We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle Gauss, IBCLC. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle below.

Danielle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have so many defining moments in my career that have both challenged and inspired me. I have always believed that in the field of medicine, since science and research is always evolving, that if you are done learning, it is time to get out of the business. There was one instance in particular however that changed the entire trajectory of my career. Tongue ties and lip ties are a controversial topic. It is something that is rather common, but so many healthcare providers are not educated in this field. We had began to see an increase in oral ties in our babies. Oral tethering has been around since people have been around, it is a newer discovery that has now been linked to conditions in infants such as colic, reflux, slow weight gain, gas, picky eating, sleep apnea, etc. As these tied kids grow, they are prone to enlarged adenoids, sinusitis, tonselectomy, tubes in the ears, palate expanders, TMJ, ADHD, migraines, the list goes on. Back in the day we would see these problems but the only way to treat a tongue tie was with scissors which isn’t effective. We now have the technology to treat these restrictions with a CO2 laser which literally takes 3 seconds and can prevent all of these problems in the future. The defining moment actually has to do with my own daughter. Every symptom I described above my daughter had. She was put under anesthesia 4 times before the age of 6. She wasn’t growing, wasn’t sleeping, struggled in school, and was miserable. As parents we are taught to trust our pediatricians. However, my mom gut was screaming at me that something else was wrong. My biggest advice to all parents is to trust your instincts. You know that kid better than anyone. I had been practicing as an IBCLC for about 5 years at this point, and had seen many families with similar stories of mine. As a mom I felt like I was failing my child, and postpartum depression was at an all time high. The pediatricians would blame these mothers, as they did with me, that the reason the child is suffering must be because of our milk. I now know that was never the case, it had everything to do with the oral anatomy of the child. Fast forward 10 years and my daughter was still struggling, was in braces for the 3rd time, nasal steroids, reflux meds, and she just stopped growing, fell off the growth chart. Her pediatrician then recommended growth hormones, and I finally said enough! Her orthodontist was the one who mentioned we look into getting her lip and tongue tie fixed. I was hesitant. I had heard about new treatments, learned basics in school, but in our area there seemed to be a lot of doctors who had claimed to be able to fix ties but were not successful. I did my homework and found a doctor who specialized in CO2 laser removal. Trusting my mom gut and going against the pediatricians advice, I went forward with the simple 3 second procedure expecting this to only help her orthodontic needs. What I did not expect was that after the procedure, the kid who had not grown in 2 years, grew an inch in 3 weeks. Her reflux was better, her headaches were gone, she no longer needed sinus meds, she did better in school, was able to sleep and had a completely different temperament. It was astonishing. How was it that removing a small fiber in her mouth transformed her entire quality of life? It was at that moment I had to go back to school and learn more. I suffered personally from migraines and TMJ and had been dealing with a 10 day migraine. The ER couldn’t even break it. The doctor who treated my daughter offered to treat my tie which I had no idea was even there. I was willing to do whatever was needed. I agreed and in the middle of my procedure I heard the release of the tie and my headache was instantly gone. I was flabbergasted. My life was completely changed. In these moments I looked back at all the cases of tongue tied babies and how ties go far beyond the breastfeeding journey, it was about quality of life and education was needed for these doctors and families. The medical gaslighting needed to end. I made it my mission to learn all I could about oral restrictions, how it can be treated, and that if we could fix this with a 3 second procedure how many lives could we change for the better? I wanted to make change, and that has been my mission and platform ever since.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have been an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) for 13 years and in the mother baby field for 19 years. My journey into medicine was defintely different than most. I was actually a theater major in college, following in my parents footsteps who were professional performers, specifically my dad was a professional mime and my mom was a high school theater teacher. I happened to be born while they were touring with their show in Vegas, and tease my dad that the reason I am afraid of clowns is because his mime face was the first face I saw…I digress. I was blessed to have met my husband of 21 years while in college and we got pregnant right away. I remember being in our lamaze class, and realizing that childbirth classes were basically monologues about babies and boobs and I knew I had found my calling. I had always adored science and this was the best of both worlds. That began my career as a birth worker and eventually took me down to the road of lactation. After the birth of my daughter and her sister that followed 21 months later I realized that all this time is spent prepping mothers for the birth of the baby, but no one realistically prepares you for how to feed your baby. Breastfeeding was horrible for me in the beginning. My baby had tongue ties (which I didn’t know was the root cause of many of her ailments through out life) it was painful, she was miserable, and my postpartum depression was awful. I will never forget staring at my baby with tears in my eyes, and deciding right then and there that no woman should have to go through what I went through. I changed careers on the spot and went back to school to become a lactation consultant. The schooling and journey was defintely more intense that I anticipated but worth ever minute. I firmly believe that because medicine and science is always evolving, that it is my job to constantly keep learning. I believe in meeting the mother where she is at. I have found that often times breastfeeding brings to light things the mother didn’t even know existed. I make it a goal to think outside of the box, get to the root cause of any issues, and develop a plan that works for the mother and baby together. My take on lactation has always been: 1. You feed a baby in whichever way works: breastfeeding, pumping, formula there is no wrong or right way.
