The week before the LLLI conference an LLLL (soon to be IBCLC) and I saw two moms a day apart. The first mom had been finger-feeding for 2 weeks--baby had occassionally latched. This is the "Baby-Friendly" way one hospital deals with babies--instead of bottles--one size-fits-all finger-feeding! No one ever tells then how to stop, though!
Anyway, we got the baby to latch, but he was definately not one to open very wide. He had been finger-fed for 2 weeks, so I fed him to assess his suck. It was somewhat erratic, but most noticeably, all of the "work" was done in the front of his mouth--he had very poor jaw excursion and could not draw the nipple in well. Mom had been told she had flat nipples (somewhat true, but came erect pretty quickly with pump stimulation). Anyway, we taught her to use mimicry to get the baby to "open" and suck training (not just feeding) to encourage the tongue to come forward . We changed to a more upright position and mom experienced marked improvement in 24 hours (baby was being fed at breast). But, the mom was sore and had difficulty getting the baby to latch deeply and he sucked his bottom lip in very securely. I encouraged her to see a chiropractor, which she did. She was able to help the baby open wider and relax the lips. We are not fully resolved yet, as mom has been strugglin!
g w/ yeast as well.
The second situation was far more pronounced. Baby had never latched and the parents were told by the hosp LC that she was tongue-thrusting. She was finger-feeding as well for about 10 days I believe. When I saw the baby, I knew we would not get her to latch. She did not have a tongue-thrust at all. She had severe trauma from the birth and had that look babies get when life has not begun so well for them. She was a cesarean/vacuum extraction. She was handling finger-feeding very poorly, BTW. When I finger-fed her, she aggressively defended her oral space. I referred parents to the chiropractor as well. My colleague went to the appt w/ the parents. After the first adjustment, the baby latched on and has been nursing ever since. She had several adjustments in all. The parents saw a great many changes in their dd after the adjustments, including a far more alert, "embodied" little person. They also brought the pix of the baby from the hospital to the chiro (I was at that appt!
) which showed clearly the visible
evidence of the injury the chiro had described to them.
I strongly encourage LC's to become knowledgeable about chiro and CST (this chiro does both). So many babies today suffer such terrible trauma at birth. These babies simply cannot nurse well, if at all. Until you see the difference, you cannot begin to value the miracle this is for these families.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
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