Jaye, I don't know what births are like elsewhere, but the injured baby you describe is not so uncommon here. I recently saw a baby at 8 weeks for the first time who still had a conehead. I was stunned when I saw him. He clicked, sucked in his lips, did many of the things you describe. I referred for CST and clipping of a posterior tongue-tie. He is doing fabulously now. The normal molding of normal birth is resolved when the baby feeds efficiently and the proper movement of muscle realigns bone. This doesn't happen when the birth is highly interventive and/or the baby cannot feed. As terrible as an injury might look, CST can work magic with the right practitioner. Remember that even the palate can shift when the cranial bones are misaligned. I honestly sometimes wonder if I need to make a referral to a neurologist (through ped) and usually it is not necessary. Even a neurologically compromised baby or a baby with a genetic syndrome will almost always see dramatic improvement with CST or other bodywork. Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA Intuitive Parenting Network LLC Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 17:50:57 -0500 From: Kathy Eng <[log in to unmask]> Subject: another toughie Jaye, The head sounds like this baby needs to be seen by a craniosacral therapist and a physical or occupational therapist. I would like to see if baby can do better with more flow at the breast -- but your description of aspiration bothers me. I find that babies used to bottles do not suck at the breast. They are used to swallowing the flow off the bottle nipple. It "looks" like sucking but if they do the same thing at the breast, they remove nothing. What kind of bottles is mom using? I might suggest Dr Browns or a Habermann Feeder if baby is going gulp gulp gulp gulp then a quick and deep gasping breath on the bottle. Or pacing with a standard, non hospital bottle nipple, with only 3-4 sucks or jaw movements before removing the bottle nipple and placing it on his mouth. I like to watch these babies bottle feed as it can tell you a lot. Like if they gulp and gasp or if they are slow or if they can't grip with one of their lips or if they aspirate on the bottle. Bottle feeding problems are a huge red flag that gets the pedi's around here interested. If it is just breast, most pedi's ask mom in a negative way if she is sure she wants to go to all the trouble of seeing a SLP, etc. That double nipple bottle (breast flow??) helped one of my babies who had trouble with swallowing. He did better on that bottle and choked less. But it can be tricky to put together. With babies that seem to have oral motor issues, I like to do several test weights at the breast to see at what point baby stops removing milk. I find that SNSs don't usually work right with these oral motor babies, I guess their sucking is so ineffective or poor. But at the point where they are on the breast and not removing milk, I take them off and feed another way (usually bottle because we have to feed them in the easiest way as their weight gain is poor and feedings are so slow.) If you put these babies on a wide based bottle nipple and they can't grip with their top lip, this shows weakness and I always point that out in my HCP report as something I observed. Also, I work with a lot of recessed chin babies because I seem to be the only one that can latch them on. (The trick is a deep asymetrical latch with the chin smooshed right in and the nose out, head tipped back a tiny bit, and body of baby tucked into mom's body. You put them on going in front ways or the old style and they can't latch right because their chin is hanging out.) I also see a lot of what I suspect are posterior tongue ties with those very recessed chins. One red flag is when the baby's top lip hangs out over the bottom lip with a gap or air space between them -- they don't meet at normal resting position. This mother is fortunate to have your support and encouragement. She deserves a medal! Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html Mail all commands to [log in to unmask] To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask]) To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]