extended nursing and speech therapy?

[aja-belly]

one of my twins is speech delayed. we're taking him for an evaluation and i wanted to see what anyone else's experiences were with speech therapy and extended nursing. did you mention it? i'm planning to bring up his nursing issues because i think they are relevent and might give more info on why he isn't talking.  i have a friend who was given some grief about nursing her 3 year old and the speech therapist seemed to use that as the scapegoat for all his eating and speech issues.

[PatioGardener]

No experience myself, but I have read several threads here on MDC where full-term nursing was blamed for speech delays (completely without evidence!).  Good luck!

[SwanLake]

I am a speech therapist and tell parents that nursing is good for jaw development. The only time I've talked to parents about reducing nursing or making special times to nurse is when their toddler only wants to nurse, not eat, and isn't growing. Good luck!

[aja-belly]

thanks, swan lake! he is definitely growing well and he is our best eater of our 4 kids. he only nurses in his sleep as it is.

[Peony]

I never mention nursing mainly I guess because I don't see it as anything important I should talk about. As in he is only 21 months, of course he is still nursing. It isn't something I hide, I nursed DS twice during the actual evals with his team, and every week during speech therapy he takes a nursing break in the middle. All of his therapists/team think it is awesome he is still nursing. His PT on Tuesday just loved seeing him nurse and then fondly talked about her college aged son who nursed until he was 3. DD1 has had multiple evals on all sorts of issues, often the OT and mental health in-take forms ask about nursing/eating the first year of life, or at least ours have. She nursed until she was almost 4 so I always wrote that in, and only ever received positive comments on it as well. 

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by SwanLake 

I am a speech therapist and tell parents that nursing is good for jaw development. The only time I've talked to parents about reducing nursing or making special times to nurse is when their toddler only wants to nurse, not eat, and isn't growing. Good luck!

Glad you posted.  My kid that I nursed the longest (until he was 3), is the one who requires speech therapy.  I never thought there was a connection, and I still don't (and I don't think I ever mentioned extended breastfeeding to his SLP), but it's nice to hear a professional's opinion. 

[DaMama]

My son received speech therapy (and still does at 6.5yo) for Apraxia. He had both verbal and oral apraxia. I did not realize it till much later but the big problems he had with nursing were directly related to his oral Apraxia (which is a motor-skill delay). You say your son has nursing issues, so I'm wondering what they are. If he's not able to use his mouth properly, it can affect speech and nursing. I nursed my son till he self-weaned at 27mos, and always felt it was so important for his oral development...even before I knew about Apraxia, and even though nursing him was difficult for me. There was actually an awesome article in Mothering years ago that showed how breastfeeding benefited the jaw development of a baby. It had a great cutaway diagram.

I didn't flaunt my extended nursing to any speech therapists or medical professionals, but I didn't hide it. I never got any flak for extended breastfeeding from any professional that was aware of it. You should bring it up if you feel there may be a connection between his nursing problems and speech, but they are probably going to ask you LOTS of questions about him, including feeding issues so it will most likely be discussed. Don't hide it. Let your evaluator know everything there is to know about him so they know how to best help your son. If your SLP blames nursing, find a new one! Good luck and trust your motherly intuition.

[aja-belly]

i don't know how to define his nursing issues exactly. he hated nursing. as a newborn he would scream till he was latched on then stop and scream often during a feeding. after a few months of that he wouldn't latch on at all unless he was a sleep and i switched out pacifier for boob and then he more chomped than sucked. he would bite down a few times until my milk let down then just swallow what came out. he could never get anything from a bottle or any sippy cup that doesn't just dribble stuff out. i can count on one hand the number of times he has nursed while awake the past year. he can drink out of a straw now and that is all he does during the day. he can drink from a regular cup if we hold/tip it for him (which i think has more to do with arm/shoulder issues amnd is a whole other story). oddly he never had much issue with solids. we started baby food with him at about 5 months (way earlier than my older kids started - and they never did the purees). he took to it quickly and was doing finger feeding soon after that and enjoys eating very much and is the biggest eater of our 4 kids.

[DaMama]

It could be an oral-motor problem (like Apraxia) but of course I'm in no place to say for sure. My son would chomp down when he nursed. It was really painful and complicated for me, but I did it somehow. When he had a bottle he would suck on it so hard that the nipple would be stuck together from the suction. He never dribbled, but I know that is a kind of question I was asked at his evaluations. He drank out of a straw great. But, it took him a really long time to figure out how to tip a regular sippy cup back to drink...I would have to do it for him like you describe. He also was a fantastic eater. But he would do things like stuff his mouth or pocket food in his cheeks. And couldn't figure out how to spit it out on his own if it was too much so he'd just hold it there till it all eventually was swallowed little by little.

