Collette writes about a baby with a long tongue and a mother with sore
nipples.  I have a photo of a baby with a tongue so long her siblings
nicknamed her "giraffe tongue."  (The photo will be in the book Kay Hoover
and I have written).  Anyway, this mother had very sore nipples as well.
Sometimes the FIT between the baby's mouth and the mother's breast is poor
due to these variations in anatomy.  Don't forget that the mouth of the term
baby is not really an oral "cavity."  All the space is filled by the fat
pads in the cheeks and the tongue.  The baby has to drop the jaw to create
room for the nipple, and during sucking, the jaw closure and pressing of the
tongue on the teat flatten the teat to half its resting diameter.  If the
tongue is larger than usual, there is less space for the teat, and I think
the tongue will compensate by doing unusual things as it tries to do its
job.  Maybe it bunches up more in the posterior aspect causing the face of
the nipple to be rubbed up against the palate.  This might cause abrasion in
the position you describe, particularly if the palate is ridge-y.  What is
the palate shape like?  If the palate is bubble shaped, perhaps the tongue
is bending the nipple up into that depression.  As the baby's mouth grows
these fit problems become less of an issue, so in the meantime work on
positioning and see if any one angle works better than another, or figure
out ways to tx the symptoms of soreness while maintaining as much bfeeding
as she is able.    Tell her this will be outgrown.  Often mothers will be
able to hang in there if they have hope of eventual improvement.  But don't
forget that creative positioning helps these situations.
Barbara
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas
http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html

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