Breastfeeding: Don’t Skip These Steps

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Breastfeeding can be exhausting: feedings around the clock and no sleep in sight. It can be tempting to get a little “sloppy” or lazy and allow patterns that you know are not super helpful for breastfeeding success. This FAQ will motivate you to take the extra steps now to ensure that breastfeeding is progressing in the right direction and how to curtail any possible derailments.

Deep Latch: Why does it matter?

I cannot get my baby to sustain a deep latch. He will latch well and then pull off into a shallow latch or he wants to latch onto the end of my nipple or the nipple shield. It is exhausing and frustrating for both my baby and me. An appropriately deep, correct latch is vitally important for breastfeeding success as it is the basis of stability for correct and effective sucking patterns. The area where nipple is placed on the baby’s tongue influences how the baby uses the tongue. The baby is only able to use the anterior (front) part of the tongue in a shallow latch. Because this placement is ineffective in obtaining milk, the baby will recruit the jaw to assit. This results in a “biting pattern”. Correct placement of the nipple so that it is almost to the soft palate, will allow the baby to activate the entire tongue to obtain milk most effectively. If a deep latch is not used, the baby will not learn where the correct placement of the nipple should be and will use compensatory patterns (biting) instead of developing effective tongue patterns. Ensuring a deep latch early on will save you many hours of frustration. If you are not able to do it alone, please seek help from a feeding specialist. There are many reasons that baby cannot latch appropriately.

Flanged lips: Why does it matter?

Another frustration during nursing can be those lips that tuck under or just will not position into the “fish lip” positioning. Flanged lips are also important by passively ensuring correct positioning of the nipple on the tongue which we already learned is vital to successful breastfeeding. Take a moment to tuck your lips and notice where your tongue goes. It retracts. A retracted position does not allow a tongue to undulate or suck correctly and it increases the likelihood of a poor latch. Ensuring a deep latch and flanged lips are well worth your time. If you do not teach the baby this important lip positioning now, it could reduce the effectiveness of sucking patterns. If you are not able to get baby’s lips to flange, your baby may have a lip tie. A feeding specialist can help you identify if your baby’s lips have the correct function and range of motion necessary to feed effectively. If limited range of motion and function is identified, an evaluation for a Lip Tie is indicated.

Does it matter? My baby is gaining adequate weight.

Yes, it really does matter. Developing the correct tongue, lips, cheeks, jaw movements for effective feeding is a developmental process that requires all participants to work correctly and succinctly. It’s like an orchestra, if one instrument is out of tune, the entire song will sound differently. The way each member of the oral mechanism works, directly influences each other. If one is not able to work effectively, another will compensate. Compensations are never typical development and can create significant difficulty now or sometime in the future. Early on baby may be gaining weight well because the mother has a great supply. That can quickly change as the baby goes through a growth spurt and is unable to obtain the increased milk volume requirement because of ineffective suck patterns. Poor tongue patterns for breast or bottle feeding can influence feeding milestones (chewing, drinking and swallowing). Ensuring correct patterns now is an insurance plan for the future. We can help!