Tallis Milburn posts on a mother with cracks about halfway around the base
of both nipples, and a baby with some interesting variants of oral anatomy.
In my experience this kind of crack is frequently associated with anatomical
problems.  If the tight labial frenulum is on the lip that is closest to the
crack is on the nipple, I would try my hardest to get someone to clip it.
I've seen it done just twice with instant relief to mother in both cases -
and in a third case where the ENT doc expressed doubt to the mother that it
would help, which led her to decline the procedure, there was no resolution,
and the excruciatingly painful cracks which she had had for over a month and
which were documentably not due to thrush or staph, remained.

The first time I saw these was on the inferior aspect of both nipples in the
mother of a baby with a very tight lower lip.  He was tense for a lot of
reasons, not the least of which was that he was undergoing physical therapy
to stretch the tendons in both ankles, and this was so uncomfortable for him
that the PT suggested doing it while he was feeding.  The stretching was
switched to bath time, while submerged in relaxing warm water, and he did
start feeding with a more appropriately placed facial musculature.  At the
time I had never heard of tight frenula of any kind, but since it got better
when his source of tension was eliminated, I don't think there was anything
there.  A tight frenulum will make it hard for the baby to flange the lip,
and this does matter.

I couldn't hazard a guess about the epiglottis, but if growth has been good
for 8 weeks, maybe it doesn't matter at this point.  It sounds like the baby
chose the right mother - one with a good supply and lots of perseverance.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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