No confusion here

After reading Furrow's bit on her daughter's oral fixation, I just had to talk about The Things That Go Into Jack's Mouth.

So I'm breastfeeding, which is both wonderful and incredibly weird, and has led to many boob-related jokes around the house. It also means that, before we left the hospital, there was a lot of discussion about "nipple confusion." We weren't to give him a bottle or use a pacifier, if we were so inclined, for about a month, to establish that mommy's bewb is the one and only place for food. But Little Jack had the jaundice, like I did, and so I had to supplement with formula for the first few days. No big deal; we did that with syringes to avoid that whole nipple confusion issue. But let me tell you something: there's no confusion here. Here are some of the things the child has thus far put into (or tried to put into) his mouth:

Fingers
Entire fists (his own and others)
The knuckles of family members
Faces
Necks
Shoulders
Mommy's tummy
Blankets
Spit rags
His "boxing gloves," or rather, his little mittens
The sleeves of his shirts
The side of the co-sleeper
The 1989 Denver Broncos (not really, but I bet he'd try)

After reading about babies with "intense sucking needs," we finally gave in and broke out the newborn pacifiers, and it's helped with calming him down when he tries to eat himself sick (which he does about twice a day). This kid would nurse all the time if I'd let him. I keep waiting for the first time he bites (or gums) one of the cats. I've been trying to keep them away from him, and the cats don't seem to understand that I'm doing this for their safety rather than his.