Tongue tie snip at 7 weeks - how long for feeding to improve?

[AuntieJu]

After weeks of pain and shredded nipples my DS was finally diagnosed with posterior tongue tie, and we have an appointment to get it snipped on Saturday, he will be 7 weeks old.

Currently each day is still a battle, and in the last week or so DS doesn't seem to be getting as much milk as he wants and fussing more at the breast - maybe due to 6 week growth spurt?? I am desperate to get this (and the pain) sorted.

Does anyone have experience of getting tongue tie snipped at this age and how long did it take for feeding to improve? (Please reassure me!)
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Just bumping for you

I've have friends who's babies have had it done, and it's instant relief.

Good Luck for Saturday, bet you can't wait!

Thanks JiltedJohnsJulie.

Long distance - no I can't wait, but am terrified of it not working! Don't know how much nipple pain / worry about DS getting enough milk I can take, all fingers and toes crossed for instant relief.

My friends were told to feed baby straight away as pain relief, and they felt the latch was more different.

My DS had his done at 4 weeks. There was a little improvement immediately after but it took about 2 weeks to fully improve and for him to learn to latch correctly with his newly mobile tongue! Good luck

My DS had his tongue tie snipped at 8 weeks. It was immediately less painful for me and took about a week and a half for his latch to be spot on - like Wakey says they have to relearn how to latch with their now mobile tongue. Good luck - it will be worth it.

Ds was 7 weeks. Sadly in his case the surgery didn't improve matters. He dropped four centiles and I stopped feeding at ten weeks. From what I read it mostly does improve matters though. I don't regret him having the surgery at all. He can lick ice cream and stick out his tongue!

Hairtwiddler. You said your DS had surgery? My DD had it at nine weeks but it was done by a midwife a quick snip with some scissors. Does it normally involve some sort of surgery? As for the latch and the pain I'm afraid I'm still mostly using nipple shields but two feeds a day without them. My nipples are very small so she struggles and gets very upset. The snip definitely helped with her colic though and she doesn't seem as fussy. Hope that helps.

Surgery in that it was done by a surgeon! But yes, swaddled then snipped with scissors. No anaesthetic.

My DD was snipped at 9 weeks. I had suffered 9 weeks of agony and thought that the pain woukd go straight away, but it took about a week before I cautiously admitted that it was no longer agony. After 2 weeks DD had put on loads of weight and feeding was a pleasure, no pain at all. Best of luck to you

Oh I see! I was told by the midwife that did it that in our area after 12 weeks old it is done in theatre under general anaesthetic! Seems a bit drastic I suppose considering the midwife likened the pain to having your ears pierced. Surely an anesthetic could cause problems in babies that young.

DS2 had his done at 5w and it took about 2w for him to really get the hang of it, although there was instant improvement.

When DS1 had his done (at 2w) they put a tiny drop of novocaine on the frenulum before snipping; DS2 didn't have this but it made no difference. Neither of them made a sound. Novocaine is dental anaesthetic.

In both boys' cases, they were given sucrose solution prior to the snip as well - it acts a little like a narcotic on them! so they are more relaxed.

Both bled a little but only for a few minutes and I fed both immediately afterwards - neither had any problem one the bleeding had stopped. :)

I don't know about 12w being the cut-off for needing anaesthesia - I would have thought it was later than that but who knows. I DO know that a friend whose DS had his done aged 3 YEARS, he needed a GA and was in a fair bit of pain for a week afterwards.

DS1 and 2 both had hernia repair operations before they were 8wo as well; DS1 was 7wo, DS2 was 6wo - these necessitated GA and surgery in theatre, so that's not really a problem.

Thanks very much for your replies and sharing your experiences. I was having a bit of a meltdown yesterday so it was great to hear some positive replies. Sorry Hairtwiddler that bf didn't work out for you.

Feeling much more positive now and only 2 days to get through before Saturday!

Glad uouve got your appointment for the snip. you should find some improvement, but it may not be an instant miracle with a posterior TT. DD had her posterior tongue tie snipped at 5 weeks. Drastic improvement in pain (tho it didn't go away completely for a few weeks). Are you having it snipped in the NHS or privately? Posterior tongue ties can reattach more easily than anterior ones - DD's has reattached so we're getting a referral at the moment to see if it needs to be snipped again (she's now 14 weeks). So make sure you get good follow up.

Whether or not you'll get instant relief just depends on how "bad" the tongue tie was and how bub responds to having a more mobile tongue. Things improved for us over a number of weeks and although DD's has reattached, it hasn't brought back the pain and I'm able to feed without thinking I want to give up at every feed. The person doing your snip should help you with the feed immediately afterbthe procedure - make sure they watch the whole feed!

There's a Facebook group called infant tongue tie uk & Ireland which is very useful. Lots of advice and support from other mums going through the same thing.

Cranial osteopathy can also help a lot - DD lost her suck completely after the snip, which is why it stopped hurting so much! Osteo got it back. Then a couple of sessions which didn't seem to do anything. After the most recent, I've seen a drastic improvement in DD's tongue mobility - she now sticks it out a lot and wiggles it about, experimenting.

Where are you based? If you're in/near London, there are a couple of names/clinics you might like to know about.

Thanks Mafiti. DS has had an osteopathy appointment this week and we've got a few more booked in. Getting the tongue tie done privately as NHS was going to be 8 weeks!!! I'm in the NW so unfortunately London would be too much of a trek! Thanks anyway, great to hear your experience and I'm glad you had an improvement

I would give it a couple if weeks after the cut for pain to have eased, if not I would go back to the surgeon in case it has reattached. This happed to us a couple of times.

I also second the cranial osteopathy this really improved the tongue function and latch.

DS1 was tongue tied and we had it snipped privately at 2 wks as our NHS trust wouldn't recognise it as a problem.

The Dr asked me to sit there ready to go and to feed immediately it was done. The initial latch was so much better and it took a few days for us both to adjust and for my previously shredded nipples to heal. But it was pretty much instant.

Do you know, that really pisses me off, JamInMywellies.

I have a friend here in Australia whose DS2 had TT as well, and severe silent reflux because of all the gulping air (same as my DS2). She saw a different paed who came out with the biggest load of bollocks I've ever heard about TT and refused to snip it; and by 5mo they said the only way to deal with the reflux was to stop him BF'ing and he had to go on thickened formula. Well that didn't bloody work - he just chucked that up all over the place as well!

The paed said something like "all babies have a squareish tongue tip, TT makes no difference, there's no point getting it snipped until you have noticed if it's affecting his speech [i.e. well past the point at which it can be done quickly, easily and almost painlessly]

I'm strongly of the opinion that EVERY Baby should be checked for TT by a professional who KNOWS how to find it (i.e., not just a visual check but manual as well) and then TT division offered as STANDARD asap. There really should be a campaign for this.

DS had it snipped at 4 weeks and the next feed was instantly better