Tongue tie advice and experiences

[Cupcakemummy85]

Valentines day I had my beautiful dd2 and an very thrilled but unfortunately we hit a little bump in the road with the feeding. My dd seems to have a slight tongue tie and it's making feeding her really quite painful. She wants to feed all the time at the moment which is tough as I'm really sore. We have an appointment with the tongue tie clinic at my hospital on Wednesday but that is three days away. Any tips on how I can make it more comfortable to feed until then and any experiences with tongue tie? I'm also really super nervous about them to 'the cut'. Whenever dd cries it just breaks me thanks everyone

I hope it works for ur little one monster and feeding becomes better. When breastfeeding works out its wonderful. I fed my dd1 for 7-8 months and I could've carried in for ages. It's really upsetting that it's not working out atm. All I want to do is try but I'm actually scared now of the pain.

Tongue tie pain is awful I lived off painkillers for weeks! It feels like they have knives in there mouths. Plus had about 3 showers a day as I found hot water soothing.

It is so painful. I'm going to try nipple shields for a bit to see if the pinching stops. I think part of my my nipple is in the side of her gum and she is chomping on that. It's a mystery. With my first all it was was sore cracked nipples, that seems like a breeze compared to this. At least I know she is still getting my milk for now through a bottle and I can give my nipples a rest. I will keep trying. When their mouths get bigger it becomes a lot easier. I don't think I could relax knowing I didn't try that little bit more. I have to say I was visited by a breastfeeding expert who told me not to best myself up if I don't breastfeed which was really nice as midwives seem to b all about putting the pressure on and making u feel bad as soon as u mention anything about shields, expressing and the dreaded formula. I feel guilty enough as it is about dd 1 watching tv forest of the day atm so don't need more guilt plastered on me lol

Hi - cupcake. My dd had a posterior tongue-tie and she is ebf. It was snipped at 4 weeks and made little difference initially. What it did do was reduce how hard she had to work to get the milk. I think the tie can sometimes mean they have to make their tongue and jaw really work to get the same result as a baby with no tie. Once she realised that she had much more use of her tongue she started to feed more efficiently. At around 12 weeks she started to really get the hang of it and it stopped hurting me so much, and now, at 5 months, she's a pro. I got plently of advice and I could have easily taken out one more bf support worker who said the word 'latch' or 'positioning' to me. It simply took time even though I was doing everything properly.
It just took her a little while to figure out how to use her tongue properly I think. It is not always you doing something wrong. Babies need to learn how to do things too.
Hope you can stick with it, maybe your lo just needs more time to get the hang of it?

My DS had 'slight tongue tie', the consultant suggested leaving it as he would only be able to snip a tiny bit. I insisted as his feeding was a nightmare- very painful, literally feeding all day and not able to be put down to sleep AT ALL which was killing both of us.
He was snipped, fed straight away and went to sleep. The benefits didn't show themselves for a few days though as he needed to stretch his tongue out and relearn how to latch and feed properly. It gradually got better and better. Now he is 5 months and we are still going strong :) Please don't think it hasn't worked if it's only been a couple of days. However you have to do what is best for you both.

I'd recommend nipple shields to get you through. Stressed and screaming in pain is not good for you or baby. You said in an earlier post that you feel like a failure. You're not a failure! You are working incredibly hard to feed your baby. You deserve a medal!

Re tongue tie, it's awful to be reading all these posts. My son had severe tongue tie and the referral would gave taken 3 weeks had he not ended up back in hospital due to weight loss because he just couldn't feed. When they did the procedure I was shocked at how simple it was and became quite angry that a nurse or midwife couldn't have done it before we left the hospital. I've since learned that the midwives have been pushing hospital management to be allowed to do it but keep getting knocked back.

When you read all these stories about mums and babies going through feeding nightmares you wonder why such a simple procedure can't be done by a midwife yet they can do an episiotomy and stitching!!

Hope things are looking better for you soon.