Improved Breastfeeding with Infant Physical Therapy
Breastfeeding is the most natural way to feed your baby, but it doesn’t always come naturally. Despite all the best intentions and plans, often breastfeeding can be very challenging for a mother and her infant. Every infant’s breastfeeding journey is truly unique.
Before we talk about why physical therapy can be helpful for a breastfeeding infant, let’s chat quickly about what is needed for successful breastfeeding:
functional feeding reflexes
tongue, jaw, and neck mobility
suck coordination
suck strength & endurance
Typically infants come equipped with a variety of reflexes that assist them with feeding. This includes the stepping reflex that assists with the incredible “breast crawl” to start an infant’s breastfeeding journey, the rooting reflex which helps baby locate a nipple, and the gape reflex that assists in achieving a deep latch on mother’s breast. Sucking itself is reflexive for baby in those first few months.
In order to feed successfully, an infant must have the necessary tongue, jaw, and neck mobility. Successful breastfeeding requires that the tongue can extend forward to pull breast into mouth and protect mother’s nipple from their lower gum ridge. Elevation and cupping of the tongue is essential to maintain seal around the breast. To extract milk, infants must be able to elevate the rear portion of their tongue in a coordinated movement pattern (peristalsis) that creates the negative pressure needed to pull milk from the breast. A deep latch can only be achieved if an infant can open their mouth wide and extend their neck.
Since the tongue is a muscle, it needs to be strong enough to repeat its coordinated movement patterns for the appropriate duration of a feeding. If an infant’s tongue isn’t strong enough, they may not transfer an adequate amount of breastmilk at each feed, or may fall asleep before finishing a feeding.
Successful breastfeeding requires mobility, strength, and coordination. When any of these aren’t going well, physical therapy can help! Physical therapists are experts in maximizing functional movements patterns using therapeutic exercise, manual therapy,and neuromuscular re-education. Infant physical therapists with additional continuing education around infant feeding, can be a huge help when breastfeeding isn’t going as planned.
A lactation-informed infant physical therapist, will be able to identify specific areas of challenge for your baby. Once the reasons for breastfeeding dysfunction are identified, we get to work!
If mobility is a concern, your baby’s physical therapist will address the lack of mobility through a combination of manual therapy techniques, bodywork, positioning, stretching, and active exercise.
If strength is a concern, your baby’s physical therapist will prescribe specific exercises targeted at improving the strength where it is needed.
Coordination is just as essential as strength and mobility. Breastfeeding involves a complex interaction of sucking, swallowing, and breathing, all of which need to work in harmony. If your infant is having difficulty achieving a coordinated suck pattern, a infant physical therapist can help! Physical therapy incorporates oral motor exercises and play to improve coordination patterns.
We cannot discuss breastfeeding challenges without mentioning tethered oral tissues (TOTs or lip/tongue ties). While a physical restriction at the tongue or lip often takes the blame for breastfeeding challenges, it is rarely a lip or tongue tie in isolation. Muscle tension and decreased mobility of cheeks, lips, tongue, and neck will negatively affect breastfeeding and can be addressed with physical therapy. Sometimes, infants aren’t aware of what their tongue is capable of!…And they benefit greatly from training on how to suck appropriately. A few visits with an infant physical therapist can make a HUGE difference in your breastfeeding experience.
Mobility, strength, and coordination—are foundational to physical therapy and apply directly to breastfeeding as a functional outcome. By addressing an infant’s underlying physical challenges, infant physical therapy can play an important role in achieving a successful breastfeeding journey.
If you and your baby are facing breastfeeding challenges, I want to help! As a doctor of physical therapy and certified breastfeeding specialist, I have a solid understanding of what your baby needs to do to be successful at their VERY important feeding job. I offer free consultations so that we can discuss your concerns and see if working together makes sense. I look forward to hearing from you and getting your baby on the path to breastfeeding success.
