Blissful Beginnings Lactation Consultant Services
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Hilarious, but so true!!

Hilarious, but so true!!

Well said Jack!

Sometimes it’s easy, most of the time it’s hard! Loved this mama’s statement of acceptance. Raising littles is tough but WELL worth it

A recent study on tongue-tie and breastfeeding has been misinterpreted in the media as "babies do not need surgery to breastfeed" and made it sound like it is a...n unnecessary procedure. This is not at all what the article in the JAMA otolaryngology stated. But the article itself is based on the premise that tongue tie does not cause problems with breastfeeding. That is how the authors start off and obviously everything follows from that premise. (Association of Feeding Evaluation With Frenotomy Rates in Infants With Breastfeeding Difficulties, Christen Caloway, MD1; Cheryl J. Hersh, MS, CCC-SLP; Rebecca Baars, MS, CCC-SLP; et al, JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. Published online July 11, 2019) The study did not follow the babies long term (for only 2 weeks after the procedure) to see how they continued to breastfeed. While it is true that releasing tongue ties should go hand in hand with skilled breastfeeding help, it is interesting to take a look at what sort of "help" with breastfeeding the study participants received. So many mothers suffer today because they do not get early, relevant and appropriate help with their breastfeeding problems. What is completely missing usually is knowing how to tell whether the baby is getting milk from the breast or not by watching the baby at the breast and how to help the mother and baby so that gets more milk from the breast. What does the study suggest if the baby is not drinking at the breast (in the study called "has transitioned to non-nutritive sucking") and is falling asleep? "Apply a wet washcloth and tapping the infant´s foot". Certainly that technique would help us all improve our appetites. What does the study suggest if the baby is pulling off the breast? "Verbal reassurance to continue gastroesophageal medication." Even though this type of medication has been shown in a number of studies that medication is not helpful and may contribute to fractures later in life. In any case, it certainly does not provide help with breastfeeding and does not address the root of the problem. Not to mention the fact that the study talks about assessing the "initiation and maintenance of the breast and/or bottle" as if it didn't matter where the baby drank. There are two paragraphs in the study that exemplify the misguided thinking surrounding the situation in many of these babies. Problems are attributed to overactive letdown or oversupply and too rapid flow of milk, when in fact problems arising in the context of rapid milk flow to the baby are due to a less than adequate latch.There is nothing wrong with the mother having a lot of milk. On the contrary, having lots of milk allows many mothers to succeed at breastfeeding in spite of a poor start or poor advice. The article discusses: Strategies to slow the flow of milk which is putting the cart before the horse. If the baby cannot handle the flow of milk, the baby’s latch is what needs to be dealt with. However, expressing the first milk as a stratagem will only make the situation worse not better because the baby will be deprived of drinking the milk that is expressed. Here is our article on tongue tie: http://ibconline.ca/tongue-tie/ You can read more about helping a mother breastfeed successfully in my eBook (also available as a paperback) called Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FS6K9SF