Best for Babes

…and it’s not what you’re thinking.

Formula.

It seems to be the dirty F-word of the breastfeeding world. Anytime it’s mentioned in pro-breastfeeding circles, the venom and vitriol flow freely, along with their passive aggressive cousins, judgment and presumption.

You know, because formula feeding moms obviously don’t love their babies and don’t even care about them at all.

Does anyone really believe that?! No!  (We certainly hope not.)

We know the benefits of breastfeeding.  We know that breastfeeding is normal-feeding and that in a world without pervasive boobytraps, most parents would choose to breastfeed their babies, or feed them donor milk (except for those with the extremely rare condition of galactosemia).  

There are tons of factors that go into parents’ decisions on how they’ll feed their babies.  Some are in their control, some are absolutely not.  And we wouldn’t begin to guess what those are, or pretend to know.

What we will do, is offer all moms evidence-based info.  We will cheer them on, coach them, and celebrate them – regardless of what or how they are feeding their babies.  We will offer understanding and welcome all mothers into our circles.  We will treat them with respect.  We will foster discussions without pressure, judgment, or guilt.

We will do our best to inspire, empower, and prepare moms with the most current, evidence-based info available.  We will help moms to make breastfeeding work for them, understanding that it won’t look the same for everyone.

And we will not treat formula like it’s the dirty f-word. We will keep pressuring formula companies to be truthful in their advertising, (*correction 8/1/10:  to refrain from ANY marketing or advertising) because advertising and marketing that violates the WHO Code hurts ALL moms, regardless of how they choose to feed their babies.   We will keep working to give breastfeeding the makeover it needs to become a cultural norm again.  We will work hard to give moms the solutions they need to meet their personal breastfeeding goals – whatever they may be.

We will continue to be passionate advocates for breastfeeding.  And we will do it without ostracizing moms who decide not to or can’t breastfeed.  We will work to help all moms have the optimal feeding experience for them, be it from a boob, a bottle, or otherwise.

Amy West, CLC

*Note from the Editor:  Please accept our apologies for this error.

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By Elita of Blacktating.com; for the Best for Babes Foundation ©2010

It’s such an exciting time for Best for Babes! Not only did you help us win a $20,000 donation from Chase, but we’ve also just announced a new campaign to help promote breastfeeding: BYOBoobz Parties! BYOBoobz will provide a “house party” kit filled with goodies to empower moms and help them avoid the “booby traps.” These parties will create a peer support group for moms, while giving them the information necessary to make the best infant feeding choices possible. We can’t wait to have you hosting BYOBoobz parties across the country! BYOBoobz will be launched this fall.

The Department of Labor has created a new fact sheet that provides more information on the new law requiring employers to provide time and a space for moms to pump at work. The new requirements went into effect March 23, 2010 and covers moms until their babies are 1.

Bethenny Frankel is the epitome of the busy, breastfeeding, working & pumping mom. This week she talked about balancing motherhood with work on her People blog, saying she is fortunate to have the kind of schedule that allows her to come home and breastfeed Bryn and get in a snuggle.

Did you catch this funny blog post from Design Mom on having lopsided breasts? After breast surgery compromised her milk ducts in one breast, all of her kids have eventually refused to nurse on that side, leaving her with only one breast to work with. As strange as it sounds, it is completely possible to nourish a baby with only breast, as that side will compensate.

New research shows that breastfeeding predicts the risk of childhood obesity. According to the study, breastfeeding significantly reduced the likelihood of obesity in kids whose mothers are diabetic. Since diabetic women are much more likely to have obese children, this is very significant. The authors of the study say breastfeeding made a difference, regardless of the mother’s weight and women with diabetes should be encouraged to breastfeed.

A new study also showed how different foods can affect your baby’s gut. The researchers found that while being breastfed, the bacteria in a baby’s stomach contained numerous genes for breaking down milk sugars. When the baby was given formula and peas, there was great upheaval in the gut. The only other thing that caused the same change was a round of antibiotics!

