When a baby is tongue-tied, the tongue’s normal range of motions have been restricted during gestation, well before the your infant is born. It is important to build tongue strength to work towards more normal tongue function and optimal breastfeeding after the release.

A well trained lactation consultant is the best person to consult to offer personalised advice for your infant, and help to ensure your baby receives any appropriate suck training.

I recently had the chance to learn more from Joy Funston, a US-based Registered Nurse and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) a presenter at a comprehensive Infant Tongue Tie course I recently attended at Tufts University in Boston. Joy has a practice restricted to supporting dyads affected by oral restrictions.

On many occasions, families who we see are flying or travelling from areas where they do not access to trained professionals. There are other times when local providers have not been exposed to received training in these exercises. Joy agreed to allow me to film her discussing some basic exercises as a starting point to help families who may be in this situation.

These exercises rely on infant reflexes that can be most reliably stimulated in infants less than 3 months.

There is also additional benefit, if they can be performed whilst baby is having Tummy Time which further improves tongue tone.

To find out more about Joy’s practice and her leadership in the holistic approach of managing oral restrictions in infants, please visit http://www.joyfulstartlc.com/how-is-joyful-start-unique.html