What is your son's speech delay like? Does he look like he's going to say something and then not do it? Does he seem to understand everything you are saying to him, but not be able to communicate what he wants to say. Can you get him to repeat words/phrases or does he just keep quiet or not say the right things? I'd be interested to hear what your speech eval turns up. Something like Apraxia usually won't be diagnosed till after 2, but those nursing/feeding problems definetly could be a symptom of something going on with him. The great news is that you are acting on it now and it really will make a difference for him if he gets speech therapy. My son had to work hard to figure out how to talk, but now at 6.5 yo he is a bright, non-stop chatterbox. We still are working on some fine-tuning, but I'm so glad I got him the help he needed. Best wishes to you!

[aja-belly]

here's a video of him "talking". he says "wooow"  and "kaaaa" and sometimes "baaa" or "mo". other than that he makes noises like this all day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasutherland/5215162976/ 

[aja-belly]

and his OT eval went way longer than they thought it would so we are doing the speech eval next week.

[Julybug]

We're in a similar position.  My son has always had some amount of oral motor tone issues (we had a lot of trouble/soreness latching after birth, later we had problems again as he got his first teeth, etc.).  He's now 18 1/2 mo and basically not talking.  We just had the general evaluation today, and the lead evaluator (developmental specialist?) tried to equate his continued breastfeeding as being as bad for his oral motor tone etc. as bottles (which he won't take anymore) and pacifiers (which unfortunately we do have to get him off of).  I nicely but firmly said that she would have a long road to convince me that he "needed" to stop breastfeeding, and she kind of dropped it.  But I would LOVE it if someone could post a link to a reputable article about how nursing can help kids with oral motor tone issues, NOT make the problem worse.  I just refuse to believe that in this case, nursing would also aggravate his situation the same as if he were having a bottle several times a day....

[SwanLake]

I just did a quick search on the American Speech and Hearing Association's website and did not find any studies related to extended breastfeeding. The closest related study I could find was related to extended use of the pacifier. Results were inconclusive.

The Impact of Prolonged Pacifier Use on Speech Articulation: A Preliminary Investigation

Laura L. Shotts

D. Mike McDaniel

Richard A. Neeley

COMMUNICATION SCIENCE AND DISORDERS • Volume 35 • 7 Spring 2008

[DaMama]

I found this:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/10/pacifiers-speech-breastfeeding.html

However, if you figure the natural weaning age for humans is somewhere between 2 and 6 years old, and speech has developed in humans through the ages, it wouldn't make sense that extended BF would impede speech development in those with problems. Pacifiers and bottles are artificial so obviously those could have a different effect. I think if a speech therapist gives you a hard time about nursing your child, then you should find another speech therapist (if possible, I know in some areas they are in short supply!). But don't let any SLP keep you from nursing your child! It's hard enough dealing emotionally with a child with developmental delays without being made to feel you are somehow (wrongly) perpetuating it.

[Treece]

Now I'm wondering about my dd. She's a chomper/biter. She has speech issues, but I figure it's related to her hearing. I also know that there can be several problems intertwined. She also eats WAY more than either of my other kids did at her age (1 yo). So, now I am thinking.......

BTW, I came here for advice on the biting and saw this thread and wondered. So much of what has been said by PP's sounds very similar to our situation. I just wonder.

[aja-belly]

does she have ear issues that you know of? i wondered if cash's sucking problems might have been due to ear pressure or pain.

we had his eval and she only had positive things to say about him nursing. her child had been tongue tied and she talked about finding that out and their breastfeeding struggles. she didn't even give me greif about the pacifier.
 

Originally Posted by Treece 

Now I'm wondering about my dd. She's a chomper/biter. She has speech issues, but I figure it's related to her hearing. I also know that there can be several problems intertwined. She also eats WAY more than either of my other kids did at her age (1 yo). So, now I am thinking.......

BTW, I came here for advice on the biting and saw this thread and wondered. So much of what has been said by PP's sounds very similar to our situation. I just wonder.

[Treece]

Ear issues: She has mild to moderately severe hearing loss on one frequency and will wear hearing aids her entire life. We don't have them yet, and will get them on the 25th. When she had her ABR, they said her ears looked great. She just always pulls on them. ALWAYS. I think they are fun to play with. I don't think she has ever had an ear infection. Her older brothers though, they did ALOT.

Tongue tie: She was born tongue tied but her fingernail cut it when she was about 6 mo. Until then, I didn't ~really~ believe it was a minor procedure. But now, I know. Heck, I could clip a tongue tie!! LOL not that I would.

She nurses good, but it leaks out the side of her mouth. This happens with a bottle too. I am not sure what it is, but we have just learnt in the last year to live with it. I don't THINK it is causing any problems. I just get soaked at nursing times, lol. I am okay with that. My only problem is that she bites. Boy it sure does hurt. I yelp when she does. It is always unexpected. Her big bro says "Sissy don't bite mama, that's a no-no." It so funny how he does it. He really gets upset. I'm not sure why it she would bite. Neither of the boys did.
 

Originally Posted by aja-belly 

does she have ear issues that you know of? i wondered if cash's sucking problems might have been due to ear pressure or pain.

we had his eval and she only had positive things to say about him nursing. her child had been tongue tied and she talked about finding that out and their breastfeeding struggles. she didn't even give me greif about the pacifier.