When I asked Dr. Kotlow to show me exactly how to diagnose these ties and what specifically to be looking for, he quickly grabbed my paperwork…  ”You checked off every symptom on here.  What else could cause all of this?”  This statement so put my mind at ease.  Listen to mom, mom knows her body and her baby best!  If you, or a mom you know, is checking off every symptom that I mention in this post, then chances are your/her baby is tongue tied.  See, what I used to check for is that baby could protrude his/her tongue past his/her bottom gum line.  I also made sure that the frenum didn’t pull on the end of the tongue, causing a heart shaped looking tongue.  As seen in this picture: To easily check the tongue for a tie, put your index finger under your baby’s tongue and sweep across the floor of the mouth from one side to the other.  You should be able to slide the finger under the tongue across the mouth floor from where the molars will eventually come in without running into any tissue.  If you feel a smooth mouth floor, then there’s no problem.  However, if you run into what Dr. Kotlow describes as a “small speed bump”, you may have an issue.  If there’s a large speed bump, then there’s definitely a problem.  If the membrane under the tongue (that attaches it onto the floor of the mouth) feels like a very thin and strong- like a fine wire- then push on it and look to see if the tongue’s tip indents or bows.  This suggests baby has a tie under the mucous membrane in the back.  Remember that most of these ties whether presenting as small, medium or large bumps will usually turn into problems if not addressed.

Ellington has a very long tongue, and she could move it way past her bottom gum; these two factors led me away from diagnosing her as tied.  However, she was unable to move her tongue properly when nursing and never could really press it against her palate.  As she nursed, she’d gum at my breasts, which of course made me sore, caused me to peel, blister and develop and itchy rash with crack on my skin.  Her upper frenum- as the ENT in Dallas has shown me- came down into her gum line.  Therefore, she could not move her upper lip effectively, which also greatly affected our nursing.  Additionally, you could never see her gums when she smiled- something we didn’t really notice until after the surgery.

As we researched and found this to be congenital and genetic, we discovered that JB is pretty severely tongue tied too.  He was adopted and never breastfed, therefore it stands to reason that his issue was never discovered.  Interestingly enough though, his family always talks about what a colicky baby he was and the constant digestive issues he had from that.  It turns out that Harper- our toddler- has a maxillary tie too.  I went through my guilt stage over this; but, in the end, even though we missed it on him I’m so grateful that we’ve walked this journey.  Because of everything we went through with Harper, I really feel I have a whole new level of understanding for families with this, and I look closely for it now.

You see this diagnosis is so important because if a person is tied- baby or not, breastfeeding or not- he/she can not move their tongue and lips properly.  So much is affected by this!  Nutritional problem arise.  Why?  Because food can not be extracted properly (especially in the case of breastmilk), and it can’t be properly placed and digested completely.  Colic can occur because of this improper function more air is swallowed.  Babies tend to drool a lot, again because their mouth/tongue doesn’t work properly.  Gagging may occur.  You might see sleep problems like snoring and apnea.  And, it’s common for teeth/jaw issues to arise later because the teeth are pulled inwards toward the tongue or there might be gaps where the frenum comes between the teeth.  Speech problems have also been noted from this.

Even though Harper is weaned, we are still looking at possibly having his clipped.  We will still choose the laser, but it gets a little more complicated with older children.  The younger you can do this the better!  When a baby is only a few days old, there is very little blood flow to these frenums and hardly- if any- sensation.  Therefore, not only is it less painful- if at all painful- to cut, but it’s easier because newborns are swaddled and don’t fight the procedure as much.  Not to mention their nursing patterns and habits don’t have to be re-trained.

Looking back, we believe Harper wouldn’t have had as many sleep issues had we known about this and had it addressed.  He nursed around the clock, and once he fell asleep, he’d quickly wake up after very little sleep to nurse again.  Also, he was always very small for his age, especially for as much as he ate.  I now wonder if he’d have gained a lot more and faster too.  As his teeth came in, he developed deep notches with brown spots on them on two of his front teeth.  This bothered me so much.  How could a child raised mostly on vegetables and no sugar- outside of fruit- have this problem?  Well, Dr. Kotlow has now educated us on that too.  Even though he is not against co-sleeping and night nursing, he explained to me that when Harper nursed since his upper lip is tied tightly to his front gum line that lip and tongue don’t move normally.  They are unable to clear and clean milk (and now that he eats solid, foods) from his teeth.  You risk high chances of anterior caries (rotting teeth in the front) with this condition.  What’s that saying?  ”Hindsight is 20/20!”  Oh how I wish I’d have known!

