what is Infant oral Massage?

Infant Oral Massage is a unique, gentle massage for infants to help open their palate and relieve neck and facial tension.

Swallowing and breathing

The massage can help with their swallowing, as well as open up their sinuses and ensuring their TMJ is balanced.

Stretch and assess

Additionally it can be used to stretch their tongue while assessing for tongue restrictions and other ties.

Ensure Latching

The massage helps balance baby's head, neck and body posture, promoting overall relaxation to ensure better breathing and latching.

Doula and Lactation Support

The oral facial massage is complementary to the work of the doula and lactation consultant treatments.

therapy Goals

I work with infants from 6 weeks to 8 months, depending on when their teeth come in, as well as before and after a frenectomy to help with latching and feeding.

These are the many areas of specialty in helping parents find relief:

Wider range of motion for sucking onto the full breast (areola)
Torticollis – in conjunction with an osteopath or body work
Failure to thrive – relieving tension
Difficulty nursing
Mastitis
GERD
Air swallowing, clicking sounds
Stride sound (swallowing air while eating)
Assessing for lip tie while stretching the lips to help prevent blisters
Assessing for tongue tie while lifting and stretching the front and back of tongue
Gently remodeling of the palate for tongue position and to open sinus (the palate is floor of nose)
Align the TMJ areas
promote the balance for facial development

Symptoms

Do these Signs and Symptoms Look Familiar?

Signs & Symptoms of OMDs in infants

These are the signs and symptoms parents should be aware of for their child’s growth and development:

Poor Latch during breastfeeding or bottle-feeding
Difficulty nursing
Blisters on the upper lip
Difficulties with the suck-swallow-breathe coordination
GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) Gagging/vomiting
Failure to thrive
Torticollis
Can't protrude tongue past the lower lip
Tongue suckling/sucking
Poor lingual range of motion
Open mouth rest posture daytime and night time
Snoring and heavy breathing or if they stop breathing; Apnea event
High vaulted palate
Difficulty transitioning from breast/bottle to straw/cup
Behavioral feeding issues
Self-limited diet
Difficulty transitioning to solids
Poor speech clarity
Prolonged non-nutritive sucking past 12 months of age

Max

Lactation Consult

“Just wanted you to know Max has been fully latched for a month now!

Thank you again for all your help and for supporting me to not give up.”

Robin

Ronin

Lactation Consult

There are many benefits to clinical oral massage and frenectomy treatment for infants. The swallowing mechanism in infants is different from older children. Any restrictions of the tongue from tongue-tie can interfere with breastfeeding resulting in difficult feeding time. Tongue-tie or Ankyloglossia can impact the natural sucking and swallowing and can cause pain to the mother leaving both frustrated.

The Five universal sounds babies use

In 2006, Oprah met Priscilla Dunstan, a woman who said she had unlocked what she called the secret language of babies. Here, Priscilla explains her theory that all newborns communicate by using five universal sounds, and that after listening to them a few times, mothers can learn to quickly identify each one and understand what their babies are saying.

With Oral Facial Health Care, you can reduce the occurrence of discomfort associated with migraine pressure tension headaches, jaw or neck pain or other painful symptoms of OMD.

We offer a 10-point evaluation and customized therapies based on holistic, natural healing methods.

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