Integrative Clinical Approaches:
Infant Oral Function and Herbal Lactation Care

Presented by Melissa Cole, MS, IBCLC, PMH-C
Hosted by About Families, Desert Care Network, and Lactation University

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DETAILS

  • Thursday, January 21, 2027
  • 8:00am-4:30pm
  • Location: 1150 N Indian Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92262
  • Max attendees: 40
  • Registration Fee: $360 (Early Bird $325 through 11/15/2026)
    • Desert Care RNs, About Families employees, LU students: $290 discounted rate with proof
  • 6.25 L-CERPs to be applied for

Workshop Overview

Providing comprehensive infant feeding and lactation care requires clinicians to look beyond a single symptom, diagnosis, or intervention. This full-day workshop explores two areas that often require thoughtful clinical reasoning: infant oral function and evidence-informed herbal care during lactation.

The morning focuses on infant oral assessment, feeding function, and ankyloglossia. Participants will consider how anatomy, feeding observations, and differential diagnosis work together when evaluating oral function. Emphasis will be placed on critical thinking through cases, function over appearance, compensatory feeding patterns, referrals, and appropriate support before and after interventions.

The afternoon shifts to herbal therapeutics in lactation care. Participants will review evidence, safety considerations, herb-drug interactions, and reliable clinical resources. Herbal considerations, including milk-production, mood, and other perinatal-related needs, will be explored. Clinical cases and interdisciplinary discussion will help participants translate the material into realistic care plans through the lens of their scope of practice.

Learning Objectives

  1. Assess infant oral anatomy and function within the broader context of feeding, medical history, and parent-infant interaction.
  2. Differentiate clinically meaningful signs of oral restriction from other potential contributors to feeding dysfunction and identify appropriate referral and collaborative care strategies.
  3. Describe evidence, safety considerations, contraindications, interactions, and clinical resources relevant to herbal therapeutics during lactation.
  4. Apply individualized clinical reasoning when incorporating oral-function support and herbal care discussions into family-centered lactation care.

Morning Session: Infant Oral Function From Assessment to Care

8:00 to 8:30 AM  Registration, Coffee and Welcome

Hospital provided: Morning beverage service, coffee and water. Participants may check in and get settled.

8:30 to 10:00 AM Assessing Infant Oral Function Beyond the Frenulum

  • Practical oral anatomy assessment, functional and anatomical findings
  • Feeding/compensation pattern observations as part of oral assessment
  • Connections between parent symptoms and infant findings
  • Signs that suggest contributors beyond oral restriction

10:00 to 10:30 AM Break

10:30 to 11:45 AM Oral Function Clinical Reasoning, Referrals, Support

  • Findings that increase concern for functionally significant frenulum restriction
  • Differential diagnosis, possible contributors
  • Determining what contributes most to the feeding difficulty
  • Timing of referral and intervention; When frenectomy may or may not be the appropriate next step
  • Preparing families for realistic outcomes
  • The lactation professional’s role before and after frenectomy
  • Interdisciplinary communication and referral

11:45 AM to 12:00 PM Oral Function Questions and Answers

12:00 to 1:00 PM Lunch

Light lunch provided

Afternoon Session: Herbal Therapeutics in Lactation & Perinatal Care: Evidence, Safety, and Clinical Applications

1:00 to 2:30 PM Herbal Safety, Evidence, and Clinical Decision Making

  • Evaluating herbal evidence, herbal pharmacology basics
  • Contraindications, herb-drug interactions
  • Individual herbal considerations, reliable professional resources
  • Scope, documentation, and shared decision-making
  • Moving beyond the assumption that natural automatically means safe

2:30 to 2:45 PM Break

2:45 to 4:15 PM Herbal Applications in Real World Lactation Care

  • Herbal galactagogues, perinatal wellness, mood considerations
  • Choosing among botanical options rather than using a one-size-fits-all recommendation
  • Communication with parents and documentation strategies
  • Monitoring response and knowing when to reconsider the plan

4:15 to 4:30 PM Questions Clinical Pearls and Wrap Up

A final opportunity to integrate the day’s material, address questions, and identify practical changes participants can bring into clinical practice.

Additional Notes

  • Morning coffee, water, snacks, light lunch will be provided by the hosts.
  • Digital handouts will be provided before the event.
  • Continuing education and CERP information will be added once finalized.
  • A digital evaluation will be emailed after the workshop. Certificates and approved continuing education documentation will be provided after the evaluation is completed.

