I received a call today from a mother I have helped several times in this
past year with other issues and am needing some ideas.  Mother has given
me permission to post with this dilemma.

Son is 18 months old and has changed his way of nursing to the point of
rubbing off the end of mom's nipples.  She has been telling him to open
wider but he keeps slipping toward the end with pursed lips not the nice
wide latch and she can feel his tongue working in a pushing squeezing
pattern that is so wrong.  She has him let go and reattach and he just
can't get it.

He has had 2 colds, back to back contributing to the poor sucking which
has been off and on for the past 6 weeks.  He often has trouble when he
has sore throats, is stuffy or has an earache (just one, so far).  She has
really had a time of it since he was 10 months old and had his first
nursing strike.

She is raw, so I have suggested she be sure to rinse his mouth after
eating before she lets him nurse and to talk to her doctor about treatment
with APNO or at least a polysporin since she might be in for or have
infection. And to watch for the thrush that they have battled in the
past.  I suggested they use acidopholus again and to get him a chewable or
the powder he can suck off of her finger because he hates the texture of
the yogurts she has tried giving to him.

I feel the big issue might be that he has a sippy cup (several different
kinds)EVERY day, with his older siblings and uses a straw sometimes.  She
has given a regular cup a few times but he spills, so she gives the
sippy.  He still wants to go to breast every 2 to 3 hours but seems to be
forgetting how to do it.

I suggested stopping the sippy cups, NOW, and using regular cups even if
it takes a little more time.

She can hardly let him nurse more than a minute or so at a time, now, so I
reminded her to hand express or pump for comfort and to protect her milk
supply. She doesn't want to wean but is considering it for the first time.

As an idea, would Dee Kassings method of bottle feeding help retrain him
to open his mouth wider (with a larger nipple though like the Avent, in
the slow flow)?  Or some other method to help a child this age to drop his
tongue? Has anyone any experience with a suck training, finger walking,
charm hold, something method that might work with an 18 month old?.  I am
stumped.

Thank you,

Cheryl
p.s. We discussed possible pregnancy, too, to cover more bases, but she
doesn't think so and her supply is still plentiful, she went through that
change with her daughter 2 to 2-1/2 years ago.

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

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