>        When all the positioning and latch on corrections are made with no
>improvement, I have found it helpful to have the mom stroke the baby's tongue
>from back to front and from side to side with a finger placed pad down flat on
>the tongue.

Does anyone find that mothers are unwilling to go to the effort to do this,
and are often looking for the 'quick fix'. Mothers I have seen with infants
with this type of palate have often suffered from very sore/cracked nipples
for weeks before the diagnosis is made, and are understandably keen to get
an 'instant' cure. It seems that the older the baby is, the longer it takes
to get this type of 'training' to work, and mothers sometimes want to wean
rather than go through the extra 'time and effort' of this training. Some
other local (Western Australian) LCs have used nipple shields in this
situation to 'bridge the gap' across the palate, artificially enabling the
mothers nipple to be drawn further back into the infant's mouth, and thus
reducing pain. It seems that the problem sometimes corrects itself as the
baby grows, and that the shield is thus a temporary measure (maybe this is
why the training works as well).
I'd be interested to know what others feel about this, as my experience
with babies with this type of palate is much more limited than many of you
seem to have. :)