivery, unmedicated, gorgeous perfect-looking baby, nothing wrong as far as we could tell; baby wasn't particularly sleepy, but just wouldn't/couldn't latch on & nurse. No problems with mom's breast shape/size/contours - looked like a perfect set-up. Day 1, I wasn't too worried - babies are funny sometimes, he just got born, no signs to cause alarm, etc. Parents were keeping the baby in room with them, good bonding, all good stuff. Day 2, I worked with them much more extensively to get him to latch and suck (he'd *either* latch or suck, but not both) - tried all my tricks, but nothing doing. Baby still looked great & showed all the "right" behaviour (rooting, awake & alert @ breast). That was a Friday, and I was off that week-end. Came back Monday, wanting to know how it had gone; the baby was dead! Turns out he had had a heart defect, not detected by the normal physical exam - no audible murmer, no circumoral cyanosis, none of the things you expect to see in a baby with a cardiac problem. But his failure to latch & suck must have been his way of conserving his vital energy. What a tragic thing - and yes, I did feel "responsible" in some way. Now when I see babies that have "life-threatening behaviours" for no apparent reason, I remember that baby and his poor parents; I remember every time I think of them that, while babies' "reasons" for behaving the way they do aren't always evident to us, there IS a reason, and that babies certainly were not designed to fail to do the things necessary for their own survival. So when they *won't* nurse, I worry about why that should be. And when they don't wake up looking for food, contact, comfort, whatever, I worry - not over 1 night, for heaven's sake, but whenever I see a pattern of behaviour that isn't in their own best interest. Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC (getting a little weepy remembering this sad story...) *********************************************** 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