This week I’d like to shine the Blog Spotlight on an interesting poll up on the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog, based on a question in the newest edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Would you rather feed your baby breast milk from a bottle, or feed your baby at the breast with formula? Is the milk the most important thing, or is the nursing relationship? Which would you choose?

Another sign that we’ve reached the turning point in the breastfeeding movement is that there are several independent films in the works that have to do with breastfeeding and donor milk.    I was a little disappointed that Michael Moore’s film “Sicko,”  about the ”crazy and sometimes cruel” U.S. health care system, did not touch on the absurdity of systematically preventing moms from succeeding at breastfeeding despite the fact that it could save $13 billion and 900 lives per year, at the very least–and we think that is a conservative estimate.    The good news is that several independent film makers think this absurdity should be the subject of a documentary that examines our cultural and institutional “booby traps” and how we ended up in this mess.

Katja Esson’s short film, ”Latching On,”  does a great job covering much of this ground.  I attended the premiere screening of her documentary at the Tribeca Film Center a couple of weeks ago and got a chance to chat with the director over a dinner sponsored by Lansinoh prior to the viewing.  Like me, Katja Esson is a native of Germany, and was struck by the enormous cultural differences between her native country, where breastfeeding is accepted and embraced, and the U.S., where bottlefeeding is the norm.   Even though she has no kids of her own, Katja spent seven years plumbing the depths of the anti-breastfeeding culture in the U.S..   She and I agree that the biggest booby trap is the lack of designated Baby-Friendly Hospitals in the U.S.–if new moms can’t even make it through two days of exclusive breastfeeding with their healthy, full-term babies without out being “booby-trapped”, than how can we expect them to get to the six months recommended by the AAP and every other medical & health organization?    We really loved meeting some of the stars of the film, some of whom are already old friends of BfB like Heather Kelly, IBCLC and Felina of the Upper Breast Side.  We were captivated by ”Glam-ma” (not Grandma) a glamorous and hip black woman who tells explains that she breastfed for economic decisions because there were no free handouts of formula through WIC.  Her daughter-in-law is on the fence about breastfeeding and her story steals the show.  The film, which is distributed by Women Make Movies, is already one of their top-selling films of the year and has tremendous potential for raising awareness and putting pressure on the barriers, not moms.  Lansinoh’s  ByMomsForMoms did a fantastic video interview with Katja Esson and Debbie Zimmerman (Executive Director of Women Make Movies) which explains how the film can “open eyes” and reach classrooms, libraries and even women’s prisons.  We will be staying in touch with Katja, and Women Make Movies to see how Best for Babes can help market the movie to reach the largest audience possible (and hopefully capture attention of the media), and we’ll be following the film’s attendance at festivals on Facebook.  Here’s the trailer:

Before the screening of “Latching On”, we also met Beth Poague, who is the process of making a documentary called “Supply & Demand:  Uncovering Breastfeeding in America”.  This film also shows great promise for educating and raising awareness of the barriers that keep moms from making informed feeding decisions and achieving their personal breastfeeding goals.  She interviews our Board Member, Marsha Walker and we are excited to see her film develop.   Thanks to Laura Keegan, RN, FNP and author of Breastfeeding with Comfort & Joy for introducing us to Beth.

Kevin West is making a full-length documentary called “Mother’s Milk: The Movie” which expands on a short film he created in 2009 that I found very moving and inspiring.  The movie will highlight the work of the Human Milk Bank Association of North America and the desperate need for donated, screened, pasteurized human milk for babies whose mothers can not breastfeed, or who have been prevented from succeeding.  We’re extremely excited about the potential of this film because we think it will have mass-market appeal and be able to drive the demand for human milk and give hope to mothers who want to give their babies the next best!  

Mother’s Milk (2009) from Kevin Douglas West on Vimeo.

Finally, there is a movie in production called Formula Fed America, which we have been following for quite some time.

Do you know of any other films that have the potential to educate and inspire the mainstream? Let us know!

By Elita of Blacktating.com; for the Best for Babes Foundation ©2010

This was an amazing week for Best for Babes, as we found out Tuesday that we won a $20,000 donation from Chase, thanks to all of you who voted in the contest on Facebook!  We are so grateful and want to thank you for all you’ve done for the Mother of All Causes.

