>Does short tongue+recessed chin=pierre robin???  I don't dare say the words
>around these parents. Baby was admitted over the weekend after losing from
>7lbs to 5 1/2 lbs. His tongue barely reached the gum line. Now her milk
>supply is down to 5cc's per breast. (I promise, I looked in archives.) Is
>the best we can do...to pump and bottle feed,if we get her supply up?!

I have a client whose baby was just assessed for this by a UCLA cleft
palate team, so I'll share what we were told. Pierre-Robin syndrome is
considered to be characterized by the combination of cleft palate,
severely receded chin and strong gagging problems.  The short tongue
phenomena related to these is supposedly less a physically short tongue
and more that it is so far back due to the unusual jaw and related
pathologies.  My client's baby has a cleft of the soft palate and the
severely receded chin (and yes, I noted what seemed to be a terribly
short tongue) but not the gagging problem, and so was classified as
"Pierre-Robin anomaly".

BTW-- the ped involved told the mom that her baby should be able to
breastfeed no problem?!  However, this poor tike couldn't even get that
tongue anywhere near under the breast regardless of position, and barely
seemed to have anything under my finger during a digital suck assessment;
and that's not even taking into consideration the cleft issues. It was
pretty clear to me that TIME was going to be the most important element,
for that jaw to grow and the tongue to reach more appropriately.

Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC