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Mouth/Tongue Issues

jnk062602jnk062602
in Special Needs

Hello!  I have never posted over here, but have lurked a bit for the last week or so to see if a similar situation has been posted. 

DD (almost 8 months old) was a tongue sucker and tongue thruster from birth.  It caused nursing to be extremely painful (but the tongue thrusting stopped around 5-ish months and the nursing is finally no longer painful).  It also caused her to drink from the bottle very slowly.  At 3 and 4 months, my mom said that she sees newborns suck down a bottle in the hospital way faster than dd.  But she drinks enough, so I figured it just took extra time, no big deal.

The other odd thing she does is that she can not suck right on her own.  She sucks - and loves - the nuks that are angled up, but other ones, like soothies just roll around in her mouth.  She "sucks" her fingers and thumb by placing them under her tongue.  Coincidently when in the hospital, the LC said she was placing my nipple under her tongue as well.

I started feeding her purees at 6 months.  Almost 2 months later now she eats maybe a third of a 2.5 ounce jar a day.  It is just dificult because she lifts her tongue and the spoon hits the underside of her tongue.  I don't mind it taking longer to feed her, but I am concerned that this is the building blocks of eating that she is not doing correctly.

Now, ever since she was way little, the pedi said that she has seen this type of tongue stuff turn into speech issues later on.  So she said that it may be a possibility of speech EI later on.  Which I am glad she is looking out for that early rather than once she is already behind.

My mom (who works at the hospital in L&D) happened to be talking to an Occupational Therapist last week working on the suck of a preemie there.  The OT was surprised that I had not been recommended to see one already.  Fix the tongue now, maybe not even need speech stuff later on.

I called EI this morning to see how to proceed and they told me to call back this afternoon to talk to a supervisor because they are not sure whether this would qualify as a behavior thing, or if it is a medical issue (although she wasn't tongue-tied or anything).  If this is not appropriate for EI, is this something that I should look into on my own and just try to find an OT?  Or just wait and see if this ends up affecting her later on in speech, and then deal with it?

I don't want to "create" a problem if there isn't one.  But also want to help her if she needs it.

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Re: Mouth/Tongue Issues

  • Assembly_ReqdAssembly_Reqd member

    Could you get some sort of note from you pedi regarding this behavior? If she sees this turn into problems later then she should be willing to write you a note regarding how it is a behavior and not something structural that she could fix. EI will not help with a structural issue that they view as fixable by medical means.

    For example, DS has adducted thumbs. EI will show me stretches, but will not create splints for his hands. The splints are needed because they force the muscles to relax, but EI sees them as medical devices.

    You definately need the OT. I would not wait. Ask for a feeding evaluation. You may have to go somewhere for the intitial evaluation. If you qualify, you can at least get someone out to your house to watch you feed DD and give you pointers on how to retrain her mouth. Nate had issues with not letting his tounge lay flat in his mouth, but he eventually outgrew it around 6 weeks or so, but we were also doing some mouth and chin support at the advice of the OT in NICU so maybe that helped.

    You will be the main therapy provider and the OT will give you tips and tricks and evaluate your DD's progress. They also should help out with speach. We still have a slight feeding issue(low tone around the mouth) and our OT comes once a week and she says she will help us with speech too...Good Luck!!!

    WAY 2 Cool 4 School


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  • MbitnerMbitner
    I don't have a lot of advice.  It may be worth looking into getting a Speech eval (through your early intervention coordinator.)  At her age swallowing issues can warrant speech/swallow therapy.  You can tell them your concerns are with her eating/swallowing.  My son gets speech/swallow therapy.....at the time of my initial concerns he only had swallowing issues (not any speech/lang delays) and was approved through early intervention to have a speech eval.  Good luck!  
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  • jnk062602jnk062602
    Thank you!  I called EI back and talked to the supervisor (the original call told me they weren't sure this was EI-relevant and to ask the supervisor).  So after reading your replies, I focused on the behavior and made sure to say that it was nothing medical like tongue tied.  She set me up with a referal for oral motor/speech eval.  So I should hear sometime in the next week to be asked more questions, and then someone will come out to my house.  Maybe nothing will be needed EI, but at the least, the oral motor person should be able to give me some tips while they are here to help with the eating.
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  • Assembly_ReqdAssembly_Reqd member
    You're Welcome!!!!!! (Geez- I love Thank You's!)
    WAY 2 Cool 4 School


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  • jptimestwojptimestwo
    I just went to a conference on feeding therapy where we learned a ton of techniques on massage and pre feeding exercises to help babies eat properly and then later down the line speak properly.  I'd def talk to an OT or SLP and discuss these things with them.
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  • jnk062602jnk062602

    What does SLP stand for?  A lady from EI is coming to my house Monday for paperwork and to get the process started.  On the phone she asked if she was using a sippy or straw cup yet, and seemed surprised when I said no.  Maybe I am delaying her development - not pushing her more.  We have offered the sippy a few times, but she doesn't lift it, so I thought she was too young.  When I lift it for her, she just kinda chews on it.  And I have looked at the straw cups at the store, but they said 9+ month on the tag, so we haven't even tried.  She said that the next visit she would bring a speech therapist with her. 

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