Thanks to Tanya at the Motherwear Blog for uncovering even more good news in the Health Care Reform bill related to breastfeeding. Apparently buried in those new regulations is the requirement that insurance reimburse for preventive health services, including breastfeeding education & evaluations, both in hospital and outpatient settings. No one is still sure when this all goes into effect or what exactly it means for moms, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Here’s to the adoptive parents who educated their pediatrician on the importance of human milk and the availability of donor milk through milk banks. Dr. Jack Maypole’s excellent article highlights how he was able to write a prescription for breast milk for the family, the history, availability and safety of human milk. The article points out that we only have a handful of milk banks in the US, while Brazil has about 180. We’re getting better, though: the Mother’s Milk Bank of New England opened this week in Massachusetts.

Whoever said one person can’t make a difference never met Amanda Mack! After receiving a “breastfeeding support bag” from a formula company after the birth of her second baby, Amanda decided to contact all of the companies she knew that truly supported nursing moms and asked them to donate products for a real support bag to hand out at her local hospital. With that, the Laramie Breastfeeding Bag project was born! Amanda has been able to provide 125 bags so far. Interested in creating a bag for your local hospital? Check out the Laramie Breastfeeding Bag project’s Facebook page for details how.

As a mom who worked and pumped, I could so relate to the article This Sucks: Breast Pumping at Work. This is the perfect example of how far we still have to come in this country and why family-friendly policies like paid leave, babies at work programs, on-site day care and protection for moms who are pumping at work are so important.

I’d also like to shine the Blog Spotlight on Anne of Dou-la-la this week for her insightful post on the difference between “can’t” and “won’t” when it comes to breastfeeding. We wish that every mom had the support to meet her breastfeeding goals, but we also wish that moms who didn’t choose to breastfeed felt comfortable enough to be honest about their decision, without worrying they’d be judged for their decisions.

And finally, now that summer is here, we want to remind you of the importance of soaking up some sun so you can make adequate levels of Vitamin D for both yourself and your nursling! It’s particularly important to make sure your Vitamin D levels are adequate if you are a woman of color or live in a northern climate where you go months without a lot of sunshine.

I have no idea what will happen over the next 8 hours—we have no way of knowing whether we will hold on to our spot in the top 200 finalists of the CHASE Community Giving Campaign (http://bit.ly/9dAueQ). That is not to say that we are not tremendously excited about the opportunity to win $20,000 …we are! $20K is a lot of money to a small non-profit such as ours, and there is no doubt that we could stretch those dollars very far. We could take advantage of donated media space to launch our ad campaign on billboards, enroll more celebrities to share their experience and spearhead this cause, and bring more pressure to bear on the booby traps, not moms.

What is dawning on us is that this is not as important as what has been happening over the last few days, weeks and months. We’re seeing the conversation shift from the benefits of breastfeeding to the barriers that keep moms from succeeding, a shift that is sorely needed if we are to build a true cause. We’re seeing mothers and fathers come together behind Best for Babes that were once divided by breast vs. bottle … even those who were once angry and bitter. We’ve been overjoyed by new faces on our fan page and new voices that have spoken up on nursing positions, tongue-tie, what it takes to bring about social change and even the wonders of breastmilk shampoo.

It’s been an incredible journey, and we owe it all to you … The moms who struggled and suffered unnecessarily because of the Booby Traps and who inspire us every day. We owe it to those of you who saw our potential, embraced us, and pushed us forward. You know who you are. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

So whether we win $20,000 or not, we wanted to send you this love letter to thank you for all you’ve done to work with us to build the Mother of All Causes. We’re in it for the long haul, and won’t rest until every parent can make an informed feeding decision and carry it out without judgment, pressure or guilt. We will se the day when all moms are cheered on, coached and celebrated to achieve their personal breastfeeding goals!

(Forgive the lack of links and all the typos, and writing on my Blackberry during our drive up to Maine!)

