Hi All,
With what I know about bubble palates (personal experience as well as
professional) it seems that these babes have a need to fill that palate full
of "something" and use the breast.  Of course, then moms nipples end up
falling off because of frisction against the palate.  If a baby is really
stuck on filling up the palate then suck training is a great way to re-train
them.  These babes will also often have a very sensitive gag reflex
(probably because they are not used to having anything back that far).  Mom
and dad need to learn how to suck train the baby , by slowly placing their
finger back as far as the baby can handle (taking care not to touch the roof
of the mouth-we want no stimulation there at all-baby needs to forget that
area exists) until the baby can take the finger back to the proper junction
of the soft and hard palate without gagging.  Once the baby can do that,
then the baby will have a better time going back to breast properly since
they won't be continually trying to fill up their palate.  I have used the
Me---a nipple and flipped it upside down (while doing the suck training).
It seems to go back just a bit farther (my imagination?) when upside down,
and seems to help baby get used to the idea that something is supposed to go
back that far in their mouth.
The next step is to make sure that mom can get enough breast tissue in
baby's mouth.  I have found that (barring inverted nipples) the "nipple
sandwich" (in conjunction with the transitional/cross cradle hold) works
really well at helping mom and baby keep the breast where it needs to be.
Most moms (as did I) have found that they need to BF in this position for
the entire feed for a while (days/weeks) in order to prevent baby from
slipping back into old habits, but if you have plenty of support for your
arm then it is not a problem.  Positioning and L-O are critical because any
"oh, it doesn't hurt that bad, I'll just let him BF wrong for this feed and
fix it next feed" can really mess things up.  Unless, of course, you have a
baby who adjusts really well and acccepts correcting easily.
Hope this helps!  Let us know how they work out!
Jay
been there done that...
Jay Simpson, CLE
Sacramento, CA
"No Miracles performed here, just a lot of love and hard work."
ICQ#4681696