Episode 9: Baby not sleeping? This might be the reason why

In this episode of the Nourishing Birth and Beyond podcast I explore the relationship between infant sleep patterns and tongue tie/oral dysfunction. I’ll help you to understand normal sleep/wake patterns in infants and when they might be a sign of tongue tie or oral dysfunction. The core issue here is that tongue tie can prevent proper tongue positioning (elevated behind the top gum line), which disrupts the nervous system and breathing patterns, ultimately affecting sleep quality. The episode also offers solutions you can try if your baby is not sleeping well, including seeking help from tongue tie practitioners, considering cranial osteopathy, and using specific tools or exercises to encourage proper tongue positioning.

In this episode of the podcast I talk about:

• Understanding normal sleep/wake patterns in infants
• When issues with sleep might point to a deeper issue with tongue tie or oral dysfunction
• How tongue tie can lead to poor sleep for infants
• Solutions that can support better sleep for your baby, whether they have tongue tie or not

Sound bites from this episode:

“Babies are born completely helpless, and they have a complete need of another human being to sustain them and keep them alive, and keep them safe and well. So for all of these reasons, it’s very normal. for a baby to wake a lot.

“Our society often will portray this idea that a baby will feed every three hours and in between will sleep and won’t be hungry in between those three hours. That just simply isn’t the case.”

“So for the nervous system to be calm, the tongue needs to sit behind the top gum. And if it, the tongue isn’t able to, the nervous system is constantly kind of rumbling in the background and there’s a little bit of adrenaline. Just tinkering in the background because the nervous system can’t fully settle.”