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By Elita of Blacktating.com; for the Best for Babes Foundation ©2010

Today was another scorcher in Florida, but that didn’t stop about 20 mothers from holding a nurse-in at an Orlando area park to protest after a lifeguard asked a group of breastfeeding mothers to cover up or leave last week. The mothers involved say they have received an apology and today’s nurse-in was to raise awareness of a woman’s legal right to breastfeed in public in Florida.

You may know Candice Michelle as the hot chick from the “Go Daddy” commercials, but she’s also a new mom to one-month-old AkiAnne. Candice opened up to Celebrity Baby Scoop about her planned home birth, losing the baby weight and her breastfeeding goals. Candice says she’s aiming for 6 months of the liquid gold, but her husband would like to see her go a whole year! Yay for supportive breastfeeding Dads!

Have you ever been sick while pregnant or nursing and wondered what you could take that was safe for your baby? Perhaps you have a chronic condition that requires you to be on medication that you’re not sure is compatible with breastfeeding or contraindicated in pregnancy. Dr. Thomas Hale has always been the go-to resource when it comes to assessing the safety of medicine for nursing moms and in addition to his books, he has created the InfantRisk Center, where moms and their doctors can get the latest, evidence-based answers on using specific drugs during pregnancy and lactation. The InfantRisk Center also has a new Facebook page you can “like” until the call center goes live in Spring 2010.

We’ve talked extensively about and bemoaned the lack of breastfeeding training that pediatricians get in medical school. So what happens when a breastfeeding curriculum is designed and implemented? Not surprisingly, according to a study published this week in Pediatrics, exclusive breastfeeding rates go up. The idea of breastfeeding training for pediatricians doesn’t have to be a dream, as the curriculum is currently available for free on the AAP’s website.

This week, all of our amazing Babes kept us in the top 200 for the Chase Community Giving great and we are thisclose to securing a $20,000 donation for Best for Babes! Keep the votes coming, suggest us to your friends and followers, and help us to keep fighting those booby traps!

Finally, this week we asked you on Facebook if you held on to your freezer stash of breast milk after your baby weaned and you gave us some great ideas for ways to use the milk before it expires! You were overheard saying…

Cecilia Mitchell Miller If you aren’t going to give it to a baby, find someone local who makes soap. Breastmilk makes great soap!

Michelle Montalto Adams
I donated about a 150 oz of breastmilk to a milk bank after my son weaned.

Kate Majestic I’ve found a new use for it…. a deep conditioner for your hair! Someone recommended it to me and I tried it this weekend and had awesome results! who knew?!

A while back we did a post on famous magazine covers and photos of celebrities breastfeeding.   One of the commenters pointed out that it would be great if there were more pictures of celebrities nursing in public . . . magazine covers are great but if expecting moms saw more celebs breastfeeding in their every day lives, it would go a long way towards normalizing breastfeeding in our culture.   We agree!  Fear of nursing in public, and shaming, harassing or humiliating nursing mothers is a HUGE boobytrap in the United States.  

Angela White, of the now defunct Breastfeeding 1-2-3, did a great post earlier this year with a beautiful gallery of celebrities breastfeeding in public or standing up for nursing moms.   We want to build on this gallery and make a “home” for all the pictures that crop up in the media of celebrities breastfeeding.   Sure, we all need to see more everyday moms nursing confidently in public, but we also know of more than one mom, husband, grandmother or friend who has changed their mind after seeing that a celebrity breastfed in public or spoke openly about nursing.  Kourtney Kardashian is already blazing a trail with her open comments about breastfeeding and was seen pumping breastmilk on her TV show (warning–R rated for the language, and sexual suggestion, NOT for the image of a mother pumping, IMO).

http://mudspice.wordpress.com/” width=”128″ height=”120″ />As for everydaymoms, check out the awesome slideshow gallery created by Nursingfreedom.org to celebrate us everyday mamas and the beauty of giving our babies the breast and the best!  A brand new organization, Nursingfreedom.org is running a fabulous carnival for nursing in public  this week, we’ve been spreading the word and think they are doing a fantastic job.

