Breast feeding and tongue tie

[Missboo1]

all,

My little boy is 4 days old and has a very pronounced anterior tongue tie which was noticed at birth.

It's always been hard to latch him and yday at his 3 day check he had dropped 10% from his birth weight.

A plan for feeding has been put in place but he has been completely unable to latch since 12pm Tuesday. I was initially able to express with my Medela pump and got 50ml for him over two goes but since then nothing is coming out when pumping. I'm also really upset that he has had some brick dust nappies and so I know he needs to feed as much as he can.

My nipples are really hard lumpy and I'm leaking constantly but am unable to pump? Is it because they are just too engorged?
Really don't want my breastfeeding journey to be over and my little one has had some formula. Just don't know what to do about expressing

[WelshMoth]

You'll definitely need to express a little milk before attaching the medela- it needs to create a vacuum and engorged, lumpy breasts stop that.

I remember really unwillingly massaging my milk out just to be able to express - but it's really not too much waste.

Why have the hospital not addressed his tongue tie? What has his midwife said?

[WelshMoth]

The brick dust type nappy you describe are crystallytes and are an indication of dehydration. You'll definitely have to up your feeding.

Can he latch on at all?

[WelshMoth]

All babies drop a little bit of birth weight at the beginning - the dry nappies are a concern though.

They used to snip tongue ties at birth - do they not do this now?

[Missboo1]

Midwives at hospital and home have suggested going privately so he's being assessed by a tongue tie and lactation specialist on Saturday. I've started him on formula after his first brick dust nappy, he then had two which were normal wee and then two brick dust this morning so I'm giving him formula two hourly until I can ring the midwives again at 8.

No they don't at birth which has really upset me as his tongue tie was noticed immediately in recovery post section by the recovery midwife but then on the ward they said I need to self refer. At this point he was latching though and feeding after having expressed syringes for 12 hours post birth so I'm frustrated that it couldn't have been done pre discharge - I think it's quite a dis service to poor babies

[hormonesorDHbeingadick]

Definitely explore private tongue tie separation. Hard and breasts suggests engorged breasts which is normal at day 3 to 5 but lumpy suggests blocked ducks which can be due to milk not been drained well and equally from all round the breast. Pumping requires an emotional response, try it while doing skin to skin with your little one and sniff their head.