Julia,
Look at the reasons WHY the baby has such a high palate, and try to
address those. Muscle moves bone. If the palate is high and narrow or
oddly shaped, the tongue has not done it's job widening the palate and
reducing it's slope. Look for tongue tie, low muscle tone, and
neurologically based tongue movement deficits. A true "bubble" as
defined by Chele Marmet might possibly (I'm theorizing here) be caused
by the baby keeping the tongue tip in that little high area due to a
short jaw or very long tongue.
What to do depends on what you find.
Optimizing latch is very often the first step. Help mom get baby in a
nice asymmetrical approach, body cuddled to mom's midsection, chin on
breast, philtrum to nipple. (Breastfeeding Made Simple (book by Nancy
Mohrbacher and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett) and Follow Me Mum (DVD/video by
Rebecca Glover) both have lots of detail on how to do this. (I have no
financial interest in either work). I recommend letting baby do most of
the work. Mom snuggles baby in position, and WAITS. This gives the baby
more time to organize his tongue movements and get the tongue down in
the mouth for a better latch. Let baby grasp the breast and lunge toward
it himself, snuggle him in a bit as or just after he's done that.
If you can give us a much more detailed assessment of what this baby is
doing with the tongue, at rest, when interacting, during crying, and
when breastfeeding, and anything else you notice about the baby's motor
skills, tone and feeding abilities, we can be far more helpful. If you
don't know what to look for, refer her to someone who does and go along
and learn. (None of us know everything).
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC NYC
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