Send us your links to pictures of your favorite celebrity moms breastfeeding in public, and we’ll make a permanent place for these pictures so more moms can find them and be inspired.   We will be doing more celebrity interviews and will be using our influence to encourage celebrities that we speak with to nurse in public, and we’ll be using our influence with the media to persuade more mainstream ”coverage” (pun intended) of celebrities nursing in public . . . and will be adding those photos to a similar gallery.   We know that moms need to see their peers nursing in public, but celebrities have a huge impact too.  After all, if photos of Paris Hilton can spark a craze for carrying around dogs in purses, then surely a few more snaps of celebrities nursing can change the public’s attitude towards breastfeeding!

Photos of Celebrities Nursing in Public

 

 Our goal is to put together a complete gallery of celebrities breastfeeding in public, or showing their support for breastfeeding!   And yes we’ll ask our awesome web guy, http://www.JoeDolson.com to help us make a pretty slide show.  Please send us links to pics with credits for any we’ve missed.  

We found out about the CHASE Community Giving Contest from our friend Ingrid Harding, founder of Girl Power 2 Cure, an organization that raises awareness and research funds for Rett Syndrome, a severe developmental disorder affecting primarily girls, caused by a gene mutation and frequently misdiagnosed as the most severe type of autism.  Girl Power 2 Cure also engages girls in caring for their girlfriends with Rett Syndrome–how awesome is that?   I asked Ingrid to share her story because she is my hero and she inspires me every day.  I don’t know if I would have continued breastfeeding if my baby had arched her back and rejected the breast (and me).   If my child was diagnosed with Rett at age 4 I am not sure I would have the strength to carry on, day after day.   Every 90 minutes, another girl is born with Rett.

Thank you Ingrid, for urging us to enter the CHASE Community Giving Contest, for sharing your and Sarah’s amazing story, and for being willing to speak openly about breastfeeding.   We need more disease foundations looking for a cure to acknowledge the incredible power and benefits of breastfeeding, and encourage expecting and new parents to breastfeed or use donor milk, in their list of ways to prevent or ameliorate disease, as they already do with exercise and eating healthy!   Every day we hear the messages of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes foundations, on the news, in the cause-related marketing products we buy, in the races we run and walk.  Imagine if all of those foundations’ messages even had a small but consist statement supporting breastfeeding in a non-judgmental way; not only would they be helping their own cause but they would help to normalize breastfeeding and ensure that the 360 degree world surrounding expecting parents reflected the importance of making healthy decisions starting with birth.  

If you haven’t already, please go to Facebook.com and vote for Best for Babes  and for Girl Power 2 Cure – two of very few organizations in the contest that are women’s causes!      

Ingrid Harding’s Story, Founder of Girl Power 2 Cure

Recently I’ve started to think of our bodies as trekkers, endlessly pushing forward step by step, in a powerful rhythm.  We all carry different loads.

 My daughter, Sarah (age 9), was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome at the age of four. Her load is heavy. She lost the ability to walk, speak or even use her hands…. yet her core is still pushing forward in its own powerful rhythm.

 Would I ask her to also carry a pack of cement bricks? Maybe tie a log to her ankle? Throw a pot of water up on her head? No. I need to lighten her load. Protect her. Give her every chance in the world to use what is working to stay alive, to keep pushing forward and staying strong.

Even before she was born, I had thoughts like this. Even though my body seemed to tolerate a lot, why ask my baby to? Why not keep the load light for her?

There are many things we do to keep Sarah’s load light.  Most important is her diet.  We stay away from things that are difficult to digest, like gluten and dairy, and potential allergens, like nuts.  We also avoid food dyes and artificial ingredients – all things healthier bodies could process . . . but at what cost to our overall health?  We have a whole-house water filtration system, to reduce the burden of chemicals in the water used to bathe Sarah, and in the water she drinks.   We do our best to eliminate all toxins, even those that she could process, but at the expense of moving forward with her powerful rhythm.

