Guest Post - When is too Early?

Kelly has shared with us before.  She's a super teacher mommy.  She'll tell you about a breast and bottle feeding journey below.  Whether \feeding came easy for you or not, it's more about the worries that come along with being a mom and the lengths you'll go to fix any issue.  Ultimately, moms know best right? Right??????

As an educator we always talk about how early intervention makes all the difference in the world for children. But how early is early???

Gus and I struggled from day 1 with breast feeding, and taking the bottle wasn't much easier. The bottle ended in both of us covered in half of the milk. As he sucked and slurped and garbled and squeaked, the milk would pour out of the sides of his mouth. I was blistered and cut and defeated.

I joined a breast feeding support group which was amazing. All of the moms and the lactation consultant had great ideas, but it all came down to one thing, something didn't seem right. Gus had an undiscovered lip tie and tongue tie. Many people suggested we go get it snipped at a pediatric dentist. I wasn't sure. I went to the pediatrician who referred me to an ENT. The lip tie and tongue tie were confirmed but he did not recommend snipping them because he wasn't sure it would help Gus's eating challenges. He said, together Gus and I would figure it out. Plus it was week 6 and although his latch was shallow, we kind of did get a hang of it in our own weird way.

Then the choking and sputtering started. AH HA that's it! You have a fast let down, he's overwhelmed. Try a different hold. Relax. You got this. We got it. We got it so good around 2 months that we stopped using the bottle because it wasn't so painful anymore.

Month 2.5. Three weeks left of maternity leave. We tried the bottle. Gus screamed. We tried a different bottle, Gus screamed. We tried a total of 4 bottles and different nipples. I knew he was hungry. "He's just being stubborn" all of the MDs said. "It's like he doesn't know how to get it" I said.  "No. He will take it when he needs it, keep trying," they said.

Gus, who very rarely cried, was screaming at the sight of a bottle. It was my fault, why hadn't I kept using the bottle!?! It was my fault. He's stubborn like me!!

I dropped off my baby at daycare and went back to work. He screamed when they tried the bottle. He wouldn't do it. The woman who runs daycare said to me "it's like he doesn't know how to get it!" "Exactly," I said. She went out at 2:00 and bought Gus a new bottle, the 5th kind. This bottle had a flat nipple. Gus took his first bottle at 3:00pm, I dropped him off at 7:30 am. He didn't latch but clamped down and got his milk.

After a few weeks of fighting bottles, crying, clamping on a flat nipple, and cluster feeding at night, I decided to talk to the OT at my school. The OT was over my house the next day and at 3.5 months Gus had a full OT evaluation.

The results, he was developing well, reaching, grabbing, tracking, using his abs, and crossing the midline. But when it came to sucking, Gus did not have neck strength to hold his clamp for long and also he did not have a central groove in his tongue. His suck, swallow, breathe rhythm was off because of this, making a bottle extremely hard to hold on to. After that visit we had tongue exercises to do with Gus as well as elevated sit ups. She explained to me that sucking on a bottle is instinct for survival when a baby is first born, but somewhere around 3 months, it is no longer an instinct, but something that a baby has learned. Gus never learned how because his mouth didn't have the tools he needed to learn.

We are now going on 7 months and Gus will take a bottle. He still prefers not to, and won't take a whole lot of milk from a bottle, but it is enough to get him (and me) through the days with less tears.

Had it not been for the woman who owns the daycare agreeing with me, I never would have gotten an OT. If it hadn't been for the OT, my son would not be the healthy, happy, well developing baby he is today.  I knew somethings was off, but I am so appreciative of other women supporting and encouraging me to get help.

How early is early for intervention? In my experience, it's never too early.

Read more about Kelly (and her blog and her yoga and her photography and her general awesomeness at her website).