The two-part series by Brian G. Palmer, DDS, on breast-feeding and its link to lingual development—“The Uniqueness of the Human Airway” in the March/April 2003 issue and “Prevention—The Key to Treating OSA/SDB” in the May/June 2003 issue—prompted an outpouring of responses, detailed below.

I am a lactation consultant in France, and I do appreciate Brian Palmer’s articles. I heard him speak a few years ago in Kansas City at a La Leche League Conference. His papers can be useful to share with health professionals and doctors. In France, health professionals are not supportive of breast-feeding and have to be educated.

Charlotte Bodeven, IBCLC
le Bretonneux,
France

Thank you for publishing Dr Brian Palmer’s articles on breast-feeding, the formation of the oral cavity, and sleep apnea. As an international board-certified lactation consultant, I can attest to the validity of his work. I see many tongue-tied infants with high palates who have difficulty feeding and breathing, particularly in their sleep.

Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC
New York City

Thank you for printing Brian Palmer’s two articles on sleep disorders and facial maldevelopment and their link with bottle feeding. I will find this information very useful in my work. Please continue to publish such important work!

Alison Blenkinsop, IBCLC
Infant feeding adviser
Aldershot,
England

I am writing from South Africa and want to sincerely thank you for publishing the articles of Dr Brian Palmer. Please convey our sincere thanks to him for all his hard work in proving that there is nothing more important than breast-feeding. These messages will be forwarded to pediatricians in our area.

Maureen Barnard
George, Southern Cape,
South Africa

I have been working with breast-feeding mothers for many years and have had the pleasure at several conferences of hearing presentations from Dr Palmer on how breast-feeding facilitates normal oral development. So, it was great to hear (through my contacts in the lactation-support field) that his work was reaching a wider audience through your publication. I hope that it generates a lot of interest and discussion.

Margaret Wills, IBCLC
Maryland

I want to thank you for publishing Palmer’s article about breast-feeding and OSA. There is very little awareness of those topics here in Italy and such articles are very useful for enhancing the knowledge of health professionals about the importance of breast-feeding for a healthy mouth and breathing.

Antonella Sagone, IBCLC
Lactation consultant and psychologist
Rome, Italy

I read with considerable interest the article “Exploring Auto-Adjust Nasal PAP” by Peter Bliss, BME; Robert McCoy, BSM, RRT; and Todd Eiken, RPSGT, in the May/June issue.

The article was well written with one minor blemish: it was left to the reader to guess the possible manufacturers of the four auto-titrating devices that Bliss and company evaluated. I suspect that ResMed’s AutoSet® Spirit was one of the units evaluated.

Could you please take away the mystery and let readers know which other devices were part of this evaluation?

Peter C. Farrell, Chairman and CEO of ResMed, Poway, Calif

The four units evaluated were Respironics’ Virtuoso®, Respironics’ REMstar® Auto, Nellcor Puritan Bennett’s GoodKnight 418A, and ResMed’s AutoSet®T.