In addition to neonatal tongue thrusting, there's acquired tongue thrusting, in
which the tongue pushes forward from the alveolar ridge to the teeth during a
swallow.  It's associated with long-term use of artificial nipples, and it's
also linked to speech problems (particularly distortions of /s, z, sh, zh/).

When I was working as a speech pathologist, we would get occasional referrals
for swallowing therapy from orthodontists, who had told parents that there was
not much point in shelling out big bucks to correct an overbite if a kid was
going to be pushing the teeth forward with his tongue 2000 times a day.  There
are appliances which aim to keep the tongue back, but the orthodontists we
worked with didn't seem to have much faith in them.

Everything I know about acquired tongue thrusting I learned on the job, so I
don't have references.  But there's a FL speech pathologist named Daniel
Garliner who has written a lot about it, if anyone is interested.

Yet another way breastfeeding saves money--this time ten or twelve years down
the line.

Jamie Smith (CCC-SLP)
LLLL in Edinburgh

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