Cancellation and Refund Policy – A full refund (minus paypal fees) will be provided if your cancellation is requested before 30 days of the event. If you need to cancel your registration within 14-30 days of the event, we will refund you 50% of your registration. Refunds will not be provided if cancellation occurs 0-14 prior to the event. If there are extenuating circumstances, please contact us ASAP to discuss options.

We reserve the right to cancel any event prior to departure for any reason whatsoever, including an insufficient number of participants, or unforeseeable logistical problems (e.g. acts of God, war, strikes, pandemic, etc.), which may impede retreat operations. An event cancellation due to insufficient numbers would normally occur at least a month prior to departure, unless unforeseeable events impede the event overall.

In the event of cancellation, we will make every effort to refund registrants, minus any nonrefundable supplier fees we have already paid. However in the case of an unforeseeable event, we will not be held liable for providing a refund or have any further liability.

FEEDBACK

  • Excellent presentation. It will really help me to refine how I discuss herbal support with my clients.

    Workshop Participant
  • Thank you for an excellent presentation. I am so happy to see a galactagogue talk from an herbalism perspective.

    Workshop Participant
  • Melissa, very informative! I appreciate your advice to start slow, improve my knowledge of three herbs well, rather than minimal knowledge of many. Great detailed information of the lactogenic foods as well.

    Workshop Participant
  • Wonderful presentation, Melissa. I learned a lot. Bookmarked a lot of great resources, too! Thank you.
    K.C.
  • I just wanted to write an email as we are finishing up this course and congratulate you on a job well done. You are really doing such a great service, I love how you answer questions and help your students solve problems and get great quality information. So many ladies who are nursing use herbs and it is really awesome to see someone so competent training. It is great for me too. Lactation is not something that was thoroughly covered in any of my course work as deeply as other subjects and I am happy to take your course and I feel confident if something comes up contacting you for mentoring help since you work in this area so much.

    E.L - Online Course Participant
  • I've enrolled in three webinar courses over the past nine months and several others over the years. This course was excellent. This is what I think you did so well:

    1. Clear focus of the course and clear agenda for each module. This was lactation/infant specific and avoided slipping into more pediatric maladies or maternal general health.
    2. Your weekly video introduction to each module was personal and also set us up for learning specific topics.
    3. Beautiful and clear slides. The photos are lovely, the text was legible and not crowded with information.
    4. The follow up on FB was helpful. I enjoyed being able to share ideas and resources. I felt like I was in a class with an attentive teacher.
    5. The case studies made us put the information into action. I look forward to keeping in touch with the FB group.

    Online Workshop Participant
  • Well done Melissa! Yours was the best online course I took all year and I’m using what I learned with all my clients….I have taken other trainings on herbs but didn't feel fully confident in suggesting them to clients until taking Melissa's course. Her Plant Medicine chart was one of the best educational tools I've ever used, and I refer to it all the time. I highly recommend this course not just to learn about herbs, but to develop your critical thinking skills.

    Annie Frisbie MA, IBCLC
  • Thoroughly enjoyed this course and the ability to take it at my own pace and re-watch modules. It was full of useful information, well organized, and a balanced perspective! Thank you!!

    Online Herbal Course student, IBCLC
  • I just want to thank you so much for this amazing course. I can tell how much time and effort you put into this and I so appreciate it how detailed it is. Clearly the info on the galactagogues was quite helpful. I always feel lost when trying to help guide my clients because I'm not an herbalist but I do see that they really can help. At least now, I feel better able to match herbs with conditions. Thank you so so much!

    IBCLC, online course participant
  • I love it all! I will take all workshops taught by you.

    Herbal Support Course Participant
  • ...I loved the practical recipes, the resources, the depth of information in the lessons. I also knew that it was important to have good sources of supplements, but I don't think I realized HOW important. This was an amazing class and I'm so thankful I got to participate!

    Online Course Participant
  • I absolutely love this course and feel drawn to learn more. I would love to have an herb pantry to experiment for myself and my family! Thank you

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • I had definitely not been recommending therapeutic doses for my clients and I'm so glad I have better knowledge about appropriate dosages now! Thank you so much! This was fabulous!

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • This course by far is one of the most amazing courses I have ever taken and believe me I took many.  Thank you for this course.

    Pharmacist, Herbal Course participant
  • I took the class with an interest in herbs to help with supply issue. But discovered herbs for postpartum issues, and stress and and herbs to help with mastitis and breast pain and baby’s colic. Such a wealth of information. Thank you Melissa. Eager to go back over the articles and continue learning.

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • This was a thoroughly enjoyable class! Melissa's deep understanding of the subject matter was impressive. I took 5 pages of notes on herbs!

