Hi all, question about tongue ties and whether getting them snipped improves breastfeeding. Our DD is two weeks old and is healthy and beautiful. However, she was diagnosed with a tongue tie which has made breastfeeding a trial. She struggles to latch, and after she lost more weight than the midwives were happy with after coming home (not to mention several 7 hour, very tiring, cluster feeding sessions) we began topping her up with formula and expressed milk after I've nursed her.
This has worked well and she's back to her birth weight, but honestly cleaning and sterilising bottles, winding, expressing etc. is a lot of extra work. My DH is doing most of the bottle feeds so I can concentrate on breastfeeding, but he's due back at work this week so will have to manage as best I can - I'm lucky in having family support and my mum is going to come round and help.
DD has a referral for the tongue tie in three days, so what I'm wondering is will she improve at the breast if they decide to snip the tongue tie? Right now she struggles to latch and sometimes yells with frustration if she can't - especially when she's hungry. She's usually keen to nurse but I get the impression that I'm a human dummy and she does it for comfort rather than food! I want to persevere with breastfeeding as it's good for her, and tbh, would make my life easier if I don't have to handle bottles etc. when DH is at work.
Anecdotally I've heard that most mums notice a quick improvement in nursing after a referral, perhaps it doesn't resolve everything at once but things get easier. What have your experiences been? I don't want to pin too much hope on it, but I worry DD is losing interest in the breast as it's hard work, and I sometimes struggle to find time to express. What do you all think?