Well,

Despite the criticism I will get, I will admit that my treatment for tongue
suckers is finger-sucking.  I have had many babies with this problem at our
hospital.  Don't know why that is...  And add to that the large number of
flat/inverted nipples and the short stays...

Well, I've found that if I have the mom put her finger in baby's mouth for about
5 minutes - with the finger inserted very gently, always responding to baby's
cues and never causing an "aversion reaction" (using hands to push mom's hand
aside or pulling away with head) or a gag.  We get the  baby to suck deeply,
getting used to having something deep in the mouth and not just near the front
of the mouth...  When we are doing this the baby is very calm, quietly sucking,
not giving any negative reaction to what we are doing.

Then we position the baby in Football hold (though to tell you the truth I
think, after realizing how much less painful this position is to my own back ,
that I may not be using this position so often for baby/mom's sake - it may be
for mine???), baby usually latches on and sucks well.  Once they do this
correctly once and get rewarded with some colosturm, I find that even though
they continue to be tongue suckers, they realize that at the breast, they'd
better do things differently.

Another reason I want to treat this in hospital is that mom's breasts are still
soft and pliable - this problem is not so easily solved as an out-patient a few
days later.  Baby has negative feelings about being at the breast and getting
"nothing" , and would rather suck the tongue than the hard, full breast of the
third day post-partum.

My own son was a tongue sucker, but did not need interventions as he nursed just
fine from day one.   Sleeping with him in our room was an experience - such
noises came out of that baby!  (And continued as a child - don't know if he's
stopped, he lives in Iowa now!)

Not every baby who sucks his tongue, or upper or lower lip (I had all three this
week) will have trouble breastfeeding.    So interventions should not be done
for "everyone".   Careful assessment must be done. -  If you don't do as Debbie
did and really check, they sometimes "sound" like they're nursing just fine -
swallowing their own saliva.



Jeanette Panchula, BSW, LLLL, IBCLC, RN
Puerto Rico
Happy Easter everyone!


[Yahoo - Jeffrey - doesn't it feel good!  Congratulations!]