Category: Tongue tie and Oral Motor

The rooting reflex

- Julie Matheney

The rooting reflex (RR) is a fascinating developmental milestone that begins even before birth and continues to evolve during infancy. RR is an automatic response in newborns characterized by turning their head toward a touch on their cheek or mouth. When you stroke or touch your baby's cheek or the corner of their mouth, they will instinctively turn their head in that direction, open their mouth, and make sucking motions. By turning towards a

touch, babies instinctively position themselves to find their food source and initiate feeding

The RR starts to develop in utero, typically around the 32nd week of pregnancy. During this time, baby's neurological and sensory systems are maturing rapidly. Once baby is born, the rooting reflex becomes more pronounced and functional. Immediately after birth, and often during the first few weeks of life, you can observe your baby's natural response to touch on their cheek or around their mouth. It’s a reflex, so this is also why they will try to root and latch to dad’s nose or even to grandma’s chest.

The RR is at its strongest during the newborn phase, the first 0-3 months. Babies rely heavily on this reflex to initiate feeding, whether at the breast or with a bottle. As baby's neurological system continues to mature, the rooting reflex gradually integrates with other feeding skills. By around 4 to 6 months of age, babies start to gain more head control and may rely less on the rooting reflex for feeding.

You can actively support baby's RR by:

- Positioning baby close during feeding. Their chin and cheeks should be physical touching your breast and your fingers can touch their cheeks during bottle feeding

- Let baby lay on both of their sides during tummy time, not just on their belly. As the floor triggers the reflex, it helps not only integrate it, but also will eventually help with rolling over and finding toys

- Being responsive to your baby's cues and feeding needs, especially during the early weeks and months.

Have you noticed the rooting reflex in your baby? Share your experiences and insights in the comments below! 💬🍼 #RootingReflex #NewbornDevelopment #ParentingJourney

Why is my baby a lazy feeder?

- Julie Matheney

We are a survivalist species. Our babies are born with instincts to survive. They cry when they are put down because they know they are vulnerable to temperature and can’t feed themselves. They use their senses to find their food source and are familiar with their parents over strangers by sound and smell. They have reflexes to help them learn critical motor patterns for development.

When a baby isn’t feeding well, it isn’t because they are lazy. Lazy is a character trait for someone who volitionally doesn’t want to do something. If a baby didn’t feed well, historically that baby may not survive. We need to find the reason why they aren’t feeding well and address that.

Reasons a baby may not feed well at birth may include:
⏱️Prematurity. When a baby is born before 36 weeks, there is often a lot of support and expectation set that baby may need time to learn to feed. But 37 and 38 weekers are the great pretenders. They look like full term babies but often don’t feed like them. They may need 4-6 additional weeks to figure out how to feed because they really needed those extra few weeks to practice sucking and swallowing in utero without the expectation to coordinate swallowing as well
💊Medications. Medications cross the placenta to baby, and while most are safe, babies can have withdrawal symptoms from certain meds after birth, making them sleepy. These could be medications given during labor and delivery or even medications mother was taking during pregnancy. As these medications clear from baby’s system, they will perk up. Other medications, like SSRIs, can continue to make babies sleepy
👅Tongue and lip tie. The tongue needs to move in and out, side to side, and up and down. Babies need to protrude the tongue over the gums and keep it out while pumping the tongue up and down to effectively move milk from the breast. Ties can restrict this movement and make it challenging to feed.

If your baby isn’t feeding well and you’re being told they’re lazy, ask why. That isn’t a valid reason. If you’re struggling to feed your baby, work with a baby feeding expert: the IBCLC lactation consultant. #newmom #newborncaretips #prematurityawareness #prematurity

ORAL MOTOR EXERCISES FOR THE TONGUE TIE BABY

Want to learn more? Take my Tied and Untied parent course CLICK HERE

Baby cheek dimples

- Julie Matheney
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If a baby's cheeks are dimpled or they makes a clicking sound when breast or bottle feeding, they is not latched well. It can be a sign of a shallow latch, wrong shape bottle nipple, issues from a small/retracted jaw, signs of a cleft palate, or baby may have a tongue tie. If baby feeds without dimpling or clicking at the breast but has these symptoms on a bottle, consider a different bottle system. If baby has dimpling and clicking on both bottle AND breast, it’s worth further investigating with the help of an IBCLC lactation consultant to figure out why.

#dimples #dimplegirl #breastfeedingmama #breastfedbaby #breastfeedingsupport #breastfeedingproblems

Does my baby have a tongue tie?

- Julie Matheney
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It’s the up and down pump action of the middle of the tongue that is essential for creating a vacuum (negative pressure) in the mouth for baby to be efficient at moving milk from the breast. Babies need to be able to protrude the tongue out past the lower gum line AND MAINTAIN IT protruded for the duration of the feeding. Diagnosis of a tie should never be done by visual assessment alone, especially from a picture. A picture is one literal snapshot in time and what the tongue does in that moment is not representative of how it moves spontaneously or when challenges with specific directions. Now there are extreme cases where the tongue is very clearly restricted, but a full assessment is still beneficial. To determine whether a tongue is tied or not, a skilled and highly trained provider should be spending several minutes with your baby, assessing their whole body as well as their tongue. Their fingers need to be in your baby’s mouth to see how the tongue moves, it’s strength and coordination. A full history and a feeding also need to be observed before deciding what kind of intervention may be needed. Does the baby just need to work on reducing tension in their body? Is it how mom is positioning the baby that’s causing pain and damage? It is there an actual lack of functional skill at play? All of this should be guided by a trained IBCLC. Your pediatrician is most likely not trained in this (I’ve seen rare exceptions). And parents on social media groups are certainly not properly trained. They are only coming from their own experience.

Want more information on ties? CLICK HERE  for videos on my YouTube channel

Did you know I teach a parent course on tongue ties? Tied and Untied is your complete source of all information related to ties. ENROLL HERE

#tonguetie #tonguetieprofessionals #tonguetiebabies #tonguetierelease #tonguetiesupport