Still have poor latch after tongue tie division

[TremoloGreen]

My DD is 6 weeks old and had a posterior tongue tie snipped a week ago. Straight after having it done, she did a great latch, but this has been going downhill and we're now back to square one with a painful, shallow clamping latch.

I have deep cracks in both nipples from since she was born and I'm finding it very painful. Even when she does a relatively pain-free latch, she is compressing the nipple somewhat - it comes out lipstick shaped and purple on one side. I am using an 'exaggerated latch' technique of rolling the nipple into her mouth last to encourage a deep asymmetrical latch.

Where can we go from here? I've had a couple of osteopathy sessions for her but I'm not convinced by it. I really don't want to give up breastfeeding. Does anyone have any tips or tales of your tongue tied babies to give me hope? Also, will my nipples ever heal - I'm worried about how long it has been.

It sounds possible that the tie has re formed. Can you get whoever snipped it (or even better, someone else) to take another look?

it took a couple of weeks for DD's latch to improve after snip of PTT, but there was gradual improvement over that time, not worsening like you describe, which is what makes me think you may have re healing.

Oh poor you it is so difficult. My DD had a tongue tie that went undiagnosed for ages, we finally had it snipped at 3 months but up until then I'd doggedly persisted with breast feeding even though it was awful for me, with hindsight I was a bit daft and for my sanity probably should've at least done bottle and boob feeding. Anyway, to give you hope, things really dramatically improved after we had it done BUT I still needed the expert help of an amazing breast feeding expert at our local children's centre. Without her I'm sure I'd never have got the latch right, she was amazing and did one to one sessions with me. If you have a children's centre near you then do look it up and ask for help, don't keep suffering! I totally understand you want to keep BF'ing and it's really likely you can, but please don't entirely rule bottle either, you have done brilliantly to get the far and ultimately a happy, relaxed Mum is what's so important for your little one which you can't be if you're in lots of pain. Good luck and please do seek face to face help with an expert.

I had this with DS and It had reattached. We had to get it done three times in the end. It still reattached after that but by then he was bigger and we just kind of got into a rhythm of things. Still feeding him at 15 months.

Did they show you the aftercare massage?

Hi - thanks for the quick responses. It was done by Ann Dobson if others have used her. I am seeing her again so will rule out the resealing. I can still see the diamond under the tongue though so don't think this is the case. She doesn't lift the tongue much though so it is a fleeting glimpse. I am doing some massage techniques of the gums, also around the shoulders and back as she has quite a lot of tension there. I'm going to see the osteopath at Ann's clinic next week.

Nothingsleft - a ew people have told me that at some point the mouth is just big enough to latch more deeply and bf gets better. What age would you say this happened for you? Thanks

We had to have it cut four times. First time it was not cut far back enough, second and third times it reformed. Forth time was successful :)

I found that when it reformed I initially felt the latch improve but the latch then deteriorated until it was just as bad as previously and much worse on one occasion.

But after the final cut it took a good couple of weeks for the latch to improve to the point of no pain.

The Cranial osteopathy we had made a massive difference after each session she noticabley had better tongue function and could move her tongue forward. The first one we saw did nothing to help my daughter!

Go back to have the tie checked out again you will get it sorted it can take time but for now take it one feed at a time.

Oh goodness, this brings back memories of bruised, misshapen nipples and really painful feeds.

My daughter's tongue tie was snipped at 10 weeks. It took a while for her latch to become better, about 2 weeks I seem to remember. The other thing that helped was (and I appreciate this may not be appealing, but may be worth a try) was using the biological nurturing position and letting her do it herself. In other words not trying to get more of my nipple into her mouth, but letting her latch herself on. Weirdly, it seemed to work for us, to ignore all the "rules"!

But if latch initially improved then worsened, sounds like it may need snipping again, I know people who've needed to have it done a few times. Good luck!

Katie fisher did DS. Her & Anne Dobson work in the sane area I think.

First had it snipped at 6 weeks, then again 5 days later and again at around 8 weeks. She disrupted it rather than snipped it the last time.

The aftercare massage is twice daily under the tongue for three days to prevent re adhesion, sling with two hourly feeds, 24/7 for three days.

By 10 weeks he was bigger. My nipples still come out lipstick shaped but I've managed to feed him without a problem for a year now. I ended up kind of holding him on the nipple and paying attention to the latch for a while. The flipple technique helped a lot too.