Julie: Some babies do this as a reflex to MER, but others seem to do it for
no apparent reason. I personally had a baby do this until he weaned at age
3. At the risk of sounding ridiculously obvious, have you tried having the
mom pull out the lip and keep her hand firmly planted on the chin? The hand
stays there and creates ever so slight tension on the bottom lip. This is
presuming that you've checked the tongue position and find it acceptable.
Other thoughts...neurologic and pallette abnormalities might be
contributing. Also, a suck-assessment would also be in order to figure out
where the tongue is going. Does baby do this during suck assessment? What
are the other body parts doing (ie. is baby arching back too?)
Warmly,
Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC [log in to unmask]
mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, researcher, scientist, author,
organic gardener, photographer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner.
***********************************************
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
|