To wonder why my 6mo is still dribbling milk

[Usernamqwerty]

Posting for traffic...

My 6mo is FF. Only managed 5 weeks of BF because she had a poor latch on one boob which never healed while she was using it... Got cracked and infected etc. Yuck. Fortunately healed ok after I stopped BF.

We saw a lactation consultant shortly before stopping BF who said DD might have a very minor tongue tie but not 100% sure. Obviously she was checked multiple times at birth etc and no mention of possible TT.

The problem is she dribbles out so much milk when she feeds. We use two bibs and some still gets on her clothes.

It was worse when she first went onto bottles, but even now, 5 months on, a lot still comes out.

She's gaining weight fine; high up the centiles and still only on size 1 teats (Tommee Tippee bottles).

Any ideas?! X

Reflux? Sounds like my baby. HV advised anti reflux formula and that solved it. He did develop a hernia due to associated constipation but that was resolved with laxative.

I don’t have any real advice for you but you should get the bins that are soft on the front with a waterproof backer, Asda sell x10 packs for about £3. They are white with coloured piping round the edges. The may save on your washing at least.

I had the same problem with Tommee Tippee bottles and so I changed to the MAM bottles and there was an immediate improvement in the milk dribble situation. Definitely try changing bottles.

Thanks for your advice. We've got lots of bibs :) Am pretty sure it's not reflux; she's never been sick apart from when she had a tummy bug. I'll look into the other bottles, thanks! X

Ds was like this. We had speech therapists involved and all sorts and we never really got to the bottom of it. He drinks fine out of a cup now. He did have reflux though whether it was related to that we will never know!

Yeah might be the design of the bottles, might be tongue tie.

Both of of mine were hungry little sods though and used to suck really hard, end up with too much milk in their mouths and dribble it out.

Moved my dd to MAM. Bottles from avent for the same reason.. It stopped instantly.. Self sterilising too.. Also stopped all her wind issues

We used Nuk bottles as they seemed a better fit for DDs mouth. The teat is kind of squashed not round at all.

Many thanks! Super helpful x

I agree, I know a lot of people who had trouble with Tommy Tippee bottles. When we changed to Nuk my DS did a lot better, and I believe Mam and Dr Brown are similar: TT has a larger, rounder teat than other brands. I believe DS has a tongue tie as I had similar problems with BF, and it caused him reflux and colic but he's fine now, just very dribbly! Good luck.

My ds did this. Turned out he had super large tonsils and adenoids and couldn't breathe through his nose so to catch a breath he would let it dribble out.

holy mmm ds has big tonsils! They never linked that to the milk dribbling but it does make a lot of sense!

Any luck with the bottle change @Usernamqwerty ? I'd love to know if it has helped!

Sorry for the late reply! I haven't gotten around to it yet 🙈. Also our sterilising equipment etc is for Tommee Tippee and I heard other babies grew out of this problem, so I might just leave it. Thanks for all your advice x

@Usernamqwerty - you can use anything in the sterilising kits and MAM.bottles can be done by themselves in the microwave. For the tiny cost of a MAM bottle it might be worthwhile. (Only just came across your post; we didn't did many expressed bottles but had dribbling with TT and not MAM.)

*do not did, stupid autoincorrect

I would probably get an independent check for the tongue tie. As soon as I read the title I thought tongue tie. It can stop the tongue working effectively to get a vacuum seal on the teat.

Tommee Tippee bottles are designed to mimic breastfeeding so if your baby struggled with latch then she’ll struggle with latch on this type of bottle too. She needs a longer teat, we used Dr Browns.

Sterilising equipment works for any bottle make, it all does the same. We used an Avent steriliser for the Dr Browns bottles, then cups when we stared using those.

I think after 6 months she’d have grown out of it if she was going to.

My 6 month old is exactly the same. We also use TT bottles. I wasn't able to breastfeed - think it was a combination of latch and supply issues. We did try MAM bottles for a bit and they were much better for DD but I have dyspraxia and could never get all the bits done up tight enough so they leaked and I found them really uncomfortable to hold.

We ended up going back to the TT bottles and just putting up with the dribbling. DD is putting on weight fine so is clearly drinking enough. I find the bibs from Next the best. They're more flexible than the Asda ones so fit her shape better - I found the ones from Asda just acted like a chute for the milk to run down.

Tongue tie. Exact same as my 5 month okd. Pay to get it snipped privately. Problem was solved immediately.

My dd did this, we were using tommee tippee bottles and apparently they are the absolute worst for it!
My dd did have tongue tie and had it snipped but it never helped.
Mam bottles self sterilize in the microwave so you don't need to use your sterilizer

Posterior tongue tie here too.

Thanks so much. I did look at getting a tongue tie consultant (presumably she's too old to have it done on the NHS now?) but they wanted about £150 to do the operation. I also read that once they are over 6 months old, they need a general anaesthetic?