After reading all the earlier discussion about clicking, with just passing interest, I was surprised to note that Lisa Marasco's detailed post about her own and her son's breastfeeding/clicking/bifurcated uvula history suddenly rekindled an old memory within me. I remember frequently hearing myself (as I was waking from sleep) rhythmically clicking my own palatal/mid-tongue junction as a small (6+ year old) child, and beyond. Perhaps a remnant of my short (so I was told) breastfeeding history, or could it be from my bottlefeeding habits? Do bottlefed babies ever click when they take a bottle? I remember hearing my own sleeping toddlers sometimes making the sound, sort of accompanying the "REM" stage of sleep. It is still a very easy sound for me to make and feels very natural to me. Out of curiosity, I just felt my neck about an inch above my Adam's apple when I tried it and I feel that muscle tense each time that I do it, even though I am moving my mid/posterior tongue ever so slightly. It seems to be my soft palate that is making the clicking, just at its junction with the hard palate. As I slow it down to analyze it, it happens at just the moment when a mild vacuum formed by a slight movement of my midtongue is breaking at that junction. My uvula does not appear to be bifurcated, but I know that my tongue was clipped very early, as was the custom in the '30's. I have always had some consciousness of the upper surface of my uvula/soft palate due to postnasal drip, mild allergies, and the need to make a "snuffaluppigus" maneuver as the habitual way to clear it out. I have never heard any dental people comment on my palate, but out of curiosity, I hope someday that someone with an insightful eye can look at my palate and see if there is anything unusual. I have always assumed that everyone has a big bony bump in the center of their posterior hard palate. Maybe that's why all your references to a "high palate" make me scratch my head. Can someone tell me? I guess I need to do more reading on the formation of the palate! (I do have very large torah inside my lower jaw. I don't know if that's associated.) My curiosity is just aroused. Sorry that you now know far more about my oral cavity and my nasopharynx than you ever wanted to know! Jean ****************** K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC Dayton, Ohio, USA *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html