high palate...any ideas?

[stmarymead]

Hello...hoping for some pearls of wisdom on the following:
Been having probs bfing 3 week old DS,really sore cracked nipples, needles in nipples type pain,dreading feeds etc etc.
Been to bf clinic and have been told baby has high palate and this could account for things like, misshapen squashed nipples with white ridges post feed, feeds taking literally hours and really frequently too... latch is good,had this checked by 2 bf clinics and hv,but within 1 minute DS has slipped off and is back to hammering nipples. Tried rugby,cradle,biological nurturing and now have shields to preserve sanity...but really not sure what to do next. How do you keep a babe from slipping and preserving not only the latch but nipples too!?!I know his slipping is making feeding inefficient but I just can't find a way to stop it.
Any advice, experience,thoughts...please send em my way...thanks.

High palate is often (but not always), accompanied by tongue tie.

Has anyone checked for this?

They did check at the bf clinics and couldn't see one, however they did acknowledge that a posterior tie is really hard to spot so they suggested a private consultant we should contact...that's the job for tomorrow....however if the hv s are right and he doesn't have one I am not sure what to try next....

my HV was sure that my DS didn't have tongue tie along with his high palate. She was wrong - he does have a fairly obvious tie which my DP spotted in the end! They're not trained to assess TT unfortunately :(

Have you tried ringing the breastfeeding helplines, they may be able to advise where you can get proper help. Good luck!

Have a look here

They offer a service where you can email photos for a tt assessment.

thanks folks for your comments - much appreciated.
Went to the TT specialist today, she found a small posterior TT but she said she wouldn't snip because she thought the issue was the palate as the TT was so small it wouldn't make a difference (tongue function didn't seem to be impaired).
Kinda back to square one with the slippage issue.
I've read that babies kind of grow out of a high palate - anyone know how long this will take? Or any positions that work for babies with this particular issue?
thanks in advance!

@stmarymead how're you getting on?