tongue tied newborn - any advice/experience?

[smallorange]

I have a 10 day old newborn, whom I have struggled to feed to the extent that my nipples are blistered and bleeding and the pain is so intense I dread every feed.

Today midwife looked in DC3's mouth and saw she is tongue-tied. We have an appointment to see a surgeon tomorrow. In the meantime I am giving her expressed breastnilk from a bottle as she is very sleepy and jaundiced (although hs managed to gain weight mainly through my blood, sweat and tears.)

Anyone been through this? Were you able to BF afterwards? Am going to try to BF tonight after my nipples have had a chance to 'rest' but to be honest using the bottle has given me the first few hours of breathing space since my C-section last Monday.

[helenlouisey]

Hi Smallorange - my DS had a tongue tie and unfortunately we never really cracked breast feeding, even after having the tongue tie corrected and I ended up exclusively expressing for him for 9 months. However I think my DS was the exception, but it does depend on level of tongue tie, I believe they grade them from 1 -5 depending on severity and complexity, the lower the grade the greater the chance of having the tie snipped will help breast feeding. Unfortunately my son was a 4 /5 if I remember correctly.

There is quite a bit of useful info on the baby friendly website which is written by the surgeon that corrected my DS tongue tie. www.babyfriendly.org.uk/page.asp?page=152

Good luck

[CarGirl]

I had my dds toungue tie snipped around 16 days and fed her immediately afterwards and it was much much much improved straight away. HTH

[mololoko]

yep, get it snipped asap. it's a very straightforward procedure, took about 2 minutes and dd fed straightaway afterwards. (apparently in the olden days, midwives used to keep a fingernail sharpened for that purpose).

we didn't get it done until 7 weeks of bleeding nipples, terrible supply problems and baby not gaining weight when someone mentioned that her obvious and severe tongue tie might be causing problems.

we had started formula top ups by 4 weeks (bad advice) and i could express precisely bugger all so bf never really recovered for us, but it improve enough so that i carried on mix feeding until nearly 6mo.

good luck

[funwithfondue]

I had almost the exact same experience - bleeding nipples and the lot. DD had the frenulotomy (sp?) snip at 9 days - until then I suffered/got by with nipple shields.

The pain decreased by 50% straight after the snip, and by 100% within a couple of days, during which time my nipples healed.

I'm still exclusively bf five months later.

The operation was so effective, I felt even more annoyed with the hospital, NHS bf consultant, paediatrician AND midwives for not spotting the tongue tie (an NCT consultant diagnosed it, and got us booked in for the op).

Really good luck, you'll be feeling so much better in just a few days I hope. xx

[mrsflux]

get it done asap!

ours wasn't spotted till 5 weeks as DS was gaining weight REALLY well (50th percentile at birth up to 91st by 3 weeks!)
i was in absolute agony each feed and everyone kept saying it'll get better.
unfortunately i think as DS had been feeding well and it had been left for so long he didn't change his feeding action and we did our last BF at 10 weeks.

he BF immediately after the snip - they encourage it as the boob milk helps heal the snip faster.

i am still cross that no one checked for tongue ties at the hospital - if they had we might still be BF now.

[greeneyed]

I just had this diagnosed this week at 5 weeks. Unfortunately I have reached the end of my rope and GP said because degree of tongue tie is not too bad, surgeon will probably just say wait and see if it stretches as opposed to snip straight away. have decided today to change to ff as it is terrible for both of us at the moment have given him 2 bottles today and he is a different baby - not hungry for once. If this had been dx a few weeks ago I would have carried on, I just feel too exhausted now and nipples are too bad. Glad you have got help, hope you get the snip tomorrow and it all improves for you. why don't midwives check for this?

[smallorange]

Thanks for your support everyone. She was snipped yesterday and almost immediately was able to latch on well and feed - although it is still painful due to the extent of the damage to my nipples.

But have now developed mastitis! Hurrah! So have antibiotics which - knowing my luck - will also result in thrush. She is refusing one breast so I just have to keep pumping it and hope she gets enough from the other breast.

Am so upset about all this as breastfed my first two with few problems for more than a year each.

DP goes back to work on Mon and I will be in the house with three DC under 5 trying to BF DD3.

greeneyed, I gave DD3 bottles of EBM and she was also a different baby. Am considering trying to mix feed but at the moment am too exhausted to even think about how I am going to do this.

[GreenPeas]

Ouch - mastitis sucks - hope you're swinging your arms and blasting the hot shower at the culprit.

My ds had tongue tie which my (rather fabulous) midwife spotted at birth and advised me to follow up if I had any problems bfeeding. I had quite horrible cracked nipples and mastitis before I got ds to the surgeon so I completely sympathise. But it did make a huge difference to his feeding and within a few days of the snip things were massively improved.

Will keep my fingers crossed you don't get thrush!

[Caroline1979]

Hi I have this problem too....my little one is five weeks and the health visitor has only just noticed the tongue tie!! big sigh!! Going to see a breast feeding specialist today and hopefully this will help. I have been in agony with cracked nipples and have only got by with occasional shields and expressing.

I really hope this helps as I won't be able to cope much longer.

Last week I went to a breast feeding clinic to meet other mums and came home in tears...they were all lovely but not one had had a problem I just felt like a failure..it's so nice to read all your comments and know that I am not alone.

xx

[artifarti]

Another tongue-tie here - my BF specialist said that some figures put it at one in ten babies (to differing degrees) - so you are not alone.

Getting it snipped should help no end. I'm still feeding my DS at 11 months.

[thedolly]

One DC out of 3 had tongue-tie. No difference in feeding them - sore nipples at various stages with all 3 - TT grew out as we hoped.