"This baby is very cooperative, but does tend to want to slip down to
familiar place on the breast. "

Pamela, my daughter has a high palate (I hope your not getting sick of it!)
and has a favourite place on one of my breasts which makes the latch
shallow. What I have found is that  varying the feeding positions on this
breast helps. It means that no two consecutive feeds on this breast are the
same. I never use the madonna position but the rugby and cross-cradle with
the breast in the c-hold for the whole feed. This seems to help, not sure
why, but it does. For me this is easier, as I have already fed two children
in varying feeding positions and I'm thus probably a bit more 'handy' than a
new mother. Sometimes I suggest to new mothers who find postitioning
difficult to practice with their baby when he or she is asleep. Then they
can hold the baby in the rugby position for example without the stress of
having to actually feed them.

I think the white striped nipples in mothers with babies with bubble palates
comes from the fact that the nipple can end up actually 'in' the bubble.
This means that there is more of an empty space at the anterior part of the
bubble and soft palate, thus the tongue is able to further compress/squash
the nipple in the bubble. Thus the tongue is not compressing the breast
properly from underneath, but doing more a thrust movement and squash
movement against the nipple in the palate. This is only my theory though and
I'm not sure whether it is what actually happens.
Of course it is stating the obvious that with a bubble palate then you need
to get a REALLY deep latch to prevent soreness and squashed nipples. I guess
you've also adressed this but what about ensuring that the breast is really
good and soft before latch. Or maybe latching on for a minute or so so that
the baby can deal with the first MER and stronger milk flow at the beginning
of the feed and then re-latching even deeper for the main course. My
reasoning is that these babies slide off the breast more than babies with a
flatter palate, but you need a patient baby which luckily she has.
I'm sure that because this baby is very patient she won't mind learning two
techniques to help mom out. I've said in a previous post that we latch at
one breast at least twice, and each latch is more deeper than the first. I
just don't think that you have to aim to get one perfect latch from the
beginning to the end of a feed. I use the asymetric latch and really squash
that areola flat to get a deep latch.

If you think this helps then please use my mail.

Also wondering why bubble palates occur.

Sara Bernard
The Netherlands

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