BREASTFEEDING AS A THERAPY
This is my first blog post in perhaps two years! I’ve been pretty busy with my now-toddler-then-baby but this is a topic very close to my heart. I lived it and breathed it for a whole year which is how long it took for my little guy, M, to become ‘functional’ at breast feeding. It is also something that many of the families I work with have or do struggle with so I wanted to share our story.
Here’s our abridged story.
Following birth, M immediately struggled to latch on and nurse. He was only 2.2 kilos so we were kept in the hospital for a few days. We received a lot of advice from the midwives of which all were conflicting and really, although my Occupational Therapy head knew better, my new-mum head was a bit overwhelmed and second-guessed myself. I always tell parents to trust their own gutt instinct.
Some feeding difficulties my son had were:
-Gagging (I hated it when the midwives or GPs would say ‘big mouthful’ and to put a lot of breast in the baby’s mouth. This did not work for my baby who was sensory defensive and couldn’t organise his body, let alone his mouth)
– difficulty latching on
-struggled to mould or ‘snuggle’ during feed and other times
– hiccups, gasped for air, guzzled liquid down while bottle drinking
– difficulty getting in a rhythm of suck swallow breathe
– took over an hour to feed
– struggled to move one side of his face, tongue, cheek, lip
– lopsided wonky smile (one side didn’t turn up or move), drooled only on one side, preferred feeding on one side
– jaws seemed to wobble
– held up his head from birth (yes, this is a red flag as he had tightness in his neck and back muscles which led him to always lift his head and arch his back. He could not relax at all when on his back. This position also brought his tongue back so he couldn’t bring it forward to latch on and suck /swallow.)
Our Team:
I contacted a speech feeding therapist of mine whom I hugely respect at day 3! We were so fortunate to have her support as the NHS speech therapist said there’s nothing to do until M eats foods. Not only couldn’t we wait but I knew better. Please know this is so not true. It was important to strengthen and develop M’s jaws, cheeks, lips, and tongue so he could nurse and later, eat foods and talk.
At 4 months, we saw an osteopath I’ve known and worked with. She worked with M using a classical approach, loosening and mobilising tight areas, so he could be more comfortable in flexion and move his body forwards, ESP his tongue. She also worked on his gutt mobility so that his body could best absorb nutrients, digest, pee and poop.
A craniosacral therapist who treated me saw M and worked wonders on his cranial system so he could be less sensitive, relax his body, and again, bring his neck and tongue forwards for nursing
A Jin shin Jyutsu therapist worked with M on relaxing his body via different Asian flows.
I, OT mummy, worked with M to become more comfortable with touch, movement, and sounds, develop his body awareness to move with more flexion and be able to bring his head forwards, move smoothly in and out of positions, and coordinate both sides of his body versus only move via one side. We also worked on positioning M’s body so he could be more comfortable with feeds. Once his body was more comfortable, his mouth followed suit.
The oral motor therapist worked with us on different feeding positions for myself and M to support his breastfeeding needs, supporting and strengthening his jaw, how to strengthen the oral muscles using specific, targeted exercises on the tongue, cheeks, lips, and jaws.
Private DAN doctor inspired by Asian medicine – He confirmed he wasn’t concerned about weight and size, continue with breastfeeding versus formula, but was more concerned about gutt absorption of nutrients. So he prescribed us some chinese herbal supplements, vitamins, probiotics and MCT oil which apparently is a natural ingredient already found in breast milk.
By 10 months of age, breastfeeding had finally become very comfortable.
Later speech and feeding therapy sessions worked on spoon feeding, emerging munching, eating different textures and building interest in foods, working on chewing tougher foods, and developing sounds of consonants and particularly lip sounds such as ‘m’ and ‘n.’
Using breastfeeding as a therapy gave us the chance to work on M’s sensory processing and oral motor skills soooooo many times during and before every feed.
We were fortunate to receive a lot of amazing, private support from very early on. During times, we felt desperate so also tried many ‘wrong’ things before figuring out what they worked. But as they say, it took a village and I really believe we need to support families with breast feeding challenges using a whole body and a collaborative team approach.
What did I, OT mummy 🙂 do that helped?
-Worked on sensory defensiveness, flooding M with calm, sensory input. Deep pressure input, linear movement input, building tolerance for movement in different planes using music, rhythm and predictability, heavy muscle and joint work for added proprioception to his body and mouth, and building tolerance for multi-sensory input. ‘Baby wearing’ was a huge part of our life for all sorts of positive sensory input.
-Before every feed, we did some gentle body work to build motor skills and body symmetry and encourage flexion.
-Targeted oral motor exercises for cheeks, tongue, lips, and jaws before feeds and later, when starting solids, we had therapeutic feeding strategies.
-Used straw and open cups as no concerns with aspiration, or safety of swallow.
-Positioning – Swaddling for feeds was a huge help and he relied on this till 7 months. I laid semi- reclined so M kind of ‘fell’ into me and gravity could help.
-Music –I remember using classical 90-beat Baroque music for children feeding in the hospital so we tried this too.
-Mental stuff – meditation, imagery, positive self-talk, trying to keep the feeds happy despite it being so stressful
-Surrounded myself by like minded and positive people
Resources:
-An invaluable source on breastfeeding and busts so many myths.
Dr Jen 4 kids
www.talktools.com
Book-
Supporting Sucking Skills in Breast Feeding Infants by Catherine Genna Watson
It’s very in depth, but I love it’s team approach and whole body outlook