    Beyond Fenugreek Participant
  • This workshop was so informative! All the modules and videos were broken down into clear and concise education topics. Thank you for taking the time to put the education modules, videos, homework, discussion topics, recommended reading and case studies together!

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • I LOVED the workshop and I can definitely say it changed the way I practice - and it truly changed the outcomes for a lot of the families I am working with! Thank you so much!

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • I find remembering which herb works best for what to be intimidating. Going through and filling out the Plant Medicine Chart made me feel like I was truly getting a deeper understanding and that some mastery was possible. I've been putting what I've learned from you in to practice and it's a joy to see families benefiting from more holistic care. Thank you Melissa!

    Online Course Participant
  • I am an herbalist, previous to this course. This course let me be less wary and more confident in my skills and knowledge of herbs! It very greatly inspired me to keep learning and keep pursuing what I love. And good resources listed for checking safety and interactions.

    Course Participant
  • Realizing just HOW MUCH herbs can actually do and that I can recommend herbs that will not only have an impact on milk supply but also on postpartum mental health. Fantastic course that has helped me become more confident in making personalized herbal recommendations for my clients. Thank you!

    Online Herbal Course Participant
  • Thank you! So informative. I'm looking forward to helping out families and am more confident when recommending herbal products. I really enjoyed all the modules. I'm a little sad that I'm done! Recommending herbs is not as scary as I thought it would be. I love the way the Plant Medicine Chart is organized. Makes it so practical and less intimidating.

    Online Course Participant
  • I know a lot already but wanted to learn more about embryologic development and more in-depth individual functional assessment. This course was very clinical and practical, teaching information that can be put to use today to improve assessment skills.

    Online Course Participant
  • I really appreciated hearing the advice to examine ALL babies - I had noted that I was starting to not know what "normal/functional" looked like and really needed to hear to look in all babies mouths to get the full spectrum - which is what I had started to feel, but hadn't put into words!

    Online Course Participant
  • Great presentation! I loved the video of you doing an assessment it really helped me to understand how to streamline my own oral assessments.

    Online Course Participant
  • I've worked for several years with infants and feeding. It was good to see that I am doing most of the things mentioned in this course, however the detail to which it was explained was really helpful. I have not thought about embryological development for quite some time. That was really helpful. The handout was great as well. As always, much respect to you Melissa. Thank you.

    Online Course Participant
  • I just wanted to reiterate that your sessions are simply wonderful. They honor the student, the parents, the baby. I love how you thank the baby throughout each session, letting the baby know that they are in charge and have control over their world when they are working with you. It is such an important model of care. Seriously, I almost started crying with your sincere thanks to the baby doing tummy time. Thank you so much, Melissa. These sessions will positively impact all of the future students who take this course.

    Online Course Participant
  • I have been assigning basic suck training exercises without really understanding the nuance of when to use each one. It was extremely helpful to see how you categorized each exercise based on the issue and now I feel so much better about creating a targeted plan of care.

    Online Course Participant
  • Love all your classes!...I really enjoyed seeing the video clips with the exercises and letting us know when it's appropriate to use.... Thank you so much!

    Online Course Participant
  • Recommending herbs is not as scary as I thought it would be. I love the way the Plant Medicine Chart is organized. Makes it so practical and less intimidating. Thank you! So informative. I'm looking forward to helping out families and am more confident when recommending herbal products.

    Online Course Participant
  • I liked the talk about on infant oral assessment and being aware of the different problems that can present and how to look for problems in order to help solve them.

    Course Participant
  • The infant oral assessment session was most interesting today.  I really learned a lot.  The explanation and videos were also very effective.

    Course Participant
  • I struggle in my communication with getting families to understand what I am seeing in my assessments, so this was fabulous as a guide in communicating with caregivers.

    Course Participant
  • Your presentation reminded me of what I continue to tell myself and others: Everyone has his/her own health journey. Each family assessment, especially in follow up visits, requires a continual "check in" with everyone regarding if each person believes improvements are occurring. Positive public health, (spiritual, physical, emotional) is the overall goal. Thank you so much for all your hard work, Melissa!!

    Course Participant
  • This was very helpful! I was able to determine where I was doing things correctly and where/how I could improve. I can take what I learned into my practice immediately. [My "A-HA" moment was] that orofacial development (specifically the palate) can be impacted by positioning in utero. To this point I had made the (incorrect) assumption that a high palate automatically meant tongue tie when in fact, it could be related to how much room baby had as they were growing. Assess beyond the frenulum!

