How Speech Therapy Can Enhance Breastfeeding Success

When you think of breast­feed­ing sup­port, speech ther­a­py might not imme­di­ate­ly come to mind. How­ev­er, speech-lan­guage pathol­o­gists (SLPs) play a cru­cial role in address­ing swal­low­ing and feed­ing con­cerns that your infant may experience.

Anne Z., a speech-lan­guage pathol­o­gist at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG), explained, ​“SLPs play a crit­i­cal role in the assess­ment, diag­no­sis, and treat­ment of infants and chil­dren with swal­low­ing and feed­ing dis­or­ders. An SLP who spe­cial­izes in feed­ing and is trained in infant care can pro­vide valu­able sup­port to fam­i­lies both pre­na­tal­ly and postnatally.”

A trained SLP con­ducts a com­pre­hen­sive assess­ment by eval­u­at­ing the infant’s readi­ness for breast and bot­tle feed­ing, assess­ing the latch, and pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion to care­givers about feed­ing. They also eval­u­ate the infan­t’s phys­i­o­log­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty, motoric sta­bil­i­ty, and behav­ioral state.

“From that assess­ment, we can deter­mine how breast­feed­ing may be impact­ed by struc­tur­al abnor­mal­i­ties and tone or align­ment issues,” Anne added.

Here are some signs that nurs­ing moth­ers should watch for, which may indi­cate poten­tial concerns:

• Engorge­ment, sore nip­ples, mas­ti­tis, clogged ducts, flat/​inverted nipples
• Suck­ing, swal­low­ing, and breath­ing in coordination
• Weak suck
• Breath­ing dis­rup­tions or apnea dur­ing sleep
• Exces­sive gag­ging or recur­rent cough­ing dur­ing feeds
• New onset of feed­ing difficulties
• Diag­no­sis of dis­or­ders asso­ci­at­ed with dysphagia
• Weight loss
• Severe irri­tabil­i­ty or behav­ioral prob­lems dur­ing feeds
• His­to­ry of recur­rent pneu­mo­nia and feed­ing problems
• Con­cerns about pos­si­ble aspi­ra­tion dur­ing feeds
• Lethar­gy or decreased arousal dur­ing feeds
• Pro­longed feed­ing times (over 30 – 40 minutes)
• Nasopha­ryn­geal reflux (back­flow dur­ing feeding)
• Delayed feed­ing devel­op­men­tal milestones

If you have con­cerns, start by con­sult­ing your pri­ma­ry care provider, who can make a refer­ral to Pedi­atric Ther­a­py. For ques­tions, you can con­tact Anne at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3418.