Hello Jessica,

I have seen this off and on with babies that I work with.  Often, if you
provide some support under the chin, baby will stop pinching.  It seems to
me that some babies do not have enough muscle strength to hold the nipple
shape in their mouths easily and the support allows them to relax and feed.

Imagine you are asked to take a very tight lid off of a wide jar.  The less
strength you have in your hands and arms the harder you are going to work to
open the lid, you will probably overcompensate.  Yet, if someone with a lot
of hand and arm strength and a large hand tries opening the jar, that person
will not have to work as hard.

If the baby dose not have the jaw strength to hold the nipple he will
overcompensate by holding his jaw as tight as he can.  If you help him by
providing some of the strength needed to keep his jaw in place, he can do it
without holding as tight.

Good luck,

Linda Pohl, IBCLC
Phoenix AZ

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html