Share with me: Have you or anyone in your family dealt with this?  I want to hear your stories!

Stay tuned, I’ll continue the series tomorrow!

Let me start with our second born, Ellington, even though this story really starts with Harper our firstborn.  When Ellington was born- three whole months ago!- I was still nursing her toddler brother.  In fact, he’s only been weaned for a couple of months now.  Therefore, suffice it to say, I didn’t get as sore starting a new nursing relationship as a lot of new moms often do.  In fact, the pain was nothing in comparison to when I started nursing Harper.  Now, it may surprise you since I nursed for such a long time, that nursing is one of my least favorite activities on the planet.  If I didn’t believe in the importance of it for every single aspect of development, I’d quit nursing my children before I even started…  As in, not do it at all!  I hate it!  However, I do it because I know there’s really not a better choice I can make for my children.  Nursing does so much for them; yes, so much that we have discovered about it in research, and so many benefits I believe we don’t even know of.  How could I, knowing all this, rob them of something just because I don’t enjoy it?  I couldn’t, so I press on!  The first two weeks with Ellington’s and my nursing were relatively easy.  I mostly just had her to worry about, we recovered from birth together in bed, slept the days away and ate when we felt like it.  Having 2 kids really wasn’t all that hard!  Then came back to reality with week 3.  What’d reality look like?  Well, lets just say it was feed a newborn around the clock, bounce and wear a newborn to try to keep her happy, and chase a toddler constantly.  Man, it sure was different nursing newborn #2 with big brother to worry about!  The positions you will settle for in order to do this while entertaining a toddler, it takes major talent!  I definitely wasn’t as strict with Ellington’s perfect positioning and latch as I was with Harper’s.  As long as she ate, I was okay.  Over the course of a few days, my happy little girl became this miserable baby. I was shocked when she got a really red diaper rash, especially since we cloth diaper.  Then, my breasts started peeling and they looked weird after a feeding.  Nursing hurt worse and worse, it wasn’t getting better as our relationship progressed.  Certain hours of the day- especially early evening- we could pretty much wager on the fact that Ellington would be screaming her head off.  She would nurse and nurse and nurse, then we’d be so happy when she finally fell asleep, only to have her wake up a few minutes later ready to nurse and nurse and nurse some more.  One day, I noticed that she was getting white patches inside her cheeks.  Oh no!  The dreaded “thrush” I had diagnosed so many babies with.  Could that be why my breasts hurt so badly and looked so weird?  I quickly ran to the health food store for some natural remedies.  I was praying they’d work fast to fix this because I knew the strict diet I’d have to go on if they didn’t remedy it, and I was dreading that!  We tried the remedies we knew of, and when nothing worked I called a lactation consultant.  I set up an appointment for her to come work on latch with me.  The other thing about Ellington is that she would spit up more often than Harper ever did, and it didn’t matter if I changed my diet, it didn’t affect it.  Also, she wouldn’t take a bottle, and we even tried to have her take a pacifier (which we never did with Harper) during one of her screaming periods.  She could never seem to grasp how to do a paci.  JB commented with the bottle that if she didn’t finally latch on to it if he barely moved the bottle she’d slide right off the nipple.  This was nice for me to have him see because I’d been trying to tell him how hard she was to nurse because I couldn’t make the slightest movement without her falling off the breast.  Again, so hard and frustrating to try to feed her while worrying about Harper!

So, Mellanie came over to help me with Ellington.  She agreed that Ellington did indeed have thrush, but was very surprised that everything I was doing wasn’t changing her condition.  When she examined her, she was also very perplexed with all we were dealing with.  ”Normally I just send babies with all of this to you guys.” She told me.  ”I know”, I chuckled and told her we’d already been adjusting her and working on soft tissue and treating me with supplements and diet changes.  Also, we’d taken her to one of our mentors and chiropractic colleagues.  I couldn’t say anything was changing her condition at all.  Mellanie informed me that she was going to a conference with a bunch of lactation experts, and that if I wanted to send her with some video footage of me nursing Ellington, she’d get some opinions for me at the conference.  I was so grateful to her!  I love people who will work hard to seek answers when they don’t know them!  We also agreed that I’d go see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist in Dallas to check Ellington and make sure we weren’t dealing with something we hadn’t caught that he could see.  We both said- because Ellington’s tongue is so long and she moves it well- that we’d be very surprised if she was tongue tied, but agreed he should confirm that for us.