I am so thankful I chose to breast feed Sarah. She nursed exclusively for five months.  Even though I had no idea what troubles would soon come her way and breast feeding was not going to stop it, I can look back and know that I gave her a strong start.  Breastfeeding was not easy . . . looking back now I can see what may have been early signs of Rett Syndrome . . . and I am so glad that despite the breastfeeding obstacles we faced, that I did not throw in the towel in the first few weeks.  I believe it made a difference in Sarah’s connection to us, and her immune system strength.  It was the beginning of keeping her load light so she could achieve her potential despite Rett Syndrome.

You see, when you can’t talk and explain what ails you, you scream and cry… a lot.  We learned very quickly that digestion / pain / immune strength were all interrelated. It’s like an on/off switch with Sarah.  Quiet for good digestion. Scream for bad.  That in turn could lead to pain which would lead to lower immune function.

Sarah is strong for a girl with Rett Syndrome . . . a strength she will need to hold out for the cure (see below).  I can’t say with absolute certainty that our light load is the reason why, but I wouldn’t trade our path on this trek for any other!

More about Rett Syndrome:

Another little girl is born with Rett Syndrome every 90 minutes. It is the leading genetic cause of severe impairment in females, yet so few women know about it.

It strikes at random. Any expectant mother is at risk for having a daughter with Rett Syndrome. The girls and women have symptoms of every neurological disorder for their entire lives. Most girls cannot walk, talk or use their hands. They are mentally aware, yet trapped inside dysfunctional bodies.

The good news: in 2007, researchers were able to REVERSE the symptoms in mice, making Rett Syndrome potentially the first curable neurological disorder. With enough funding, we may see a cure within 5 years. 

Imagine that it could be a women’s disorder, Rett Syndrome, that will pave the way and shed light on dozens of other disorders bringing us closer to a cure for things like Parkinsons, Alzheimers and Epilepsy.

Do you have a child with Rett Syndrome?   Did you struggle with breastfeeding a baby with severe developmental disorders?   We’d love to hear your story!!

By Elita of Blacktating.com; for the Best for Babes Foundation ©2010

It’s officially summer and for a lot of folks, especially the rich and famous, that means family vacations. I’ve always loved these great tips for breastfeeding on a plane but in today’s times, you should also be aware of the TSA’s policies on traveling with breast milk. Unfortunately, you never know what will happen once you arrive at the airport as actress Jenna Eflman found out this week when TSA decided to “vapor test” her bottle of breast milk. Don’t you feel safer now?

There was a great discussion on my blog recently about the variations in care for breastfed newborn babies with jaundice. Some people had pediatricians who insisted on supplementing with formula, others were told to stop nursing, while some were told to nurse more frequently. Thankfully, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine has issued some updated, common sense guidelines for managing jaundice in a breastfed baby, which include initiating breastfeeding within the first hour of life and encouraging exclusive breastfeeding.   Jaundice is incredibly common, which is why we have an extensive page on it. 

Booby Trap Alert! As we told you this week, a new study done at the University of Florida on tongue tie revealed what many lactation consultants already knew: clipping a tongue tie could help many more babies to breastfeed successfully. Not only does there appear to be the sentiment amongst doctors that frenotomies are unnecessary, but unfortunately not all doctors are even allowed to do the procedure. See our post for tips on what you can do if you’re faced with this Booby Trap.

We know that most moms who stop breastfeeding say they did so because they weren’t “making enough milk.” Whether it was true or imagined, the concern is normal and valid. Although the percentage of moms who don’t make enough milk is small, if we think of it in terms of numbers, it is something that will affect many moms. Besides herbs and a drug called Reglan that can have some scary side effects, there aren’t really any legal options for women who need to increase their milk supply in the US. Dr. Thomas Hale and IBCLC Dr. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett would like to hear from moms who have used drugs to increase their milk supply, to help determine their efficacy and safety. If you’ve used Reglan or Domperidone, please take about 15 minutes to complete their survey.

Things were very busy on our Facebook page this week. First, because of you and your votes, we made it into the Top 200 charities eligible to win $20,000 from the Chase Community Giving campaign! We are also creating our own Babe Blogger Roll, so if you have a blog, please sign up and you’ll always have the inside scoop on what Best for Babes is up to.

This week, we asked you, the fans, what feeding norms you grew up with and you were overheard saying…..

