Norma -

I once had to sandpaper my toddler's front tooth after he chipped it, to
make nursing comfortable again.  The experience came in handy last year:

Saw a mom whose baby was born with 2 odd little bottom teeth, to help her
with positioning.  She called again a couple days later, in tears, saying
the baby refused to nurse, and that when she tried to finger-feed him, he
kept moving his tongue to the side.  When he did, his teeth felt sharp
against her finger, and the underside of his tongue had a patch of white
tissue, like the white look an abrasion gets when it's kept wet.  She also
said the doctor felt the teeth would not interfere with breastfeeding and
would not pull them.

I went to the house, and sure enough.  One of the teeth had a nasty, sharp
point on it.  I looked at the mom.  "What sounds better to you?  Sandpaper
or an emery board?"  She looked at me.  "Emery board."  A few seconds of
smoothing, and the baby could nurse in comfort.  That was a fun one to
write a report on!

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY
reading her first lactnets in over a month, and with plans to plow thru the
backlog during this lifetime...