My son was only 10 days old when he had a tongue tie release. He was not latching on properly and was losing weight since we were discharged home from the hospital. It was our pediatrician who first diagnosed him and referred us to an ENT for a second opinion. ENT confirmed and proceeded with a tongue, upper and lower lip release during the same appointment. My son latched on seconds after the procedure; we were given post op instructions on how to massage the soft tissue underneath so it would not adhere again. We followed every step.
As a physical therapist, assessing how people move, how they sit, stand or walk is second nature to me. My family, especially my son, is always on my radar. It was not until he was about 15 months that I realized he slept with his mouth open. He is a stomach or a side sleeper, and regardless of the position his mouth was open. I closed his mouth, seconds later his mouth was open again. He was not a sick kid, he was breastfed, he did not have any anatomical abnormalities, but why did he sleep with his mouth open? Bizarre, right? To me, it was.
When I started researching this, I came across myofunctional therapy and I was awed. I have been in field of Physical Therapy for 11 years and I had never heard of myofunctional therapy before. I asked my colleagues and they had never heard about myofunctional therapy before either.
What is Myofunctional Therapy?
In a nutshell, it is a non-invasive treatment of oral cavity. Now remember, that includes the tongue, jaw, cheeks, airways and the neck. I learned that if your tongue is not properly positioned in your mouth, it can lead to breathing problems then in later stages to sleep apnea.
I knew I needed to take my son for a thorough examination; therefore I went to Bella Physical Therapy.
Did you know
- Poor latch
- Falling asleep when attempting to nurse
- Swallowing issues
- Poor weight gain
- Ear infections
- Excessive colic/gas/burping
- Reflux symptoms
- Breathing Issues
- Interrupted sleep
….can be addressed with myofunctional therapy?
If goes uncorrected, these problems can lead to mouth breathing, sleep apnea, chewing and swallowing problems, speech difficulties, throwing up, teeth and mouth misalignment, behavioral difficulties and incorrect posture. Isn’t this wild?
After the examination, we found out about tightness in my little one’s neck muscles, forward head posture and mild issues with his tongue. We were given instructions on sleeping positions and tongue exercises. The results were amazing and came quickly! Just in couple of days, his mouth was almost closed and he was improving with tongue exercises. Getting his tongue and surround muscles stronger can also help him with speech later on.
I always knew tongue was a muscle but I never realized what a key role it actually played. A baby needs to achieve each milestone in order to grow normally. An untreated oral-motor dysfunction can lead to many serious conditions later in life. On the contrary, an adult with sleep apnea, snoring, indigestion and acid reflux or bad habits such as thumb sucking and nail biting can also benefit from myofunctional therapy.
Thank you for reading!
Image retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein_in_popular_culture
You can read the whole article on huffingtonpost.com. It’s funny, ridiculous and annoying at the same time that even in 21st century some people and places shame Mother’s for breast feeding in public. Everyone got a say, so do you.
It all starts with the right clothing. Make sure you can easily uncover and cover yourself so a button down shirt will be your go to dress code. If you have a cami underneath, you can quickly cover yourself before you button yourself up. Another nice accessory to have is a scarf. You can look stylish also if you need to you can use it to cover your breast and your baby. Get your sunglasses, a stylish scarf and no one will realize that you are without make up, got puke on your shirt and running on 3 hours of sleep. 
Also, waking up very frequently at night time, I did not want to walk to another room and make it as convent as possible for myself. I just wanted to feed the baby and fall back to sleep without leaving my cozy bed. Therefore, 3 of us started sleeping on our king size bed, plus the cat would show up to sleep on the footrest so there would be 4 of us. The research suggests that babies should start sleeping in their room past three months to facilitate independence, self sufficiency and personal growth as well as to have some privacy & connection for the new parents.
he woke up very frequently. During daytime, I would put him in his crib and he would take 2-3 hours naps versus he would wake up every half an hour when he slept with us. One night I decided to put him in his crib when he fell sleep. That night he slept three hours straight so mommy slept 3 hours straight. From that time on, he started sleeping in his room. It was possible that we were waking him up since our bed time was different than his. When he turned about three months old, he obtained a new habit of cuddling with mommy to sleep. Now, he does not sleep past an hour unless he is in our bed. Throughout the night, he sleeps very well; only wakes up twice to feed for about 10 minutes then falls right back to sleep. It is such a big convenience for me because I am no longer sleep deprived but at one point, we will have to get him used to sleeping in his crib on his own.
Does you little peanut clings on to you and wakes up as soon as you put him in his crib? For some time this was the story with us. We tried many different ways so that he would go to sleep and most importantly stay asleep without mommy. Here are five steps that worked for me:
Golden rule #3 is to make sure to burp him after nursing. One thing I kept forgetting is to burp my little one. After I nurse him, I would try to rock him to sleep but he would continue to cry, kick and punch. I would think he does not want to sleep and when I stand him up, he would burp and fall asleep on my shoulder.
Golden rule #4 is try swaddling your baby. Infants have a lot more involuntary motions that are jerky in nature. Any type of loud noise may startle them and wake them up. I believe that babies also dream so once they fall asleep, they tend to wake themselves up by jerking their arms/leg. Once I swaddled my little one, his movements did not wake him up and he slept for longer periods of time.
Golden rule #5 Babies know their moms by moms scent. My little one would periodically open/close his eyes to make sure I was not laying him down. Once he really fell asleep, I would lay him down and try to leave the room and he would wake up immediately. I started leaving my worn-couple-of-times shirt or cardigan in his crib right next to him. That did the trick. He thought I was laying down with him I guess so he did not wake up.
My pediatrician encouraged tummy time then to put him on his back to sleep because the medical world is afraid of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). If you do a little research about SIDS, they don’t know what really causes it. Was I worried about it? Absolutely yes! So what did I do? I made sure I eliminated all the factors that may have led to SIDS. I laid him only on a firm surface (his mattress is firm). I made sure to take off his hat and bib to eliminate the possibility of airway blockage. Also I removed all the toys/stuffed animals so he wouldn’t be able to get to them. I also periodically checked on him.
Babyhood: A to Z 