Erica Bradley-McCabe I grew up with NO ONE breastfeeding. My first experience was my Swedish SIL breastfeeding my nephew when I was 18 and I decided to breastfeed but was very shy about it with my first.

Damian Dayton I only ever saw breastfeeding. When I got pregnant it was a no brainer that I, too would breastfeed.

Jorie Martin Roubitchek My first experience with formula was when I was babysitting at age 14. Before that, I had seen my mom and aunts breast-feed babies. I remember being really confused about what formula was FOR – but I was too embarrassed to ask the mom why they used that instead because I didn’t want her to be offended.

Kudos to the researchers at the University of Florida for drawing attention to a major “Booby Trap” in helping mothers achieve their personal breastfeeding goal, as published online in Pediatrics.  Many in the breastfeeding community have known for a long time that an unusually short frenulum, the connective tissue under the tongue, is more common than people realize and can be easily and quickly snipped by credentialed professionals to allow the baby’s tongue to move properly and milk the breast.   If left undiagnosed and untreated, this condition, commonly called “tongue-tie,” can in severe cases result in low weight gain with a great deal of frustration and suffering for the baby, and extreme nipple pain,  mastitis and frustration and agony for the mother.  Contrary to popular belief, not all doctors are permitted to perform this procedure, so it is important to find one that is (see bottom section).

Says Neonatologist Sandra Sullivan, MD in an article from Futurity.org:  

“It is called a frenotomy, and it is far simpler than a circumcision, which we do fairly routinely . . . It literally takes longer to fill out the consent form for the procedure than to do the actual procedure itself.”

The tongue motions required to breastfeed are more complex than those required to drink from a bottle (hence the benefits to the baby’s jaw & speech development).  Sullivan explains:

“If you take a bottle with an artificial nipple, there is not a lot a baby has to do to get milk.”

“To get milk out of the breast, they have to make a vacuum and if they cannot get their tongue to the roof of their mouth, they cannot do this. They also need to use their jaw and tongue to move the milk along through the milk ducts in the breast.

“If they just bite on the nipple (like a bottle), first, it hurts (the baby’s mother) a lot and second, it blocks off all those little tubes, which keeps the milk stuck in the breast.”

 Isabella Knox, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington says that  4 million babies are born each year, so 40,000 to 100,000 babies are affected by the condition.

“That’s a lot of babies,” Knox says. “I don’t think general pediatrics training gives us a lot of skills in supporting breastfeeding . . .  we don’t really know how to help somebody and for some people it is not always a priority.”

According to Futurity.org, “Sullivan is part of an international organization focused on issues related to tongue ties. She and other members of the group’s screening committee are working to develop a screening tool that would help nurses quickly screen for a tongue tie while assessing the baby after birth.”

“There is not a lot of literature about frenotomy, and there are still a lot of doctors who say, ‘Is this really necessary?’” Sullivan says.

“Whether or not there is an epidemic or whether we ignored tongue ties and are looking for them now, this is something that is coming up more often in nurseries.”

Danielle Rigg, CLC & Co-Founder of Best for Babes, who experienced tongue-tie with her second child  says that “doctors and health care professionals are not only unaware of ankyloglossia or tongue-tie, they often confuse “frenotomy,” which is a very simple, relatively painless and easy to perform procedure for newborns, with “frenectomy,” or “frenuloplasty” a more involved procedure used to free the frenulum in older children and adults who have shown signs of speech and mechanical pathology.  Because of this confusion, it can be hard to find a doctor or health care professional who will perform it.  The other problem, according to Jenny Thomas, MD, IBCLC is that contrary to popular belief, not all doctors (like herself) are allowed to perform the procedure, even if they recognize it and want to fix it.   ”Most area hospitals, clinics and malpractice carriers consider this MORE than a minor office procedure and classify it validly as a surgical procedure, albeit a quick one. That means, for those places, you need surgical credentials (proving you’ve been mentored and have done enough procedures to not get sued). You then get surgical privileges in your institution and then subsequently need increased malpractice insurance,” explains Dr. Thomas.  From what we understand from Dr. Thomas, some hospitals have an ENT (ear, nose & throat doctor) on staff who is educated about tongue-tie and performs all needed procedures, and paying  increased premiums so all doctors can perform them isn’t necessary.  (And then there is a whole debate about whether doctors are over-performing the procedure to make money.)  However, from what we’re hearing from moms, there are plenty of hospitals that don’t have a credentialed doctor performing the procedure, and at those hospitals, moms are up a creek.  To make it worse, some lactation consultants (even IBCLCs) are not experienced in recognizing the condition either, so it’s easily missed.    (On the other hand, we’ve heard of lactation consultants who have, in a pinch, used a sterilized fingernail to slice the frenulum).   