I drove to Dallas with Ellington, and loved the staff, doctor and his office.  But, I was so disappointed in the answers I got from him.  Basically, he told me that we were dealing with a problem that was causing her nursing issues but that he wouldn’t really do anything about it.  What was the problem?  You guessed it, ankyloglossia or tongue tie.  He really didn’t feel that her tongue was tied to the floor of her mouth (the usual, common tie you hear of often), but that her maxillary frenum (band of tissue attaching upper lip to upper gum) was longer that what he would call normal.  However, he said he’d recommend not doing anything until she was older- at which time a dentist would probably be the one to recommend cutting due to possible teeth/speech issues from it.  He explained that he has to use sutures in that area and it’s a lot more involved, therefore he’d just leave it alone at this point.  What was I to do with this information?  I left there just so frustrated because I knew in my gut this band of tissue was causing our issues.  Especially since I could never get Ellington to flare her upper lip out, this explained it if there was tissue keeping that lip from moving properly.

Mellanie called me, exhausted from her conference, but excited to discuss with me what people at the conference had said from watching my video of Ellington nursing.  They were all convinced she was possibly tongue tied.  And, a name of a doctor in New York kept coming up.  Mellanie kind of laughed as she said, “New York”, when we talked about my options, but the other specialist whose name had come up was in Japan.  I told her I’d mention New York to JB and see his response; I honestly didn’t know what JB would say, but I was so ready to have an answer I wanted to go right then.  Why would I fly all the way to New York for something as simple as a tongue tie?  Well, you saw the results I got from the expert we refer to in our area, secondly Dr. Kotlow (New York) uses a laser with no anesthetic or sutures, he’s an expert who has been doing this for over 30 years, he’s written many studies on this condition, and he believes in the mother/child nursing relationship and desires to make that a successful/enjoyable relationship.  I was so happy when I mentioned him to JB that my loving hubby said, “Let’s go!”  No hesitation at all, and that made me feel even more peace about this.  I started researching and scheduling.

Tongue ties occur when embryological tissue does not disappear at birth.  Dr. Kotlow’s site is very helpful in diagnosing these ties.  However, when I questioned him about diagnosing these, I loved his response!  ”Look at your paperwork, you have all the symptoms.  What else could it be?”  It is so nice to have a doctor who listens to the mom!  Check out the list he was talking about on his paperwork:

Infant- no latch, un-sustained latch, slides off nipple, prolonged feeds, unsatisfied after prolonged feeds, falls asleep on the breast, gumming or chewing on the nipple, poor weight gain and/or failure to thrive, unable to hold pacifier

Mom- creased or blanched nipples after feeding, flattened nipples after feeding, cracked/bruised/blistered nipples, bleeding nipples, severe pain with latch, incomplete breast drainage, infected nipples, plugged ducts, mastitis, thrush

Sound like us?  Yep, I checked off all but like one symptom on those papers!  We flew up to New York a few days after talking to Mellanie.  I’ll share our journey up there with you in my post tomorrow.  And, remember how I said the story started with Harper?  Yep, my two year old has it too…  You guessed it, it’s a congenital/genetic condition.  But, like us, you may wonder why we are seeing so many of them lately?  I’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s post too.

I was reading through the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Position Paper on doctors supporting breastfeeding.  I hear many times a week, unfortunately, from patients whose doctors are not informed on the benefits of breastfeeding.  And, sadly, these doctors do not know how to educate and support their parents so that their pediatric patients get the best health benefits from nursing. 

I have always been an advocate of breastfeeding, but my passion toward the subject has grown tremendously after nursing Harper all of these months.  As I was preparing to have Harper, I remember anticipating our breastfeeding relationship with much excitement.  Oh, I couldn’t wait to grin at my child in the wee hours of the morning, as he lay gently on my lap being satisfied by my incredible ability to feed him.  Nursing, like pregnancy, is one of those miracles that just amazes me!  However, fast forward one year and several months later, and I would definitely confess that my little daydreams of wonderful nursing experiences definitely haven’t been reality.  I can understand why moms give up.  It is not easy and definitely not always pleasant!  I think this is especially true with an extremely hungry, agile little boy.  And, although I can’t say I enjoy it, Harper will be 2 years old in a few months, and our breastfeeding relationship is still going strong.  I take it day by day, but I am not planning on weaning him soon.  Why do I stick with it since I don’t particularly enjoy it?  Or, the other question/statement I get all of the time, “You’ve made it past six months, and you’ve made it past 1 year, why are you still nursing?  Isn’t he too old for that?!  When are you going to quit?”  Just like everything else, breastfeeding is a choice with made strongly backed by research.  In these next few posts, I will explain what the research says, and why I choose to do something for so long that I don’t necessarily enjoy.  The position paper put out by medical doctors made me grin:

