Breastfeeding and a High Palate

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that all mothers breastfeed their babies instead of feeding them formula. Partially because of this, and partially because of the increase in health-conscious mothers, an increasing number of women are choosing to breastfeed. Breastfeeding is acknowledged to be much healthier for the babies. However, even if a pregnant woman chooses to breastfeed, there are times that breastfeeding is not the easiest method of feeding the baby. Sometimes the mother will have inverted nipples. With the help of a lactation consultant or someone from La Leche League, even this condition can be overcome, and you will eventually be able to nurse normally.

There is at least one condition that prevents a mother from nursing her infant. This is no reflection on the mother, and does not mean that there is something wrong with her or something wrong with the baby. Some babies are born with a high palate. This just means that the baby's palate is too high for the mother's nipple to hit the roof of his mouth, resulting in the baby not knowing when to latch on and start suckling.

If your baby has been diagnosed as having a high palate, you may be wondering what your options are. Since this is an uncommon condition, it may not help to talk to someone from La Leche League. However, you or the person from LLL can do some research online and find others that have successfully fed their baby breastmilk, even when the baby had this condition. Even if your baby was diagnosed with a high palate, you don't necessarily have to feed formula to him. Granted, trying to nurse her will only result in frustration for both you and your baby, and she will lose weight because she is not getting enough nutrition from you.

Since most hospitals now have lactation consultants on staff, you can get help before you leave the hospital. Many hospitals have breast pumps that they offer on a loan basis. These pumps are designed so that they have new tubes and flanges for each mother that uses the pump, to reduce the chance of cross contamination with someone else's breastmilk. When the lactation consultant or other hospital staff member brings you the breast pump, they will bring a separate package with the flanges, tubes and other parts of the pump that will touch your breastmilk.

There is at least one record online of a mother who had a baby with a high palate. Though she fed her baby exclusively pumped breastmilk the first month. After that month, she was able to start nursing her daughter, as her daughter had grown into the high palate she was born with. If this does not happen to you, don't be discouraged. It's still not a reflection on your abilities as a parent. Admittedly, it can be frustrating and time consuming to pump enough breastmilk for your baby, but you are feeding her the most nutritious food available.

Unfortunately, when you are pumping breastmilk instead of nursing your baby, you will find that your breastmilk supply does not keep up with demand. You have several options when this happens. The first option is to supplement with formula. If you choose this method, you will find that you will need to give the baby more and more formula, eventually giving the baby all formula. If you want to give your baby exclusively breastmilk, you will want to find another way to keep your milk supply up. There are several herbal supplements that you can take to help with your milk supply, or you can talk to your obstetrician and get a prescription for a medication that will help keep your milk supply up. For many of the prescriptions, the increase in milk supply is a side effect for the medication, so you will need to evaluate whether you want to take the medication or if you want to go the herbal route.