Unable to latch

[bazzaS123]

Hi,
My 18day old son has always had trouble latching-from the start it took 30-40 attempts to latch before 'feeding'. At day 5 he'd lots lots of weight so I started expressing and topping up. On day 13 he had a posterior tongue snipped but it's made little difference, if anything possibly worse. He is a long way off birthweight and he's taking EBM via a bottle. His tonge just seems too short and does not make contact with my nipple when we attempt to latch. I'm desperate to continue to feed-Breast fed 2 older kids well for 1year.
Has anyone had similar? How long did it take your baby to learn to latch?
Any advice gratefully received! I've visited the local breast feeding clinic who have checked position etc and they just say keep pumping and give it time!

[Tucktalking]

My baby did take long to latch too. In fact I did not actually get the true hand of breastfeeding until a month or two later.
The nurse suggested to me something which may be very helpful. Giving your breasts a gentle rub downwards will help the milk flow faster. This might be helpful, I am not sure. Worth a try though.
My son was having to work very hard at getting the milk start flowing. If you make this simple then you may be able to feed the baby a fair amount before he tires.

[bazzaS123]

Thanks-the trouble is he just can't latch at all-not even long enough to get to the point of massaging the breast to encourage flow. So frustrating!

[Tucktalking]

You massage the breast before you offer milk to the baby. This means the milk will flow out and may get into the baby's mouth.
At this point sometimes the milk just starts dropping out, so he may just suck it up.
If he can drink expressed milk from a bottle then maybe you need to use that. However returning to breastfeeding can be hard then.
Whatever the case it is important to not give up trying.

[curlykale]

Can you get the tongue tie checked? Short tongue sounds suspicious. Possible that it's reattached (this is not uncommon and can happen quickly) or not been completely revised. When he cries, does the tongue go upwards to the roof of his mouth or does it stay down and/or cup (edges go up and middle stays down)? This could indicate he's still tied.

Also suggest finding an osteopath. TT leads to tension which benefits from osteo - this can hugely improve the gape and latch. Your bf support group can maybe recommend one.

[LovelyWeatherForDucks]

My DS took about a week or 10 days to get the hang of latching after his TT was snipped. I guess it was a bit sore and felt a bit different and ever feed was 20 mins of stress getting him on.

[lilac3033]

Dd took ages to latch, about 3 weeks before she did it regularly, and that was with nipple shields. She didn't have a tongue tie. Might be worth trying nipple shields. It will give your son a bit more to latch onto. DD is 14 weeks and it is much easier now, although we still need the shields.