Practical Mommy: Hi! It's Practical Mommy. I am with mymommymanual.com and I am here with Dr. Colleen Stratton, who is a chiropractor that specializes in expected moms, infants, babies, and children.
We are talking about a really important topic today, breastfeeding. With women who are experiencing -- women and babies together experiencing breastfeeding issues. She can tell us a little bit more about possible cause.
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Absolutely. I see a lot of babies in my practice that are having latch issues. The babies won't latch on, they don't stay on, they are not giving enough stimulation to the mom to actually give the milk supply out. The babies aren't gaining weight. So they come in and we find cranial issues.
Practical Mommy: Interesting, interesting. How are they connected?
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Well, when the baby comes through the birth canal, the cranium molds. After about 24 hours, those bones should come back out. The cone hand goes away. Sometimes it doesn't happen. Sometimes one or a few of those bones actually stay in a fixed or stuck position, and it actually causes pressure and torque on the baby's cranium, the parietal temporal bone, the TMJ issues, so the baby can't open wide; you need a nice open wide mouth for a big latch, and if they can't open their mouth, they can't give a good latch.
The other thing is that, with cranial malpositions is that, the palate is sometimes high or asymmetric. The palate is the lowest part of the skull of the cranium. So if there is problem on the upper part of where you see the cranium has some sort of distortion or asymmetry, a lot of times the palate is asymmetrical as well.
So in order for the baby to have a good latch and actually draw the milk out of the breast, the nipple has to be drawn in and pulled up. If the palate is asymmetrical, it's really hard for those babies to pull that nipple in and get a good draw.
Practical Mommy: So you are working a lot with lactation consultants and finding this is how lot of these babies come to you.
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Yes. Right now that's really where a lot of the babies comes from. The lactation consultant sees that the baby is having these issues. Everything that they are doing as far as positioning is just not quite right. So they send them to the chiropractor and we adjust them, we do the cranium work. Check their cervical spine, and within a few visits, depending on how old they are, send them back and they are latching quite well.
Practical Mommy: So to ask the question, what are you doing? How are you reshaping their heads?
Dr. Colleen Stratton: It's a very gentle technique. It's craniosacral therapy, cranial therapy. And what you do is you take that asymmetry that you see, and we take years to learn this.
Practical Mommy: Don't do this at home.
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Right. Please don't. But it's a very gentle hold, it's just to take it and actually put a minute force in the direction that's supposed to go, and then you stop. And you see over the next 24 hours the baby's head actually remolds on its own. You just start the motion. The baby's body knows exactly where the cranial bone should be.
Practical Mommy: So there is a natural space for it, it wants to.
Dr. Colleen Stratton: It wants to be there, absolutely. The younger we get the babies, the less treatment they need. I treat babies within hours after they are born.
Practical Mommy: Oh, really?
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Absolutely. That's the best time to get them. You can actually -- if there is a problem, you can treat it and you are done. Within about a week or so you can still treat them in one or two visits. When you are getting to two or three months old, it usually takes a few visits.
Practical Mommy: Well, thank you so much Colleen.
Dr. Colleen Stratton: Thank you.
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