2. You do what is going to make you the best mom for that baby. Whether that mom breastfeeds 2 days or 2 years I believe that with every drop she has given her baby a wonderful gift. Breastfeeding moms are magnificent creations. I mean Wonder Woman, cape wearing, slayer of viruses and diseases, making a baby grow kind of magnificent.
I do practice quite differently in my practice than most IBCLCs. I incorporate acupressure points along with position changes, cranial sacral therapy, and a little bit of booby fairy dust. I find that when the mother understands how her body works, how the milk making process is made, how her baby’s neurological system works, how the pressure points they are born with can actually help centralize the nervous system and allow for a calmer more effective journey, the experience becomes not only easier, but fun and empowering. My specialties include low milk supply, MTHFR, and the diagnosis and treatment of oral ties (tongue, lip, cheek ties) and is my goal to educate doctors and parents on the new findings of just how impactful ties can be on your overall health. Statistics now show that about 75% of the population has some form of oral ties resulting in life long problems. It goes so far beyond just breastfeeding. Imagine how much healthier and happier these kids and families would be if we were able to support them with evidence based knowledge from the start. That is easier said than done, but I feel that it is so important to help the mother find the ‘why’ in how her breastfeeding journey may have gone awry, correct it, and provide tools and understanding for her to be successful vs creating a space that enforces any form of mom guilt. Too often I see the medical community placing blame on the mother when in reality it has to do with anatomy and a lack of education and understanding on the providers end and nothing to do with the mother what so ever. When we focus on the baby’s overall health and tools to empower the mother to succeed, the confidence in her ability to parent grows. I created the Gauss method which encorporates both anatomical position changes combined with acupressure and cranial sacral therapy in an easy to follow step by step guide to help the mother achieve breastfeeding success. I recently wrote a book entitled ” The Booby Fairy’s Guide To Breastfeeding” that goes into detail how the process works, from the point of view of being in a consult with me. It truly is different than any other breastfeeding book out there. I also have included several chapters about topics no one ever talks about. I found it crucial to explain to new families everything that no one tells you about. I talk about sex, relationships post baby. Depression, going back to work, pumping, when survivors of assault become parents, and so much more. The book is a very real, raw, highly educational, easy to read guide into all things breastfeeding. I also share my very personal stories in hopes of mothers being able to relate to me. I have been in their shoes, I get it, and I have got them! Parental anxiety is a fierce beast, and if families are not given basic tools with evidence based knowledge, that beast will take root and cause complete unrest.
