If the baby is arching out of frustration, determining what is making 
feeding so hard is important. If there is a tight frenulum, sometimes 
football (clutch) positioning works better for the baby, if parents are 
not amenable to having it evaluated and treated.

If the baby is arching out of neurological issues or high tone, or even 
sometimes with frustration, the blanket swing maneuver sometimes works. 
Mom places the baby in a strong blanket that is at least twice the 
length of the baby, held diagonally. Baby is placed centered diagonally 
on the blanket (head and feet each pointing to a corner), and all 4 
corners are gathered up together. The parent holds the corners of the 
blanket firmly, and gently swings baby from head to foot and back. If 
the parent is not sure how secure their grip is, or if mom is anemic or 
dizzy at all, it's best to do this over the couch, bed, or other soft 
surface, just in case. Baby is swung for several minutes, until he 
relaxes into flexion. Then he can be put to breast, or he can be 
swaddled in flexion with his arms across his chest to maintain stability 
of the shoulder girdle (arms down at the sides is not as good for 
stability) and then immediately put to breast.

There are other "preparatory handling" maneuvers for babies with muscle 
tone issues, but this is the easiest to explain in writing.
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC  NYC

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

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(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html