Is Your Baby Loosing Too Much Weight?

When your baby is in the hospital you may have noticed that he struggled to breastfeed but still slept most of the time and didn’t cry much.  It is normal for babies to lose some weight after being born and so you and the doctor may not have thought much about it. You may have gone home thinking, this is okay. This is doable. He’ll breastfeed as soon as my milk comes in. If time has gone on and he is still struggling to latch, there may be something else going on.  It can be overwhelming to be a new mom. Sleep deprivation, frustration, and diaper smells. You may have even thought, a time or two, when you were pregnant that when you had a baby you were going to be put together and do everything right.

But breastfeeding can be difficult and it can be even trickier when your baby does not latch on correctly, is losing weight, and you feel like a failure. Before you spiral down the new mommy fear of failure slide and give up on breastfeeding, contact Dr. Strutz and her team and have your baby evaluated for a lip and tongue tie. While the number of babies who are born with lip and tongue tie seems to be growing, it has more to do with mothers asking the right questions of the right people. A qualified lactation consultant, ENT, or dentist who is knowledgeable about ties and the relationship between them and nursing can easily answer the question, “Why isn’t my baby latching properly?” While more doctors and dentists are aware of lip and tongue tie, it often still goes undiagnosed, leaving new moms to go home and wonder what they are doing wrong.

For more information on lip and tongue tie go to: http://www.drjudystrutz.com/baby-laser-surgery/ or http://happybabylaser.com

Get Your Baby Laser Surgery

Laser surgery can help save you and your baby from hours of sleepless nights, gas and nursing pain. When your baby is born and you are staring at their perfectly formed ten fingers and ten toes, you may not notice the frenum - a thick piece of skin that attaches the lip to the roof of the mouth and another that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth.  This piece of skin should not obstruct movement of the tongue, but many times it does.

Some may suggest you wait to have surgery as the skin may fix itself, but when you are nursing your baby, it can become a problem for your child and you. A lip tie or tongue-tie may mean that your baby will have difficulty correctly latching on to the nipple. In order for you baby to have the proper attachment when eating, the tongue needs to be in the correct position.

A frenum, can decrease the movement in the tongue when a baby is trying to eat, which can become painful. Babies can cause sleep deprived mothers and fathers under normal conditions, if they are not eating correctly or if they are in pain, this can cause them and you to get even less sleep.

Surgery for this can be done using lasers and completed when your baby is just a few days or weeks old.  For more information on laser surgery, contact Dr. Judy Strutz today.

 

Frenectomy & Your Child

You are so excited to see your new baby born, and you should be. But then you find she is fussy and can’t seem to latch on to the breast correctly. She has gas and stomach pains after feeding. What is the problem? You’ve removed certain foods from your diet that you were told might cause a problem.  Still something isn’t quite right. Finally, in despair, you consult a lactation consultant or your physician to learn your child has a thicker than normal piece of skin under the tongue or the upper lip. This is commonly called being lip-tied or tongue-tied depending upon where the excess tissue is found.

Not only does this condition impact how your baby feeds, especially if you are a nursing mom, but it can also create challenges in the future in their speech.

And it isn’t only the baby who suffers. Babies who have a maxillary frenum may be unable to move the tongue into the correct location to eat correctly. While an improper latch may not seem important at first, it can cause your child discomfort and lead you to be sore as well. Untreated, a lip or tongue-tied breastfeeding child can cause damage to the nipples and breasts that may eventually lead to an infection.

Midwives used to snip a baby’s excess tissue or frenum using their sharp fingernail however, there are much better ways to handle this condition today. Dr. Strutz and her team are able to use a specialized laser that takes this procedure and makes it simple. “The first step is to come in for an exam,” says Dr. Judith Strutz. Once the exam is completed, if appropriate, Dr. Strutz will be able to perform the procedure in a short amount of time.

After your baby’s procedure is finished you will receive some simple after-care instructions. And best of all, most babies are able to eat immediately after the procedure.

Don’t be frustrated another day. Babies as young as a day or two have had the procedure and parents have seen immediate results. Call today to learn if you and your child can be helped by Dr. Strutz and her team.