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DENTAL INJURIES
By Maribel Santos-Cordero, DMD, Dentistry for Children & Adolescents
God blessed me with the opportunity to be a mom and I am proud of the men they have become. It was not always easy but with love and determination we got through childhood and the teenage years. But that’s not what this story is about so I’ll go back to where it all started. I was very determined to breastfeed my babies. I wanted to bond with them, to be able to provide them with nutrition and immunologic protection. Being a pediatric dentist, I also knew that breastfeeding encourages ideal growth and development of a child’s head, face, and jaws.
The first time around... ...I didn’t know what I was doing but no manual was needed to breastfeed. It just happened naturally, as it should be. The second time, I knew instinctively that something was different, perhaps something was wrong. My baby was having trouble latching. He literally fought with fists and head every single time I fed him. I had to constantly wake him up because he was exhausted after sucking just for a few seconds 8
GULFCOAST FAMILY LIVING
at a time. Milk leaking, clenching, detaching… feeding sessions took forever. I was in so much pain; tears would often run down my cheeks. As crazy as this may sound, I don’t remember my labor pain as much as I remember breastfeeding pain. It took a lot of will power to get through those first four months. He didn’t fail to thrive in part because I made it my exclusive job to feed him. Words can’t express how much I appreciate my husband and mom for taking on the rest of the load.
I wish I could end... ...this part of the story reporting a successful resolution but that was not the case. Eventually, breastfeeding was not sustainable, and I gave it up. My son struggled with the bottle too. For a good portion of his first year, my baby was constantly placed on medication to treat his horrible gas and reflux. He could only sleep for a few hours at a time and seemed unhappy after each feeding session. I reached out for help; we tried many things. No one seemed to pinpoint what the problem was, including me
If I would have known then, what I know now… My son had a very tight upper lip-tie. Back then, there was not enough