For the child- “In 2007, a systematic review of the effects of breastfeeding on maternal and infant health found that for infants in developed countries, notbreastfeeding is associated with increased risks of common conditions including acute otitis media, gastroenteritis, atopic dermatitis, and life-threatening conditions including severe lower respiratory infections, necrotizing enterocolitis, and sudden infant death syndrome.  The health effects of breastfeeding persist beyond the period of breastfeeding. Children who were not breastfed are at increased risk of obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, asthma, and childhood leukemia.  The evidence base also supports the importance of six months of exclusive breastfeeding(when compared with four months) as protective against gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract infection, including otitis media and pneumonia.”

For the mother- “Not breastfeeding is associated with an increased risk of postpartum depression.  In the longer term, for women in developed countries, not breastfeeding is associated with increased risks of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.^“

“As recommended by the WHO, breastfeeding should ideally continue beyond infancy, but this is not the cultural norm in the United States and requires ongoing support and encouragement.  It has been estimated that a natural weaning age for humans is between two and seven years.  Family physicians should be knowledgeable regarding the ongoing benefits to the child of extended breastfeeding, including continued immune protection, better social adjustment, and having a sustainable food source in times of emergency. The longer women breastfeed, the greater the decrease in their risk of breast cancer.  Mothers who have immigrated from cultures in which breastfeeding beyond infancy is routine should be encouraged to continue this tradition. There is no evidence that extended breastfeeding is harmful to mother or child. Breastfeeding during a subsequent pregnancy is not unusual. If the pregnancy is normal and the mother is healthy, breastfeeding during pregnancy is the woman’s personal decision. If the child is younger than two years, the child is at increased risk of illness if weaned. Breastfeeding the nursing child after delivery of the next child (tandem nursing) may help provide a smooth transition psychologically for the older child.^“

“Weaning is the time of gradually transitioning infants from mother’s milk to complementary foods or an older child’s diet. In this sense, weaning begins with the introduction of solids at the middle of the first year. Complete weaning, or complete cessation of breastfeeding, ideally should be a gradual process accomplished over a long period. There is no evidence that a specific age of weaning is necessary or mandated. Like other developmental milestones, children wean when they are ready, physically and psychologically. There are several weaning techniques that can be recommended when a mother wishes to encourage the process. Medications to decrease or stop milk production are not necessary and should be avoided. Sudden abrupt complete weaning is rarely necessary, and can place the mother at risk for engorgement, plugged ducts, galactoceles, mastitis, and breast abscesses. The child may be placed at risk for infectious illnesses, dehydration, malnutrition, and psychological trauma such as feelings of abandonment.  In cases in which abrupt weaning is necessary, the advice of a lactation consultant should be sought to minimize the risks.”

I love my job, and I love that I am surrounded by precious little kids all day long.  They make life so fun!  I don’t know how people go through life and only surround themselves with adults, how boring!  Kids say and do things on a constant basis, which continuously keep us entertained and smiling.  Today, I am still laughing about a funny kid story that happened just a little while ago.  All of you nursing moms will appreciate this.

This Christmas, we went to celebrate with Jim Bob’s family, like we do every year.  At lunch, I went in his cousin’s bedroom- since everyone else was in the living room- to have some quiet, down time and nurse Harper.  His 4 and 2 year old cousins quickly followed us into the bedroom.  Shortly, their mom came running around the corner, “Girls, let’s give Cindy some privacy.”  I told her, “I don’t care if you don’t mind.”  To which she responded, “Well, she (pointing to the 2 year old) won’t notice anything, but this one (pointing to the 4 year old) is about to have a lot of questions.”  Then, she walked back out of the room, leaving the girls behind.  Harper was happily eating at this point, with only the back of his head visible, as he covered his face in my shirt.  “When will he be done?” asked the 4 year old.  “I often wonder the same thing!”  I responded to her.  She stood there intently watching him eat for a little while longer, and then quickly replied, with a precious, deep Southern accent, “He sure does like your shirt!”

First off, for the moms, very cool news to report:  My milk supply continues to do great!  Again, this is while strictly following the purification program and living my stressful schedule.  Also, two other nursing moms who are doing the cleanse reported that their babies are spitting up a lot less.  Isn’t that neat?  Every mom knows how frustrating spitting up can be, I am so happy these babies are doing well.  And, I will continue to follow everyone’s progress and keep you posted.  It makes sense though that because this program forces the majority of food allergies out of the diet, you get healthier (and so do your children!). 

