Lisa, I will be eager to hear what you turn up.  My youngest (now 7 mos and a
champion nurser) was this kind of a tongue curler, and I believe that it may
have indicated that she was sucking her tongue in utero and had gotten in the
habit.

She did in in the birth room, after a quick and easy and unmedicated birth --
no suctioning, no agressive latching help, all quite lovely really.

After she learned that she needed to drop the tongue to get any milk, there
was still a long uncomfortable (for me!) period in which, after the main rush
of milk was over and she was down to comfort sucking, she would try to curl
up her tongue (cozily, in her opinion, I imagine), resulting in the nipple
getting partly squeezed out and the latch hanging off the end of the nipple
-- ouch.

She sucked this way very reliably when relaxed, or when majorly stressed, but
when calm & hungry she learned to do it ok -- and in fact she did NOT do it
to defend against the nasty firehose-in-the-face of oversupply, which she
really hated.    That's why I think it was an earlier-learned comfort habit,
rather than a defense mechanism.

Even now, when she is deeply asleep and fully relaxed, if you open her mouth
gently you can see the tip of her tongue at rest against her palate, curved
right up there.

Elisheva Urbas, NYC

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