Danielle had to track down an oral surgeon, the only one in her area (at that time Montclair, New Jersey) who was willing to do it.   “I went straight from the hospital, and although my daughter was less than two days old, she had already learned painful latching habits and I was already bleeding.  The procedure took less than a minute, there was no blood, my daughter didn’t even cry,” says Danielle.  ”When I tried to thank the surgeon, Dr. Richard Riva of Chatham, New Jersey, he said ”you go nurse that baby, tell me how it feels, and then thank me’.  It immediately felt much better, though as a CLC I knew I would have to work with my daughter to help her re-learn a proper latch before all the pain would go away.  When I expressed my gratitude to Dr. Riva, here were his words of wisdom:  

 ”Every child deserves to have the pleasure of  breastfeeding successfully, and every child deserves the pleasure of licking an ice-cream cone, both of which are aided by this procedure.”   

We’d like to add, that every mom deserves to have a positive breastfeeding experience without the trauma of severe nipple pain caused by this condition and other undiagnosed but easily solved breastfeeding issues.  Danielle should not have had to leap through the extra hoop of finding an oral surgeon outside of the hospital.  Best for Babes hopes that the American Academy of Pediatrics will push for every hospital to have a credentialed doctor who can perform the procedure, education on diagnosis as a requirement in the core pediatrics curriculum in medical school, and that the nurses associations will do the same.   While they’re at it, they should require doctors to complete at least a week-long training similar to what the Healthy Children Project offers to train certified lactation counselors, and/or work with the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine to develop a curriculum.  Luckily, pediatricians who are already Fellows of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (look for FABM after their initials, similar to FAAP for Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and FACOG for Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology) are educated in all things breastfeeding.    We’re sure  our friend and supporter Dr. Ruth Lawrence, Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Breastfeeding Section, has been working on this for years.  

What can parents do

3. Spread the word to moms.  Share this page with any expecting or new mothers.  If we can prevent even one mother and baby from suffering through this unnecessarily, we will be ecstatic!! 

4.  Be gentle to mothers who couldn’t breastfeed.   There are a lot of mothers out there whose babies were not diagnosed with tongue-tie, suffered miserably, thought they couldn’t produce enough milk, and agonized over their baby’s lack of sufficient weight-gain, blaming themselves or their babies, and quit breastfeeding long before they intended to.   We never judge a mother who quit breastfeeding as “not being committed” because we can not truly stand in her shoes, and most of the time she has been booby-trapped and didn’t know it. 

5.   Write to the American Academy of Pediatrics, send them a link to this post, and send a copy of your letter to any media contacts, urging them to remove this booby trap.

6.  Be the change.   For the last few decades, the focus has been on supplementing babies with formula instead of fixing the problem.  This is going to take work to change, as the formula companies conduct training for health care professionals that teach them how to prey on the fears of mothers that they won’t make enough milk, and will need to supplement with formula, instead of giving them proper medical care.   Sad but true.   Through mainstream marketing and  educational efforts like this blog, our WHO-Code compliant advertising campaign, celebrity interviews, and popular media coverage, we are reaching millions of parents with the information they need to make informed feeding decisions, and achieve their personal breastfeeding goals.   Help us or donate! 

7/3 This post was edited to clarify that not all doctors are allowed to snip frenulums.

7/4 Great comment from our Facebook discussion:

Have you experienced this “Booby Trap”?  Have you had any success with educating your doctor or health care professionals?  Let’s hear it!