BF baby is tongue tied! *need* *help*!

[Josi23]

Hi,

I posted on here a couple of days ago saying my DD (11 weeks old) was a very noisy feeder. DD is happy and gaining weight well but is still very fussy at the breast and has poor suction, she often bobs on and off the breast. It's making the BF experience very stressful for me (and her!) when I know it should be a wonderful experience.

Anyway, someone mentioned that she may be tongue tied....I checked and she is!

What can I do? Has anyone else had the same problem? I've done a bit of research and i'm worried the doctor won't do anything to help (as in snip it) to make BF easier. What are my rights? Will I have to give up BF.

So worried. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I desperately want to continue BF.

Thanks

Don't know about everywhere but I think in my area (nr King's College hospital) there's a clinic once a week and I think you get referred by your HV or midwife or GP, but personally if there wasn't time to sort that out quickly I'd find out the clinic details from hospital reception and turn up - worst case you'd get advice on how to get an appointment.

I think a weekly clinic isn't enough, it's something that needs sorting urgently before women get really sore nipples. But perhaps your local clinic's a Monday and walk-in - I'd call local NCT and LLL leaders for advice, and any independent midwives in your area.

Good luck with it.

(the clinic's where they snip it - they check the latch, examine the baby, snip it, baby latches back on. Great and quick once you're there. My friend had to go back and get her son's snipped further though, so worth hanging around a while - at KC you're in a room full of feeding mothers - to check it's enough)

Definitely worth getting it snipped ASAP. I don't know so much about the feeding side but my tongue tie wasn't diagnosed until I was 11, by which time I needed a GA and a night in hospital to get it snipped, then elocution classes to learn to speak properly. There are other people on here who still have TTs and don't have any problems but I don't think it's worth the risk.

See your GP or infant feeding specialist at the hospital first and see what they say. You may need to lay it on a bit thick about the stressful experience as some GPs just see that the weight gain is fine and assume it doesn't need snipping.

If you are met with a brick wall, you can (funds permitting)get it done privately. Some IBCLCs can do tongue ties and I think they cost in the range of 60-90 pounds.

Hope you get things sorted soon x

If you don't get the support from your GP and need to go privet then you can find out who snips tounge tie's in your area hear www.lcgb.org/

I beleive that milkmatters.org.uk/ will also help you get it sniped through your local hospital if your GP is being a bit stubben. As often they see good weight gain and woun't do anything about it.

Good luck.

My DS2 has TT and it didn't impact upon his breastfeeding at all, in fact, he is still breastfed at 2 years 8 months. I spoke to a lot of specialists when he was a newborn and decided against having him snipped in the end as the policy in my area is not to do it if feeding isn't a problem.

I took him, as advised, to a drop-in SALT at the Children's Centre every so often for a speech assessment in case he had speech problems, but we've not noticed anything.

Over time, it has stretched and is less noticeable. When he was tiny he could barely get his tongue out but now he is perfectly capable of licking an ice-cream etc. Not all TT makes BFing difficult.

My 3 weeks old DS has a tongue tie, it's quite obvious as he has a little m shaped tongue when he cries.
We've got an appt at Kings College tomorrow after seeing the breast feeding counsellor 3 times, I'm quite nervous about it as it sounds like it's going to be a room full of starving babies and worried mums, it sounds awful. Still my right nipple is looking forward to the results, I'm praying that it will make a difference to his latch as currently he only feeds from the right and that nipple is chewed and tongue rubbed so it now resembles a raw pink cauliflower.

I cracked from just breastfeeding last night and gave him a bottle of expressed milk to give my boob a break, he necked 120ml but was still wide awake afterwards instead of nice n drowsy. Still my boob was happy. I'm a bit worried I'm going to be addicted to painkillers if we don't get it sorted soon.

Good luck with your diagnosis.