tongue tie

[Rachog]

Hello,

Ds was born yesterday and diagnosed with 75% tongue tie within a couple of hours. We have been.referred to have it fixed and are getting on with breast feeding in the meantime.

My question is, will it be painful until it is fixed and I have to grin and bear it or is there anything I can do ?

Congratulations on your new, snuggly DS!

Good for your hospital for diagnosing it early - hopefully others will be along to give you the benefit of their experience but I would say, keep going although it might be worth trying to express some colostrum - your mw should be able to help you.

Once your milk comes in, try bf every time, but if he's unable to latch on you may have to express as well. I found (once my ds's tongue tie has been diagnosed at 3.5 weeks) that nipple shields helped but some say they promote nipple confusion but as my ds wasn't able to latch on at all, and was being bottle fed with a mixture of bm and ff it wasn't an issue for us.

I am pleased to say that since he had his TT dealt with he has been exclusively breast fed and he's now 15 weeks!!

Good luck and hold your nerve - well done!

My son was diagnosed with a tongue tie at birth and I was told that should it affect his feeding then I could have it dealt with. He is now 23 weeks old and ebf. He has continuously put on weight since day 1 (didn't lose an ounce, the little piggy) so I have not bothered doing anything about the tongue tie. I suppose there are varying degrees of tongue tie but don't automatically assume it must be dealt with.

The degree of you're tie and how well they can feed doesn't seem to correlate. I would however get it snipped anyway as it can causeother problems later on even if he feeds fine. I would have a read about egadurated latch a this will help him latch on in the mean time.

Thanks for the replies, I will look up that latch now :) he seems to be latching on and getting enough, plenty of wet and dirty nappies, it is just a bit painful. I haven't breast fed before so not sure if it would be painful regardless?

Thank toy joyful, I have some lanisoh ready, do I just apply a small amount after feeds? I love how he snuggles in looking for a feed, it is so cute!

When he latches it feels like his tongue side is rubbing my nipple and grating it but he can't get his tongue further out to take in more breast. We are trying though.

Hi, my son was diagnosed at 1/2 days with tongue tie - and it was cut at 5 days, we went private for it as I was in quite a lot of pain and it only cost £80 , 4 years ago. Your local NCT or La Leche may have contacts for a local maxilo facial surgeon who does this sort of thing.

Thanks joyful I will try that.

Ihaveoneofthese, did it help straight away once it was cut? I am just wondering if it is partly the normal pains of new breastfeeding.

It helped pretty much straight away yes,

It would still use the lansinoh though!!!

I would also just add that my little one is number 3 and I have breasted all 3. He is the first to have a tongue tie. Despite this I still had a bit of discomfort during the first few days of breastfeeding all our children but this did disappear. And yes Lansinoh is brilliant stuff! I was told by my midwife that your nipples do take a while to "toughen up" though so it could be just that rather than connected to the tongue tie. I myself had a tongue tie at birth which righted itself and I have never suffered speech problems etc. This newborn phase is so short I would be inclined to leave things alone initially and just enjoy your new baby boy x

Congrats on your LO! They are so cute when they snuggle in for food.

My DS had 100% TT which we didn't have snipped until 6 weeks (which I regret) as feeding was 'going well'.

I also had the tongue side rubbing/grating against my nipple. In 'normal' feeding the tongue comes out over the gums to protect the nipple & this is called cushioning apparently. Poor DS couldn't even extend his to far bless him which was causing me the pain.

I took pain killers & it went at around ten days as we got used to it.

With regards to your question about pain, I fed my tongue tied ds1 with no pain.

Tongue tie presents itself with so many variations.

But even if you are feeding pain free, you should consider having it revised.

Aforementioned ds1 is now 6 and he has a list as long as your arm of problems which are related to his tongue tie and matching high palate. The latest is that at age 6, he already needs braces.