"Clicking" tongue?

[michelle142]

Dd is 8 days old. She's been nursing like a champ and has a great latch.. usually.

She latches on great, but once she starts sucking (very vigorously, I might add), she sometimes pulls back a bit and like "clicks" her tongue around my nipple. That hurts like crazy, but then she goes right back to her usual good latch.

Is there anything I can do to get her to stop that?

[flcl]

I'm not sure exactly what you're describing... Does it happen often? When it does, is her tongue no longer over her gum ridge? LO was slightly tongue tied and he struggled with getting his tongue over his gums and it would kill... From the outside, he looked like he had a great latch and he was always sucking really hard but it just hurt so bad. The LC was the one who noticed the tongue tie. Once we had that corrected, BF was so much more efficient.

[michelle142]

No that's not it, I can see her tongue sticking out by her bottom lip as she sucks, so it's covering her gums and there's no tongue tie (LC looked at that on Friday).

You know the sound when you pop (click) your tongue off the roof of your mouth?

That's what she seems to be doing. She pulls back on the nipple (but not off, which is why it hurts), clicks her tongue, and then resumes her usual good latch.

[ccam]

DD did that same clicking probably right around the same age. I spoke to the LC about it and she said it could be from a number of things. Losing suction from engorgement, bad latch, poor positioning, fast let down or thrush. Or it could be from a tongue tie, which was the case for DD. Her tongue tie is really slight and since she was gaining fine, we didn't have to do anything about that. Either way, she grew out of it quickly once she got the hang of it better.

[michelle142]

I'm really engorged right now, and have a fast letdown - so I suppose it could be due to those things. I have a call into LC again to get her thoughts.

[casey]

Mar 1, 2015 18:12:03 GMT -5 michelle142 said:

I'm really engorged right now, and have a fast letdown - so I suppose it could be due to those things. I have a call into LC again to get her thoughts.

She might be trying to control that flor or getting overwhelmed. Try laid back positioning so you use gravity to slow it down. You might also first hand express a little or spray the letdown into a towel and relatch after that. Kellymom has some tips. 

[whitney4126]

kellymom.com/bf/concerns/child/clicking-when-nursing/

Check this out. My LO did this also (but it usually didn't cause pain) and my LC heard it and had a hard time figuring out exactly what was happening. She had tongue tie that was clipped at 3 days old and some issues resulting from that. I think she was coming slightly unlatched and then relatching through the feeding due to weak suck. This went away after 2-3 months.

[flcl]

Mar 1, 2015 14:56:13 GMT -5 michelle142 said:

No that's not it, I can see her tongue sticking out by her bottom lip as she sucks, so it's covering her gums and there's no tongue tie (LC looked at that on Friday).

You know the sound when you pop (click) your tongue off the roof of your mouth?

That's what she seems to be doing. She pulls back on the nipple (but not off, which is why it hurts), clicks her tongue, and then resumes her usual good latch.

Oh, ok... sorry for the misunderstanding.  It sounds like PPs may be right re: engorgement and controlling the speed of the flow.  Hope your LC helps!

[meladorie]

I'm lurking but I wanted to pop in here. My guy was doing the same thing both with bottle and nipple and our speech therapist had me lightly hold a finger under his chin for extra support. It seems to help. Not sure if it's the same issue because he would make the clicking sound without coming unlatched, but maybe worth a try.

[mully626]

You could also try putting a hand firmly on her upper back/neck/back of head area so she can't pull back. DD2 STILL tries to pull back pretty much every feeding so I have to make sure that I'm holding her in close and tight.

[mapetitefamille]

Just wanted to chime in. I also have a fast letdown and my LO does the same thing if I'm especially full. It seems to me that she clamps down on the nipple in an attempt to slow down the flow, which is what causes the discomfort. laid-back nursing and nursing from one side at a time has been really helpful. Good luck!