>>The baby that I am working with has the extremely strong mouth suction and
jaw action. When your finger is in his mouth and he is sucking, you feel
like he is going to take off your whole finger.<<

When I feel what I hear you describing, I get a different picture. If you
are saying that baby's suck feels terribly strong, too strong, and the jaw
is working exaggeratedly, I have seen this in conjunction with babies who
dont' know how to use their tongues to strip the lactiferous sinuses. Unable
to get milk out mechanically, the seem to try to overcompensate with extra
hard suction and/or jaw motions, which hurt mom in the process. This
particular situation I don't interpret as a clamping, but rather a
compensation for a deficit.

If baby is truly clamping, then the causes might be different. Does he have
difficulty keeping the breast in his mouth for some reason, that he needs to
clamp down? Or does he have a "tight" mouth that just needs to clamp down,
or????  There are others on this list with expertise to describe further
causes as well. Since I cannot see or feel what you are experiencing,
however, I could be totally in the wrong ball park.

For whatever it's worth--
Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC

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