We would like to respond to the report of the Speech Pathologist who decided
that Speech Development is hindered by breastfeeding longer than three years
because the tongue thrusts forwards whilst the child is suckling.
Firstly, where is the research to support this statement? There have been
some pontificating texts way back in the dim, dark ages that would
unashamedly explode such fallacies into print without as much as a back up
study to support the idea, but when the present literature abounds with so
much research to support the positive effects breastfeeding has in all areas
of development (including speech) why resort to out of date mumbo jumbo?
One of the two man team writing here is a Speech Pathologist and feels
absolute professional shame when she hears of such utter rubbish being
passed to parents.
We wholeheartedly endorse Katherine Dettwyler's reply on Thursday, 19th
October and would like to add the following thoughts:
In my experience as a Speech Pathologist (Anne B. speaking) who works with
babies and young children, I have noticed that many babies around 6-8 months
are able to start with swallowing solids. They are, at this stage, able to
bring the tongue tip back in from the gum ridge and move the food towards
the back of the mouth and then swallow with the belly of the tongue pushed
up against the hard palate to force the food into the oesophagus.
Tongue thrust is a problem that Speech Pathologists treat and while it may
have a developmental basis, I am very aware that bottle-fed babies, cup-fed
babies, tube-fed babies, breastfed babies, Down's Syndrome babies,
neurologically impaired babies, babies from different
cultures............can present with tongue thrust. So, WHY BLAME IT ON
BREASTFEEDING? (It was only a little shout!)
BTW developmental tongue thrust can be quite successfully treated!


Anne Bovey and Robyn Noble, Brisbane, Australia.