I had a ton of energy yesterday, but today I have been extremely tired.  And, the Starbucks cravings are still there in a major way…  Maybe sleep and a change in the weather would help that!  However, when I eat, the cravings subside, which is good.  We have still been drinking smoothies for breakfast.  I am snacking on veggies and hummus (today we bought cilantro jalapeno hummus from Whole Foods- delish!), fruit and veggie chips (kale chips I made and sweet potato chips we bought at WF).

Snack Ideas:  Organic Medjool Dates- cut them open, remove the pits and stuff w/ organic dried coconut shavings.  These taste just like Hershey’s Mounds to me, and can quickly taste like an Almond Joy if you add an almond too (I try to minimize nuts on the cleanse though).  This is a great snack when you are craving something sweet, but if you are trying to loose weight on the cleanse, you may want to avoid these.  And, raw okra, have you tried it?  It is really good! 

For lunch yesterday, we ate at one of our favorite vegan restaurants.  If you haven’t tried it, you have to go.  Spiral Diner rocks, especially on the cleanse!  Plus, I love browsing their menu and trying their food because I have many recipes that have been inspired by this restaurant.  For dinner last night, I was rushing to a birth, and I ate leftover stew.  I also had the stew with brown rice and a spinach salad for lunch today.  On our salads, we typically use olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice and sea salt and pepper.  And for dinner tonight, we ate a very green meal of brown rice pasta (you can buy it at WF) with homemade pesto and a side of fresh steamed asparagus.

Did you know pesto is so easy to make and tastes so good without cheese and milk fats, which are typically in most pestos you buy?  I made my own tonight, and here’s the recipe:

1 cup pine nuts

¾ cup olive oil

½ large bunch fresh basil

½ cup fresh parsley

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp sea salt

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor (you can use a blender if you don’t have a processor) and blend to desired consistency.  Pesto is great to put on salads, over cooked veggies and brown rice.  We use it a lot on the cleanse too.  I add a bit of fresh squeezed lemon to it too.

Mixing in the food processor

Finished product, enough for tonight’s pasta and to enjoy on other dishes this week.

Our wonderful supper!  Who said being healthy can’t taste good?!  I, of course, sprinkled nutritional yeast on mine.

And our side of veggies!

Thanks for hanging with me, we are over a third of the way there!

Well, the time is upon us once again…  Cleanse time!  Our goal is for this to occur at least twice a year; however, the last time I did a cleanse was right before conceiving Harper.  So, I am way overdue!  And, the prep is in full swing.  JB has been convinced to join forces with me; after all, who wants to go through such pain pleasure all on their lonesome?  I have been on the phone with multiple friends today, begging that they join us on our mission to get pure and loose weight.  One thing I have learned after doing this program multiple times and watching plenty of friends, family and patients complete it, you are much more likely to be successful if you have a support group to go through it with you.

Why was it easier to stay healthy and watch what I ate while pregnant than while nursing?  Maybe it was the fear of having to push out a huge baby.  After all, I did visualize his/her size at birth everytime I went to put something in my mouth.  Maybe it was the fact that while pregnant I was able to go to the gym when I wanted, and I had a practically empty schedule to focus on meal planning and cooking.  Plus, there wasn’t the exhaustion factor that screwed with my hormones on a constant basis making me crave nothing but sugar…  Oh to sleep again!

Well, in order to do this, you have to get motivated…  And, for me, this takes days weeks to convince myself.  I start out arguing and hashing it out in my head.  Once I have convinced myself, I bring it up to JB, and when he agrees, I start to pull in the friends.  Then, I pull the nutrition books off the shelf, plan the grocery list and store trips, and start making room in the fridge and carving out time in the schedule to cook and cook and cook.  Tonight’s motivational read?  The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  And, how appropriate is his quote?!  I can not eat in ignorance for the next 3 weeks.  Nope, every bite will be well planned out.  After all, as I said, the planning has been happening for quite some time now.  But, the work is so worth it!  After all, it did help me conceive a beautiful, extremely healthy and brilliant baby boy last year.  What better proof that this program works?!

So, all this to say, what is the plan?  Tomorrow we start The Standard Process 21 Day Purification and Weight Loss Program.  Yes, it is perfectly safe (and extremely healthy) for pregnant and/or nursing mothers.  If someone is in that category- like myself- you simply change up the supplements and diet a little.

I plan to blog about this each day, hopefully Harper will cooperate with that plan.  Welcome to my new site!  I will show you what we take and eat and drink on a daily basis- pictures and recipes to be included.

Also, I have a fun giveaway planned for the blog, so check in frequently.  I look forward to sharing my journey with you.