For those mommas who may not enjoy reading I have also created a video series which consists of 10 videos that are 10 min long. It is a funny, light hearted take on breastfeeding education, that helps parents to be successful from the start. I also have a podcast called “The Booby Fairy” where experts and celebrity moms alike come on to discuss the ins and outs of parenting, motherhood, and relationships. You can find my book on Amazon, the video series and link to the book is available on my website www.daniellegauss.com as well as a link to the podcast which is available on all streaming platforms. When I am not busy sprinkling booby fairy dust, writing books, and doing consults you can find me on tiktok @theboobyfairy where I have 325k followers or instagram @daniellegaussibclc where I have 26k followers. Most my videos cover easy to do at home stretches and massages to help baby latch better and tips to help calm a fussy baby. If our goal is to increase duration of breastfeeding, then our charge has to be unity within an ever changing field. We cannot stop learning.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This is such an excellent question, I could probably write a book on this alone. In my life I have had to defintely endure some tough situations. I feel like it is important to be transparent and open with my patients and peers as much as I can since life is one big lesson. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that difficult even traumatic situations that test your resilience can make you stronger and inspire someone else going through the same thing. This is one reason why I share my personal struggles in my book. If my story can encourage even just one more person not to give up, to keep having faith in the fight it was worth every struggle I overcame. I feel like resilience is my middle name. I have lupus, which is an autoimmune disorder were my immune system can not tell the difference between healthy and foreign in my body, and attacks my muscles, joints, heart, kidneys, brain. Basically it is like being allergic to yourself. It is very painful. You know how when you have the flu and your body aches, your tired, everything just hurts? That is what I feel like every day.To be honest, I can not remember what it is like to not be in pain. When my kids and husband had their covid vaccine and had the immune response of feeling feverish, achy, etc…they asked if this is what I feel like on a regular basis, and the answer is yes…but I rarely show it. I guess my theater training comes in handy in that moment :) I don’t talk about it often, not because I don’t want people to know I have lupus, or know how hard it is on some days just to move, I just believe in having faith in the fight and not allowing this disease to break me. I pour myself into my job and use what could bring me down to hopefully help and inspire others. It takes resilience everyday but to be able to help the families I do makes it worth it, and distracts me from my everyday discomfort. It has made me stronger, more understanding, compassionate. However, there is one other story that I would like to share about resilience that has taught me more than anything about trusting your maternal/mom gut. This is one thing I preach to my patients. When in doubt check it out. When doctors are saying nothing is wrong but your mom gut says otherwise, LISTEN TO IT!! You will be right.
Both of my daughters have had really weird diseases that most doctors have never even heard of, that have been life threatening and had I not listened to my gut, and not kept fighting my daughter would not be alive. My eldest daughter Alyssa began having stomach issues in 2019. She had taken the typhoid vaccine to go on a mission trip with her dad to India, and she had a weird reaction to it. That triggered a series of events that began one of the biggest battles of my life. She recovered briefly from the reaction and was able to go on her trip, but the months that followed proved to be harder. Every time she ate anything, within 4 min she would be doubled over in pain. She lost 25 lbs in 3 weeks, her kidneys were damaged, and my strong straight A student who was a senior in high school was crumbling. We spent a week in a children’s hospital running every test under the sun. Everything kept coming back normal, no one could figure out what was wrong with her and I was watching my child wither away. It was beyond discouraging. When everything was coming back normal we heard doctors, (who honestly had no idea what was wrong but needed to give it a diagnosis) tell us this must be in her head and psych related, that because she was a teenage girl this must just be for attention, or she was a drug seeker. I actually had a doctor look at me and say “Mom you need to learn humility in medicine and wrap your head around the idea that this is just “functional” abdominal pain” Can you see the steam coming out of me ears? Functional basically translates to “I have no idea what is wrong so I am going to give it this label”. I’m sorry…my child should not need morphine to eat a tablespoon of rice. I know my kid, she wants to go to school, this is not psychosomatic, these doctors needed to learn to think outside of the box and do better. (This is where I learned to shift how I think when I am treating my patients, and always keep seeking and learning. There is always a why) This is where the resilience came in. I was feeling defeated but knew deep down something else was wrong. Her lack of nutrition had resulted in kidney failure, she was slowly dying and no one was doing anything about it. My daughter and I were watching Greys Anatomy season 15 episode 5 where a patient had a condition known as MALS. Median Arcuate Ligament syndrome. Alyssa looked at me and said mom this is what is wrong with me. She was right. No one on the west coast had ever heard of this. I wasn’t going to give up so I turned to Dr. Google and found a doctor in Connecticut that treated this. Literally only one doctor in the US who has success with treating this surgically. It was worth a shot. We flew there, met with the doctor, and sure enough in a matter of hours he gave us the news we were waiting to hear. She did in fact have MALS. Basically this is where the diaphragm sits too low and compresses the celiac plexus artery restricting blood flow to her digestive tract. Alyssa only had 15% blood flow to her stomach so basically anytime she ate, the food was passing into her small bowel undigested. Super painful!! This was major surgery, and there was a long wait list, however because of her kidney failure, and A LOT of prayer, the surgical team found a way to move up her surgery to Jan 2020…that was a God thing, as had we waited for our original surgery date Covid would have prolonged it and she would not be alive. Greys Anatomy literally saved her life. The recovery was hard, and she almost died, but she fought, I fought, and we were resilient. This reinforced in me the drive of never ever giving up. If you know something is wrong deep down, keep seeking. A mother’s intuition is never wrong.