The document discusses maternal nipple deprivation and its effects on infant behavior. It argues that thumbsucking and attachment to inanimate objects like dummies is a form of displacement behavior that occurs in mammals when deprived of the maternal nipple. This behavior serves to satisfy the infant's genetically determined need to latch onto something for nutrition, comfort and protection. The document provides several examples from different species of infants displaying stereotypical or displacement behaviors like self-sucking when separated from their mothers.

1. Elsie Mobbs
• LATCHMENT before attachment for mammal
babies. The first emotional relationship is
formed through the infant‟s behaviour of
sucking and this occurs before the
predominantly and visually dependent
behavioural period named by J.Bowlby as
„Attachment‟. Dr Elsie Mobbs, Perinatal and
Infant Mental Health Service, NSW.

2. Oral Tactile Imprinting
is a
genetically determined by
evolution survival strategy to
latch the infant to the source of
nutrition and protection -
it precedes visual attachment

3. It’s
LATCHING BEHAVIOUR (Mobbs)
Before
ATTACHING BEHAVIOUR (Bowlby)

4. “Thumbsucking is normal behaviour”
Put forward for this argument is:
• The foetus thumbsucks in utero;
• Many thumbsucking babies still breastfeed;
• It does no harm and is cleaner than a dummy;
• The sucking reduces the cortisol levels;
• “My child did it and he/she is ok”;
• We can‟t compare humans with animals.

5. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• It does not occur in those cultures where the
newborn has proximity to an uncovered nipple;

6. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• John Bowlby states “rhesus monkeys and
chimpanzee infants brought up without
mothers to cling to show a greater excess of
autoerotic sucking … thumbsucking is not seen
in chimps reared with their mothers” Page
268, Attachment, Penguin, 1978.
• Elsie Mobbs states that very young chimps are
mostly seen latched on with the maternal
nipple in the infant‟s mouth. Why did Bowlby
not bring attention to the latch on the nipple?

7. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• It occurs across the mammalian
spectrum in the circumstances of
maternal nipple deprivation when it
is called stereotypical behaviour or
obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD);

8. “Okay, so my crazy
Chihuahua sucks
on her paw when
she is falling
asleep. Kind of like
a toddler! So I’m
starting to wonder
if I need to look for
a doggie
orthodontist”
http://www.mycrazychihuahua.com/d
ogblog/index.php/chihuahua/my-
chihuahua-sucking-her-paw.html

9. • An oral tactile sucking fixation on the self
thumb is very difficult to stop once it has
become entrenched and not uncommonly it
progresses into adulthood for humans and
other mammals;
“I’ve been trying to find someone else who has a
Chihuahua that sucks on her paw this way!
My 6-year old has done it since she was a tiny
puppy. She’ll suck till she falls asleep and has
actually fallen over a few times if she’s sitting
up while she does it. It’s so funny and so cute!
They are just like babies.”
http://www.mycrazychihuahua.com/dogblog/index.php/chihuahua/my-chihuahua-sucking-her-paw.html

10. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is
• It not uncommonly progresses into adulthood.

11. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• It results in facial malocclusions
in human children and in other
thumbsucking mammals;

12. • ThumbGuard Australia
Malocclusions from thumbsucking
http://www.squidoo.com/thumbsucking101

13. Note skew on jaw and dentition - malocclusion

14. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• Thumbsucking is associated with
shorter duration of
breastfeeding, nipple confusion
and failure to breastfeed;

16. “Thumbsucking is pathological”
Put forward for this argument is:
• Thumbsucking is associated with
speech disorders;
The relationship of bottle feeding and other sucking behaviors
with speech disorder in Patagonian preschoolersBarbosa
C, Vasquez S, Parada MA, Gonzalez JCV, Jackson C, Yanez
ND, Gelaye B, Fitzpatrick ALBMC Pediatrics 2009, 9:66
(21 October 2009)

17. • Vigorous thumb sucking may profoundly alter the
development of the mouth and the positioning of
the teeth in the upper and lower jaws. As a
result, the roof of the mouth is pushed upward and
narrows, which leads to the development of a cross
bite. Improper positioning of the front teeth and
tongue can often lead to speech impediments (the
inability to pronounce certain sounds).

