Back to the Basics
Carissa Dollar
Indianapolis IN USA
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 21 No. 5, September-October 2004, p. 172
Our third child was the best
surprise I ever received. We hadn't decided if our family was complete
yet, but the two lines on my pregnancy test confirmed that we still
had a little growing to do. When Ruby was born, I was confident that
nursing her would be easy. After all, she was my third child and both
her older siblings had nursed until they weaned themselves. It turned
out that I was in for another surprise.
Ruby was born in a birthing
tub in our kitchen on February 8, 2003. She latched on right there in
the water just minutes after birth and nursed like a champ while her
cord was still attached and pulsating. When our midwife returned three
days later for our home visit, she had even regained her birth weight.
I was convinced that nursing was going to be a snap for us.
My surprise came when, at
around two weeks postpartum, I was still experiencing some discomfort
while nursing. Based on my past experiences, my initial nipple tenderness
was usually over by this point. Instead, I was still very tender and
sore, especially on my left side. It was soon after this that I realized
that Ruby had a mild tongue-tie, which no one had noticed. She had the
classic heart-shaped tongue and it barely extended to her gum-line.
At her one-month well-baby checkup, our family doctor confirmed my suspicions.
He agreed with me that it seemed rather mild and that her weight gain
had been very good. Since I am a fan of taking the approach that requires
the least intervention, we decided to see if I could work with her to
stretch her frenulum instead of immediately resorting to clipping it.
I found that latching on
worked best for us when I held her in either the cross-cradle or football
hold. This allowed me to have good control of her head and to compress
my breast with the other hand, making a "nipple sandwich"
for her, so that she could get plenty of breast tissue in her mouth.
I would also pull down firmly on her chin with my fingers to help her
to open wide. This approach seemed to encourage her to extend her tongue
farther. I was careful to be patient each time she breastfed so that
she could get the best latch-on possible. If her tongue movement didn't
feel right to me, I would take her off the breast and try again.
With time and patience, things
gradually got better. Ruby's frenulum stretched on its own and we were
able to breastfeed without any discomfort by the time she was around
two months old. Eventually, she learned to stick her tongue out and
blow raspberries at us, so we knew the tongue-tie was definitely no
longer an issue.
Today she is a very adventurous
sixteen-month-old nursing toddler. I no longer have to patiently guide
her through latching on. She's a seasoned pro who can and will breastfeed
anywhere and in any position that she can twist her little body into.
I wanted to share my story of how we overcame our early hurdles by going
back to breastfeeding basics. Sometimes a little time and patience will
do the trick.
Last updated Tuesday, October 24, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:29:26 UTC 2007.
