Sweet Songs Breastfeeding

05/06/2022

A must read!

Riding the letdown

There are specific situations that come up where a child with a tongue tie may seemingly not have many symptoms. Weight gain can be quite good and mom can have no ni**le pain, even when a significant tongue tie may be present. A common clinical scenario where this occurs is when mom has a significant oversupply and/or overactive letdown (OALD).

I will speak more about OALD than consistent oversupply in this post. Admittedly, I am not a lactation consultant, but my experience in treating thousands of infants allows me to piece together how OALD can positively (or negatively) affect the baby. A few points to consider:

1) When a baby doesn’t have to do any actual work and the flow is plentiful, it would make sense that weight gain is good and there’s no pain. But if I see a baby who is just passively feeding, I consider that to be a pathological process. It doesn’t mandate treatment - it does mean that parents should be told about it.
2) Often, in this situation a baby can present for tongue tie release later - either the milk supply dwindles OR the baby’s caloric demands outpace what the OALD can give them OR something else changes and the baby can’t compensate anymore. The issue is that the good weight gain takes the stress/urgency off of parents for immediately doing something ASAP after birth. Sometimes, they don’t realize until years later that a tie was present the whole time - the oversupply is masking the problem and for some, the oversupply never diminishes.
3) Sometimes, the letdown can be forceful but after that letdown ends, the baby can’t feed (their tongue tie prevents active extraction of milk). This can manifest as either the baby falling asleep (no flow = no stimulation) or the baby getting royally ticked off.
4) For particularly forceful letdowns, babies with ties can often cough, choke, and pull away because they have difficulty organizing the flow of milk from the mouth into the throat. Like waterboarding. Milkboarding. Yeah, milkboarding. I claim that phrase now.
5) Working with an IBCLC is critical - optimizing your positioning (laid back positioning can help, for instance) and managing the letdown (some recommend pumping beforehand or catching the letdown in a towel or Haakaa) can help some of the problems.

There's obviously much more that I didn't touch on. I'm curious to hear the management of the IBCLCs in the audience.

04/05/2022

🤣 What would your ideal breast pump do for you?!

02/15/2022

How sweet!

Oh my heart. 💖

02/04/2022

And an underdeveloped mammal at that. I remember as a student being told that really babies should be born at about 18 months old: able to walk, speak, and feed themselves (well, put food in their mouth, not pop to Tesco, rustle up a three-course dinner and do the washing up).

Of course, given the size of a toddler and the size of the human pelvis, that would be unfeasible to say the least, so babies are born sooner. This means, however, that most of their first year is devoted to brain development and getting the hang of key skills like holding their head up and eventually being able to move around.

Other baby mammals, such as giraffes or cows, can walk and feed themselves soon after birth and spend most of their early months growing bigger. Of course, human brains are also more complex (we have rational thought, more developed language skills and can think in abstract terms about the future and so on) and babies need time to develop their brains too.

Not to freak you out or anything, but this means that your small person is pretty much totally dependent on you (and anyone else who cares for them). Unlike a baby giraffe, they can’t walk, feed themselves or run away from danger. So they need to be absolutely sure that you are going to care for them and help them out a bit.

Don''t let anyone tell you that a small baby is 'manipulating you' or 'needs to be in a routine for their own good' or 'you're making a rod for your own back'. They're only 'manipulating' if getting support is manipulative!

When they cry it’s because they can’t do things for themselves.

When they don’t want to be put down, it’s because they’re afraid of being left alone and you're their safe space.

When they feed all night, it’s because they’re growing so quickly.

It’s not wrong (or unusual) to start to find this frustrating over time. It's not wrong to vent to anyone who will listen about how tough this is. Or do be desperate for a break. Or to draw on all the support available to you so you can make time for yourself.

But it will change as they grow and develop. And by meeting their needs you're showing them that they can trust you and the world is a good place.

12/15/2021

This is so interesting! Do you use donor milk?

11/24/2021

Pie, Turkey, stuffing…just make a whole plate! ❤️

10/21/2021

We love these ideas for our single parents out there.

Self-care for single parents Posted on by dsolo_admin Post navigation ← Less Stressful MorningsFine motor skills activities to get your child ready for school → Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *You may use these HTML tags and attri...

10/20/2021

Silly parental opinions! 🤣🤣

How's bedtime going in your house?

07/26/2021

.ie with
・・・
Does your newborn get the hiccups?

Newborn hiccups are completely harmless and are more upsetting for parents than the baby itself. If baby is happy and not uncomfortable then they aren't a cause for concern.

Hiccups are caused by spasms of baby's developing diaphragm, the large muscle that runs across the bottom of the rib cage and which moves when we breathe.

Although no evidence exists to confirm as to why we hiccup, there are many triggers. Hiccups may be brought on by air trapped in baby's tiny stomachs during feeds or simply may be another of their reflexes. Often as they grow, giggling can bring on hiccups. 

Things to help:

Sometimes putting baby back on breast will help settle the hiccups or offering the baby a soother if they have one(do not introduce one just for this reason).

Do not try to startle /shout or frighten baby as baby's can't regulate their breathing like adults can.

Take a break during the feed, burp regularly. If they continue offer the breast again.

Try feed smaller feeds more frequently where possible but remember, don't watch the clock, watch your baby's hunger cues.

Watch the latch, reposition to ensure deepest latch so preventing baby taking in air.

Generally hiccups will just pass and baby may sleep or feed through them. As the saying goes 'this too shall pass'

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07/25/2021

❤️

lactation help - not just for first time parents 💜