Infant Feeding
Feeding is the process of eating or drinking. It includes what your baby’s mouth and tongue are doing before and when they swallow. Any difficulty with this process can be stressful in those first few months and affect not only feeding, but sleep patterns as well.
What are some possible red flags for Baby?
- Difficulty with latching onto the breast or the bottle
- Leaking milk while drinking from the breast or the bottle
- Preference for the bottle over the breast
- Excessive sleepiness
- Chronic open mouth breathing
- Fast or noisy breathing
- Poor weight gain
- Less than expected wet and/or soiled diapers
- Ongoing feeding difficulties even after support from a lactation consultant
- Signs of distress while feeding such as:
- Coughing
- Choking
- Spitting up
- Hiccuping
- Refusing
- Falling asleep
- Crying
- Back arching
What are some possible red flags for Mom?
- Pain while breastfeeding
- Creased, flattened, blanched (i.e., white in color), blistered, or bleeding nipples
- Still feeling full of milk in breasts after feedings
- Plugged milk ducts
- Infected nipples or breasts
- Mastitis (i.e., inflammation and/or infection of the breast tissue)
Why consider treatment?
Because it doesn’t have to be this hard! Ongoing feeding difficulties can be very stressful not only for mom and baby but for the entire family unit.
Treatment from a trained professional can impact all aspects of infant feeding. Successful feeding in infancy leads to typical development of the face and oral structures necessary to safely and easily transition to solid foods in the future. It also results in efficient breathing patterns, development of a typical swallowing pattern, and age-appropriate speech sound acquisition.
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