This sounds like a cleft of the soft palate, or some kind of dysfunction of the
musculature in that area.

To diagnose a cleft of the soft palate, you need to have the baby suck on your
finger, and you can feel either a "U"-shaped defect in the cartilage of the soft palate,
or sometimes it feels like the 2 sides of the soft palate are not fused together.  In
extreme cases you can look in the back of the throat and see either a bifid uvula or
no uvula at all.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do for this.  The babies just can't
acheive/maintain adequate suction to stay latched well and remove milk.  It is
difficult for me to understand how a seemingly minor defect can cause so much
trouble, but it does.

Kathy Leeper, MD, IBCLC
Medical Director, MilkWorks- a nonprofit breastfeeding support center in Lincoln,
NE

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