Babies Tongue on Roof of Mouth?

[Marielena]

My sister just had her baby a week ago and although breastfeeding is going well for the most part, she says that it is often hard to get him latched on because he puts his tongue on the roof of his mouth. He will try to latch on like that and will just end up sucking his tongue since it is in the way...that just makes him angry and its even harder to get a good latch.

Any suggestions???

Thanks!

[quirkylayne]

It sounds like maybe he is not opening his mouth wide enough? Has he been checked for tounge tie?

[shelbean91]

My ds1 did that and we ended up having to fingerfeed to retrain his suck. It took me almost a month to realize we had a problem, so I'd recommend seeing an IBCLC asap.

[2tadpoles]

My oldest DS was tongue-tied. That would make it difficult for the tongue to hit the roof of the mouth, as it's tethered to the bottom jaw.

[Marielena]

Thanks, I have recommended that she see someone. Unfortunately I'm across the country so I can't even see whats going on. It definitely doesn't sound like tongue-tie to me. I'm afraid that it might be some kind of nipple-confusion, he has had a bottle (of breastmilk) and a pacifier...don't get me started about all of that though!! My sister doesn't have quite the same thoughts as me on those issues...I'm just glad that she is committed to breastfeeding!

Does it sound like nipple confusion? I wasn't sure why that would lead the baby to keep the tongue on the roof of his mouth though? Even with a bottle or pacifier there has to be something between the roof of the mouth and the tongue.

Thanks again!

[quirkylayne]

Oops, I guess I didn't read close enough! Since you don't live near her maybe Dr Newman's videos would help her to see if she is positioning correctly, etc.
http://www.drjacknewman.com/

[shelbean91]

What happened w/my ds was even though we used a slow flow avent nipple, it was too fast for him. (This was while he was in the hospital w/severe jaundice at 10 days old and I wasn't able to take him out, even to nurse, for 24 hrs- so I had to pump and give bottles while he was flat on his back. If I knew then what i knew now, I would have done a LOT differently). So, to prevent himself from choking, he's put his tongue up to stop the flow of milk (at least this is what the IBCLC thought after seeing us several times- she said this was the 1st baby in 16 years she hadn't been able to get to latch).

So, it's very possible it's related to the bottle, though for us, it's just a best guess, not a definite. Nursing w/an SNS if his latch is ok (my ds's wasn't) or fingerfeeding pumped milk to retrain the suck or nipple shields.

It took me a month to figure out the problem, 3 mos to fix it. My ds was also 5 weeks early, so that didn't help us, either.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by quirkylayne

Oops, I guess I didn't read close enough! Since you don't live near her maybe Dr Newman's videos would help her to see if she is positioning correctly, etc.
http://www.drjacknewman.com/

Not the OP but THANK YOU! We've been having FTT problems and 2 days ago she went from getting 1oz hr at the breast to 3-4oz every 2.5 hours and the only thing I changed was moving her to the football hold. I had to feed her that way the first couple months but I couldn't remember why, it was because she needs a deep asymmetric latch and thats the only way I can get her to do it! duh! He covered it in one of the videos, and I nursed her in the cradle hold tonight and was looking at her latch and thinking something didn't look right and now I know the latch was wrong! Guess I better figure out how to get that latch while nursing laying down because I'm going batty not getting any sleep having to sit up with the boppy and what not to nurse a 10 mo old in the football position.