19. • Mouth devices are made to prevent it.
• Punishment does not necessarily stop it;

20. • Thumbsucking in utero
would mean non-survival
for mammals other than
human as the mother
would reject the newborn
if the newborn does not
latch on the nipple;

21. Thumb and Dummy Sucking is
pathological behaviour

22. The best explanation for non-
nutritive sucking on either
thumbs or dummies is that of
Freudian displacement of
genetically determined behaviour
in the absence of the stimulus
feature evolved through
evolution, the mother’s nipple.

23. Freudian displacement of genetically
determined behaviour – visual attachment

24. Mammals do not push food into the newborn‟s mouth, the
mother makes herself proximal to the baby and the baby
latches on all by itself.

25. Practical paediatrics 5th Ed MJ Robinson DM Robinon
Longman Group UK Ltd 1998 Page 770
• Orofacial trauma is present in 50% of
reported cases of child abuse. … These
result from slapping, punching, hand over
mouth, forcible feeding with spoon or
fork and forcible intrusion or removal of
a feeding bottle, dummy or toy from the
mouth.
•

26. • Committee on Child Abuse…Liaison
Representatives Staff American Academy of
Pediatric...
Oral injuries may be inflicted with
instruments such as eating utensils or a
bottle during forced feedings.
• PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 6 December
2005, pp. 1565-1568 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-
2315)

27. Maternal Nipple deprivation: MOTHERLESS BABY SLOTH SUCKING HIS FINGERS
http://williambearclaw.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/all-sloths-have-three-toes-silly/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqio2G_Ra6g&feature=related
“They are orphaned … they are usually in a big pile and they will often suckle on each
others ears … once in a while they‟ll get the heel of a hand or a foot.” from DVD The
funniest baby sloth ever.
accessed

28. •The nipple is a
stimulus feature

29. Displacement of genetically
determined behaviour: As well as self-
sucking and inanimate object sucking
• SPECIES SPECIFIC ADOPTIVE
SUCKING
• NUTRITIVE OR NON-NUTRITVE
SUCKING
• CROSS-SPECIES SUCKING
• CROSS-SUCKING

30. Maternal Nipple Deprivation
and
Freudian displacement
• All mammals will displace their
emotional oral tactile fixation/imprint
onto a body part (their own or an
adjacent animal) or an inanimate
object, such as a dummy, in the
circumstance of maternal nipple
deprivation.

31. • All mammals will displace their emotional
oral tactile fixation onto a body part (their
own or an adjacent animal) or an inanimate
object in the circumstance of maternal nipple
deprivation.

33. Maternal Nipple Deprivation
and
Stereotypical behaviours
• From ethology there is evidence
that stereotypical
behaviours, occuring in surviving
mammals, only occur when the
newborn are reared or have partial
rearing by humans.

34. Freudian displacement of Oral
Tactile Imprinting only occurs in
mammals when they are human
reared

35. Determinants of infant behaviour. Proceedings of a Tavistock study group on
mother-infant interaction held in the house of the CIBA Foundation, London
September 1959, Edited by BM Foss, Methuen & Co Ltd London pp37-44
• Mavis Gunther “What I thought was occurring in
a Lorenzian way was that the shape of the nipple
and the tissue drawn with it into the mouth was
acting as a sign release stimulus evoking
instinctive feeding behaviour in the baby … the
baby is likely to get imprinted with the bottle
teat – it falls in love with it … Mothers who
have endured it lose all wish to feed the baby
because they cannot bear being so rejected by the
baby … She says `It always takes the bottle so well’
Of course it does!”

36. Maternal Nipple Deprivation
and
thumbsucking Harlow monkeys:
as well as head banging, rocking and self
injurious behaviours, the infant monkeys
were thumbsucking.

37. Maternal Nipple Deprivation
and
thumbsucking Harlow monkeys:
for the recognition of mother in
the mouth, they did not choose
wire frame with milk – they
chose thumbsucking and a cloth
mother.