Hi, Laura --
This is an interesting question on an interesting topic.
When I first learned to do digital suck assessments (thank you Chele
Marmet for coming to Dartmouth Hitchcock in NH in the early 1990's) I
used to do them as often as I could. In fact - I went back to my La
Leche League chapter and we all did digital suck assessments on each
other! You can do this with adults and kids as well as babies - so see
how many true friends you have! Check out those palates. IT's a good
start.

The real subject of this post though is, "You have to see a lot of
normal to know what is not normal." And think about it - the
"solution" for most babies and moms is a deep asymmetrical latch - and
that works for most everybody. When you get it and there is still
pain, then you need to know your local frenotomist (is that a word??).

Look and look. Put the baby in a football position in front of you on
your chest. Make faces and see what you can see; do a finger sweep
under the tongue if you need to.

I have come to believe we are sticking our fingers into too many
babies' mouths. Don't do it unless you need to...look first.

Hope this helps...
Dawn Kersula MA, RN, IBCLC...who tried to see a bifurcated uvula the
other day and felt like she was faking it with a tongue depressor,
flashlight and lots of young nurses after one of our other IBCLCs
noted this with a baby who wailed while getting its first bath

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