Is your baby struggling to feed? Does breastfeeding hurt? You are not alone — and solutions exist.
These situations are often the sign of a sucking disorder or a restrictive frenulum. They deserve prompt attention — and help is available.
Your baby tires quickly at the breast or bottle, often lets go, or takes a very long time to finish a feed.
Your baby is losing weight or gaining too little despite frequent feeds. The paediatrician or midwife is monitoring the growth curve closely.
Your baby fusses, arches, and cries during or just after each feed. Burping is difficult or excessive.
You feel sharp pain, persistent cracks, or the impression that your baby is not latching well.
You have been told, or have read, that your baby might have a restrictive frenulum, but you don't know what to do.
Your baby flatly refuses the bottle, swallows air, spits up a lot, or takes hours to finish a feed.
Your baby feeds often but ineffectively, and wakes constantly because they are not getting enough at each feed.
Your baby spits up a lot, seems to be in pain after feeds, or has been diagnosed with reflux without improvement on treatment.
Sucking disorders are far more common than people think. Yet they often go unrecognised during routine check-ups. If something worries you, your parental instinct deserves to be heard. Specialised professionals in French-speaking Switzerland are here to support you and find concrete solutions, quickly.
Browse our directory of specialists in French-speaking Switzerland.
Access the directory
Every situation is different. Here are the most useful resources depending on what you are experiencing.
Sucking difficulties are common and often treatable. Early management makes it possible, in the vast majority of cases, to improve the situation quickly. The important thing is not to wait too long and to consult a specialised professional.
An IBCLC lactation consultant, an osteopath specialising in infants, or a midwife can be an excellent first point of contact. To assess a tongue-tie and consider a frenectomy, an ENT specialist or a paediatric dentist is indicated. Our directory lists these professionals in French-speaking Switzerland.
Trust your parental instinct. Assessing sucking and oral frenula requires specific training that not all healthcare professionals have necessarily received. Consulting an oral-feeding specialist is a perfectly legitimate complementary step if something concerns you.