Any ORAL consultants out here? Or anyone who had a baby with weak cheek, jaw and tongue muscles? Need advice, please.

[winnybella]

It's for my friend, she's in Florida. Her ds was born a couple of weeks ago and wouldn't latch on properly. Apparently they weren't very helpful at the hospital, said he had tongue tie but wouldn't perform the snip as it can cause speech problems later in life and just pushed formula at her.

So now she has seen an oral consultant who didn't really explain much, I have the result page but don't know how to link to it, anyhow, it seems that the muscle function is not good in cheeks, jaw, and middleblade of the tongue? And she's supposed to do Backman oral exercises with ds. He didn't perform the snip.

She'll be seeing paed on Monday, but she's freaking out, worrying plus ds will not latch on, although she said she had a bit of success with nipple shields.

Was wondering if anyone went through something similar? Is the muscle weakness something very worrying or not so rare and easy to correct?

TIA

And the title should have said oral consultants out there, obv!

And she's expressing at the mo, but not as much as should, and worrying about supply running dry.

bump

Winnybella - I've not got the time to go through this website (sorry) but there should be something on it about your friend's situation. Or try here or here. Also can she contact a professional to discuss the bfing issues face to face. She can find a local group/councilor here.

I have heard that cranial osteopathy is something which has been shown to help with latching issues, although not sure if it would help in this case. Maybe your friend could give one a call to see if they think it might be of use?

Hope she gets things sorted out soon.

My (current) youngest DS (who is now almost 7yo) has hypermobility syndrome, and hypotonia (both different muscle problems). He found it ^impossible* to BF, as his suck just wasn't strong enough, but he couldn't suck from a bottle either. I ended up expressing and cup feeding him until he was 4 months old and could drink from a bottle, by which point my milk had dried up. So he ended up being cup fed bm until 3 months, then cup fed formula for another month, before his suck was strong enough for a bottle.