Barb posted her experience with her own child who clicked while nursing the first several weeks, with no ill effect. I also usually take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach, except that my experience with my fourth child turned out differently. Eric clicked from birth- not horribly, but with some frequency. I had no nipple pain, and he thrived in the early weeks and months, as did my first three children. At the time I was an LLL Leader, and I consulted with an IBCLC and a CLC, both of whom could find nothing wrong. One thing I now also note in retrospect was that Eric also fell off the breast easily when I moved around. Every thing seemed otherwise fine, until the second half of the first year when Eric slowly became failure to thrive, literally dropping two standard deviations on the growth chart. I was a busy mom, but that just didn't seem to account for it all. I "lost" a good part of my milk supply during mos 6-12, though Eric continued to nurse nevertheless for 2 1/2 years. He did not start to really put on weight until he was more established on solids, after 12 mos. I am sorry to say that I had a far too cavalier attitude about his slow weight gain and did not do much in intervention. It was not until I took an Anatomy class when Eric was 4 that I gleaned some clues as to the problem. While we students were doing oral exams on each other, my instructor, an MD, commented about my bifurcated uvula, which Eric also has. She told me that she was taught to look for a cleft of soft palate tissues whenever this split is seen. Well, Eric was never dx'd with a soft tissue cleft, but I continue to suspect that there is something at least mild there that has escaped the eye. And of more interest............ I have bilateral minor clefts in my hard palate that are not visible normally. In addition, I have an unusually shaped palate. At conference this summer, a couple of my colleagues who attended the cleft palate sessions took a look at my palate and identified what they believe to be a "notch" that is supposedly indicative of soft tissue cleft problems. It would not surprise me at all if Eric and I share some mild genetic abnormalities. Did not cause my mother problems with breastfeeding (though she only nursed me 6 mos), but perhaps these were the cause of my breastfeeding problems with Eric. I have no definitive proof, but the associations are cause for consideration. In summary, though clicking could conceivably mean nothing at all, I believe that it can at times indicate subtle issues that may be problematic down the road. In Eric's case, I believe he thrived in the early days because I tend to have a very abundant supply, which probably sustained him despite his struggle to maintain suction at breast. It was over time that my supply, improperly stimulated, dwindled to the point of inadequacy. Lisa Marasco *********************************************** 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