Hello friends-
I have seen today a 7 week old girl whose mother (an RN and experienced
breastfeeding mom) describes continued "pulling off" behaviour in the baby
when nursing.  She had spoken to several folks by phone-LLL and LC's, but no
one had seen the baby.  This little girl is gaining well, but driving her
mother to distraction.  She will root, latch, suck once or twice, and pull
off. She repeats this behaviour most of her time breastfeeding.  A wonder that
mom doesn't have worse nipple problems, but I think she is just toughened up
to it!  There is no sign of thrush in either of them, or other evidence of
infection.  Suck function by digital exam is fine, but elicits a gag as soon
as the finger APPROACHES being seated in the palatal hollow.  Watching at the
breast, the same thing happens.  Mom has observed that she behaves worse on
the left breast than right, and indeed, her left nipple is larger and longer
than the right.  Baby is thriving in spite of this, but obviously mom would
like to have a better nursing session.  She says that once in a great while,
baby will go thru this continued behaviour for a while, then finally is able
to sustain a latch and settle down to nurse steadily.  Does she just finally
desensitize the gag?  I have given mom the name of an excellent infant oral-
motor speech pathologist in our region, but she is not nearby, so it may be
difficult for her to get there anytime soon.  Do any of you wise folks have
any interventions that I can pass along to mom in the meantime?

TIA : )
Denise Mollenkopf, RNC, FACCE, IBCLC
Private and hospital practice
Florida (still looking to the tropics and worrying.....)