    Course Participant
  • Just excellent, all of it. It is not my scope to do these things with a baby but I can make suggestions around the edge for the small exercises that seem so very helpful, like the side-to-side tongue movement and the tug of war.

    Online Course Participant
  • The triangle approach really helps to simplify what may feel like a complex situation, and also knowing that herbal medicine is more of a craft/art than an exact science and that getting to know each herb like a friend with it's complexities and uniqueness, can be the most important element in providing guidance for utilizing their medicine.

    Online Course Participant
  • Alllll of the things in this course were my aha moment. I'm so thankful for this knowledge to support families and to understand more about oral function.

    Course Participant
  • I love the handouts. Clear, easy to follow and teach from, great photos. Thank you for creating and sharing them with other LC's. I've been an IBCLC for 12 years, recently transitioning from hospital to private practice. I've listened to hundreds/thousands of lactation presentations over the years. I just started my Herbal Support course, and I have to complement you Melissa, you have a gift in public speaking.  The lessons are well organized, the presentation of the material is excellent, you clearly are prepared and know the data as you elaborate on each slide. Well worth the investment in time and money. Thank you for sharing! In addition, you were probably my favorite presentation in the most recent GOLD Tongue Tie Symposium.  You share the facts and tangible tools in a clear, organized and professional platform. Much appreciated. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

    P.H., IBCLC
  • As a new IBCLC, I sometimes feel lost in the world of TOT controversy... I felt your assessment areas to be so clear.. the how's & the why's... thank you so much!

    Course Participant
  • This course has been so helpful to my overall understanding of different suck training but also other types of treatment modalities & when to refer to other practitioners!

    Course Participant
  • Melissa was thoughtful, respectful, easy to understand, and very patient with all of our questions!

    Workshop Participant
  • I just loved hearing more about when to apply the different exercises. I had heard of some of them, but I had not heard of others. This explained when to use each one and also when to refer out. Loved it!!!

    Online Course Participant
  • Melissa, I have said this before and I will say it again, you provide well thought out presentations and I absolutely love that you are willing to answer questions in a non-judgmental manner. It definitely allows for further interest and desire to learn more. Thank you for this course. Looking forward to course 2:)

    Online Course Participant
  • Excellent course. I thoroughly enjoyed it, learned so much, and will be revisiting all the supplemental materials often. All of the data/citations are so helpful. Thank you!

    Course Participant
  • On behalf of our Inland Empire Breastfeeding Coalition we want to thank you once again for your wonderful, informative, so thoroughly researched, practical, and very well received presentation to our members and friends today!  It was so interesting learning about the specific properties of the herbs and their effects.  Also the mental effects, so important for the breastfeeding dyad. It was a great pleasure to have you with us!

    Inland Empire Breastfeeding Coalition
  • This is an amazing course. I keep going back and replaying, listening, and writing down. So many good pearls of wisdom and education.

    Online Course Participant
  • Enjoyed these modules so much!! And all of the other resources that were shared.... I also really enjoy the actual practice questions & answers that come up in the Facebook group. Thank you so much Melissa for sharing so much of your wisdom again!

    Online Participant
  • I enjoy your courses so much! Will continue to be on the look out for anything else you may add! And I have recommended them to so many other IBCLC's- both 'old' & new!

    Online Course Participant
  • Absolutely loved every minute. Easy to understand. Wide ranging applications provided more than I expected. Reassuring to have the database to check interactions and safety. Case studies were super helpful to apply our knowledge. Thank you!

    Workshop Participant
  • Great workshop! So much detail, but not overwhelming. Love that the focus was also on where to find information.

    Workshop Participant
  • I felt the whole day gave me the confidence and knowledge I need to begin directing my clients to learn more and choose herbal support.

    Workshop Participant
  • I really enjoyed learning about the mood support. I had no idea people used herbs for mood. It was great to learn about the safety of herbs and they are not as scary as the internet can make them seem. I feel more confident in my knowledge after the class.

    Workshop Participant
  • I loved the entire training and always appreciate being in-person to ask questions and continue dialogue. I learned so much and need to go back and re-read notes to process and apply! Thanks Melissa for sharing your wealth of knowledge while inviting us all to learn and weigh in on our ideas within a relaxing environment!

    Workshop Participant
  • I am looking forward to learning more with the provided resources. This weekend was a lovely boost for my personal and professional journey. Thank you for coming to Tennessee!

    Workshop Participant
  • This is an amazing course. I keep going back and replaying, listening, and writing down. So many good pearls of wisdom and education.

    Online Course Participant
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