What to do if your Baby is Breast Feeding on One Side Only?
Difficulty where a baby or infant want to breast feed on one side only is a common sign of an imbalance in their upper neck (C1 or C2 vertebrae). There is a safe, gentle and natural solution. Clear Chiropractic is an upper cervical specialist practice in Spokane, Washington that is a natural choice in healthcare without twisting, stretching or cracking.
Breast feeding on one side only is a common phenomenon in newborns and infants. It is a sign that your baby can have troubles turning their head to one side. If so, this is an issue that can often be resolved with simple and gentle treatment for their neck.
Why would my baby have a problem with their neck?
The problem often starts from the birthing process itself.
A newborn’s head weighs approximately 2 pounds, which is a quarter of their total body weight. By 18 months, the size of their head and brain will double!
The kicker is that a “normal” delivery uses about 80 pounds worth of total force. Imagine that someone grabbed you by your head with 10x your body weight. Do you suppose that could cause some problems if it strained your neck muscles? Absolutely!
The problems can be more pronounced with difficult births:
- forceps delivery
- vacuum extraction
- breech birth
- caesarian birth
- premature birth
Even newborns with normal APGAR scores can still experience neck problems. German researchers estimated that neck injuries in newborns can occur up to 80% of the time with supposed “normal births.”
While the initial signs are extremely subtle, if your baby has trouble breast feeding on one side only, this can be an early signal that something isn’t quite right between the C1 and C2 vertebrae in their neck.
What other symptoms are important to look out for?
The muscles in a newborn’s upper neck play an integral role in normal brain development. If the nerve signals are disrupted due to a physical injury, this can be associated with a number of other conditions:
- reflux
- colic
- neurodevelopment delays
- neurodevelopment disorders
- toe walking
Children who experience these syndromes are more likely to experience a range of other problems later in life:
- Migraines
- Digestive Disorders
- Dizziness and Vertigo
- Scoliosis
- Sensory processing disorders
In other words, breast feeding to one side only is an important sign that there is not only a problem with your baby’s neck, but also with their brain health.
What about difficulty latching?
If your baby has not problem breast feeding on both sides but has trouble latching, this is slightly different. This can be a sign of a tongue tie.
Tongue ties are common features that make it difficult for a newborn to suckle. However, the problem does not begin or end there. Tongue position and function are also essential factors that go toward proper skull and brain development. Not only can a tongue tie contribute toward speech, behavioral and neurodevelopment disorders, but it is also associated with a range of dental and spinal problems later in life as well.
With difficulty latching, a myofunctional therapist is the best specialist to see. Myofunctional therapists work with children (and adults) of all ages to help with tongue ties. They also work with specialized pediatric dentists, who may recommend a simple procedure to correct the tie. Again, not simply to help with latching, but to help with brain health!
What do I do if my baby is breast feeding on one side only?
If your baby has trouble turning their neck and breast feeds on one side only, there is a gentle and natural approach to healthcare that can help. There is a subspecialty of chiropractic that focuses on treatment for children, infants and even newborns.
The procedure does not involve any cracking or twisting the neck at all! Instead, it uses a very soft and gentle touch to help restore the normal mobility through the C1 and C2 vertebrae in the upper neck.
The good news is that because infants brains grow so quickly – and also because they don’t have years of accumulated stress in their bodies – they respond remarkably quicker to care than adults. Moreover, children who receive care at a young age experience fewer health issues as they grow up compared to the general population. If you are looking for a chiropractor in Spokane, visit our home page more information. To schedule a new patient appointment with our Mead (north Spokane) or South Hill offices, complete a new patient request form here or call us direct at 509-315-8166.
