A four-day-old baby presented with anger while breastfeeding. I had never heard that complaint before.
Mom, a former patient, said she was very tight. The newborn spent most of her day crying and wailing in pain.
The lactation consultant noted a recessed chin and tight shoulders. Mom related that she was stuck in one position during most of her fetal life. On my examination, she had a zero-second brain cycle and tight hips, diaphragm, and neck.
Of special note were bilateral frozen shoulders. Occasionally, you will see one frozen shoulder, but, in 44 years of working with infants, I do not remember seeing that phenomenon. No wonder she was crying all day—that must have been painful.
She started to loosen up beautifully on the first visit. That shoulder strain must have been pulling on the oral structures, creating a breastfeeding issue.
I expect her to do well over the course of therapy. It would have been great if the midwife had been able to help her at birth to prevent this suffering.
Mom emailed me the following day: "She was a little better yesterday but seems to be a WHOLE lot better today. She’s sleeping a ton and latching in a much more relaxed mode.
"She has eaten and slept without one bout of fussiness yet! Her arms even go limp now which never happened before! Absolutely incredible results.”
I still have a ways to go because more layers of fascial strain may surface in her onion of trauma. But mom is so happy after the first session.
Happy Baby = Happy Mom = Happy Family
