Infant Feeding & Lactation Challenges

Feeding difficulties in the first few weeks and/ or months of a baby’s life are challenging for the whole family. Difficulties with latch, suck, tongue movement and control, and feeding endurance can impact the way a baby engages with feeding at the breast or with a bottle. Aside from impacting weight gain and appropriate hydration, difficulties with feeding can impact sleep, level of engagement, and overall temperament. Many factors inside the mouth and throughout an infant’s whole body can affect the way they feed. Other factors such as positioning and feeding method can also impact overall mealtime experience and success.

Signs that your family might benefit from infant feeding support:

Your baby is not gaining weight as expected
Your baby had a tongue tie release but there was no improvement in the latch

Your baby takes longer than you would expect to complete a feeding, or loses liquid out of their mouth
Your baby does not latch to a bottle or a breast, and only feeds from one instead of switching between both methods of feeding
Your baby feeds better on one side than the other (either on one breast vs the other, or when being held in one arm vs the other to take a bottle)
Your baby causes pain to nipples while feeding

If you are concerned about your baby’s feeding skills, contact Skills on the Hill to learn more about how our therapists can help . We have several therapists with advanced training specifically in the area of infant feeding, and one is a Certified Lactation Counselor. If you have lactation concerns, please specify that you need to see the CLC while completing the intake questionnaire.