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think what sets me apart from my peers and has helped build my reputation is the safe, comfortable atmosphere I create within my consults. These families have already been through a lot, they are tired, defeated, in pain, and extremely vulnerable. I make it a point to build an environment that is welcoming from the start. I make sure they feel safe to share their story, often by sharing something vulnerable in my life. I make the visits fun, lighthearted, and relatable. Rarely is there a time in my office where the family hasn’t laughed and cried at the same time within the hour. I take the time to listen, and I always ALWAYS ask permission before touching the mother, her baby, and explain everything I am doing or will be doing prior to any exam. I am big on consent. I can not stand when providers just grab or touch without asking or giving the power to the mother. Statistically 1 out of 4 women have a history of sexual assault and the body keeps score. I have a history of this myself, and make it a point to support women who have been abused to feel safe and in control. Sometimes our body blocks out trauma, and the mother may not understand why she is anxious, but her nervous system remembers. This can be very scary for a woman who is having a reaction she herself does not completely understand. Part of my job is therapy, and I will do everything within my power to make sure she feels safe and in control at all times. I feel it is important to also read the room. Body language can be very telling. If I have a mom who is scared, I will get down on my knees or a different level so she feels more confident. I don’t like it when doctors hover or tower over me when I am scared, so I make it a point to ensure that at all times the mother is in control and empower her to see that she is capable of caring and feeding her baby. I just provide the toolbox. I take time to listen, and make myself available. My patients have full access to me. If they have a question after our visit they have my permission to text me. We build a safe foundation, and often become friends. It is an environment where one mom is guiding another mom, and I want her to feel like she is the most important client I have. Building a level of trust is incredibly important. I also incorporate different modalities into my work with acupressure, cranial sacral therapy, and suck training. I also think because of all I have been through with my health and my daughter it gives me a different perspective and drive that most do not have. I hear all the time that I am often the 3rd or 5th IBCLC these families have seen, that I am the last ditch effort. That breaks my heart. These families have spent so much of their time and finances in seeking answers, just to feel defeated each time. Often times it is such a simple fix, and had these other providers simply taken the time to listen, think outside the box, and honor the baby’s body cues and acupressure points, things would be so much better. The key to my success is giving each individual my undivided attention and time. It takes a village and I am so honored to be a part of that village.
Word of mouth has truly built my practice and reputation. I LOVE research, and am constantly learning. I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong, or tell the family I do not know the answer but I will seek it out for you. I learn so much from each consult. I also am not afraid to rock the boat with other doctors. I will fight for my patients and what is right. I feel it is part of my job to educate other practioners as well. My knowledge in oral ties, how it is linked to so many conditions that effect this child into adulthood, advocating for early intervention has ruffled the feathers of the controversial medical world. I am okay with that. Medicine is constantly changing and evolving, and I want to be at the top of that revolution, supporting and fighting for my patients. I have been dubbed the Tongue Tie queen as well as the Booby Fairy (hense the title of my book and podcast) and I am so proud of that. I also keep my prices reasonable. I firmly believe that finances should never get in the way of a mother seeking out the help she needs. If I could offer lactation consults for free I would. This is a ministry for me, and every mother should be able to receive the care she needs regardless of her economic status. If there is a mother that needs help I will provide it. I use a sliding scale, and try to get insurance coverage as often as I can. There have been so many times I have comped care for a mother who desperately needs it but can not afford it. I feel like that type of care is what has built my reputation and set me a part from everyone else.
My social media following also has helped in building up my reputation as a fun, relatable, provider. I honestly joined TikTok to spy on my teenage daughters over quarentine. Never in a million years did I think my videos would go viral and I would reach 325k followers becoming the IBCLC of tiktok. It has truly been such a blessing to advocate and educate literally thousands of people on breastfeeding and oral ties. I truly am blessed to be where I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daniellegauss.com
• Instagram: @daniellegaussibclc
• Facebook: justbreastfeeding
• Linkedin: Danielle (Brown) Gauss
• Twitter: @boobyfairygauss
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeOnfXVp94Kmky-4QIHhW9g
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/danielle-gauss-ibclc-irvine-2?utm_source=ishare
• Other: TikTok: @theboobyfairy

Image Credits
Saved Photography for professional headshots and those with me posing with the babies All other shots are taken with permission from my own camera

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