First slow weight gain and now mastitis, block ducts and a lot of confusion/ sadness

[PirateGirlEmilia]

I have been breastfeeding my little girl for 10 weeks now and I am feeling rather sad that I am finding it very hard and frustrating.
First she would gain weight very slowly and fell from the 50th centile to the 9th between birth and 7 weeks. I have not taken her to have her weighed again for fear of the results :-(
Now, I got mastitis las Friday and after taking antibiotics for 5 days my milk supply seems pretty low; I can feed her for 40+ minutes (this is with breast switching and compression) and she will not settle and if I was to offer a bottle she would drink it as if I hadn't fed her at all (she does not get sick or possets so I am assuming that she is genuinely hungry). I have also noticed that I have a "cluster" of milk ducts blocked on the same breast, by the top part of the nipple) and I am now having to treat them as well (lactation consultant suggested to apply heat and massage vigorously until it goes away- have done once and they are still blocked)

Another issue I have is that every time I put her to the breast she falls asleep within the first 5 minutes and no matter what I do (except removing her from the breast) she continues sleeping (I have tried all the suggestions from other posts). Considering the fact that she is not putting on weight efficiently I am a bit worries as I am not sure how effective she is feeding while she falls asleep.

I know everyone says that BF is the most natural thing in the world, but I feel so deflated that I am finding this so hard and I really want to give up but feel that I am letting my baby down. Every time I say anything to anyone I am made to feel so guilty :-( If things were going well I would to continue bf.

Several of the things that you mention are things that a tongue tied baby would do.

Does she have any of the other symptoms listed here?

She had her tongue tied snipped when she was 2 weeks

Was it a posterior tie?

They said it was 80% and small posterior tongue tie.

So they released an anterior tie and left the posterior?

Also when I had a lactation consultant coming over to my home (I have even gone as far as paying for someone to come over to my hour - and it was not cheap!) she stated that the baby has good tongue functionality, extending the tongue to lower gum ridge but not beyond.

I have no idea, my understanding is that they fixed the tongue tie.

Did you do the massage under the tongue after they snipped it?

My DS had a 100% tie which was snipped at 6 weeks. It had grown back twice It took about 6 weeks to get it sorted but we managed eventually & are still feeding at 6 months.

Don't let them fob you off. It still sounds as though the TT is causing you guys issues tbh.

No, I was not given any excersises to do to her tongue. Where shall I take her now to have this checked, GP or HV?

Neither tbh. Lots of hcps don't know terribly much about tongue tie.

Also, if your lactation consultant is assessing tongue function solely on how far out the tongue comes then she doesn't understand about tt either.

TTs can reattach (especially if you are not given any stretches and massages to do afterwards), or sometimes posterior ties are not cut deeply enough, or as I mentioned earlier, an anterior tie may be cut but a posterior tie remain.

Posterior ties are often described as "slight" or "minor", again usually by people who don't fully understand posterior tongue tie. Often there is not much to see because the rest of the frenulum is buried in the tissues. Sometimes it can be completely buried and there is no visible frenulum at all. Babies with posterior ties often appear to have completely normal tongue function if they are only being assessed on how far out they can stick their tongues, but it's the back of the tongue that is tethered down and leaves the baby unable to do the up and down movement required along the length of the tongue to extract the milk efficiently.

It may be that the tie has been cut correctly, but there are still tensions in the jaw/cranium as a result of the ties. That can make it hard for babies to feed efficiently and needs attention from somebody like a cranial osteopath, again, one who is knowledgeable about ties.

I would suggest that you contact milk matters (who I linked to earlier). They can look at pics/video of you baby's mouth and let you know what's what. They can also point you in the right direction of someone knowledgeable about tongue tie nearest to you.

Also there is a really good tt support group on facebook.

Anything by dr kotlow is reliable. He is a leading expert on tt. He also mentions the importance of revising lip ties. As far as I know, there is only one dentist in the UK at the moment doing lip ties, and he is in Huddersfield. He was trained by Dr Kotlow and uses laser.

HTH

And sorry your having a terrible time. I had a terrible time for the first three months. Everything about it was hard. DS dropped a centile, i was always stressing & not enjoying feeds. I cried through so many, not from pain just because it wasn't working & I didn't know what to do. It felt like one body would help me (apart from MN).

Once you get it properly sorted, it really is so easy. I love it now. It makes me do that so many people have a horrible time & feel so unsupported.

Thanks so much for all the very helpful and useful info. I have contacted milk matters and hopefully I'll get to see some who can assess my little girls tongue and see whether this is our problem.

Who did you guys go to to get the tongue tied diagnosed? I spoke to a lactation consultant (who could snip tongue tied) and she was adamant that my problem is bad attachment and no tongue tied.

I referred myself in the end to a paediatrician that did them privately. Do you have a le leche league near you? I've also found them very helpful.

Have been to the HV and said that tonge is absolutely fine. Only thing she did was look at her mouth. Is that enough? Where can I find a private paediatritian to check her properly?

Where abouts are you?

midwife, bf counsellor, gp, paed. all missed (or said it was minor) dd's posterior tt.

Finally managed to get tongue tied looked at properly by a lactation consultant specialised in tongue tied. After an assessment it was snipped again. I was also told that she needs serios osteopathy as her neck is very stiff and that is not helping with the feeding either. We'll see how it goes but so far the tongue tied snip has not made much of a difference.

I'm between Kingston and Richmond upon Thames

I found cranial osteopathy really helped with bf (that wasn't the reason I'd taken him, and he's never had tt diagnosed or revised, though increasingly I suspect it). She said exactly that about his neck, she treated him three times and each time the difference was v noticeable.

I saw a guy from kings. Will PM you the details. He does a private clinic. Katie fisher is the a lactation consultant that works with him. she will defo be able to rule it out once& for all. I saw her privately a few times & will send you her details.

We have another app on Friday for a tongue tie follow up and another osteopath sesion. Hopefully I'll see an improvement after that. I really want to continue bf so I sincerely hope it gets easier.

We did cranial stuff & it did help after a few sessions. DS would feed from one side as his neck was stiff poor guy has been through it. All much improved now so there is light!!

How did you get on?