Posterior tongue to and clicking with poor latch

[atrcts]

My new baby (now 12 weeks old) had a posterior tongue tie that was by diagnosed until he was 7 weeks old.

The hospital lost the referral and a month later, just before he turned 13 weeks, he finally had it cut.

The feeds after were significantly better but there continued to be some clicking and every time he latched he still wouldn't really open his mouth that wide. Also he still tries to place his clenche fists in his mouth with the breast while bobbing his head around frantically.

It is such a nightmare. It's really hit and miss as to whether he is in agony after a feed with trapped wind. I am getting sore with prising him on and off to re-latch continuously and find I am clenching my teeth with stress the whole feed.

If I do get a rare good latch I am huddled in a really bad posture for fear of breaking the seal. I am getting such a sore back.

I am seriously considering giving up as this has been 12 weeks of hell and I have had enough. But I am gutted because I really want to breastfeed.

Can anyone help me?

Sorry about typos - phone keeps auto-correcting and I missed some obvious blunders

I recommend you take him to see a cranial osteopath. They will help the
jaw & neck muscles get back to where they should be. And so the skull bones can move to where they should be.

At any rate this is what our CO did for my dd. tt cut at week 14, CO as a last resort to fix the rubbish latch at week 16. She couldn't physically open her mouth. Now she can. It's worth a go.

Plus have you seen a bf specialist counsellor? They might be able to advise solutions. Have you contacted your local la Leche league?

A BF counsellor diagnosed it and the tie was cut a week ago. She runs a weekly clinic but I couldn't go this week as he was having his jabs, but I can go next week.
He's been having weekly craniopathy but last week we were given a repeat appointment in a month rather than a week and I have to say it hasn't made a huge difference so far (after a 4 treatments).

The BF counsellor was obviously limited with her ability to help during the tie restriction, but she tried to give tips to stop the clicking a little bit (which I am trying to follow post tongue tie release and failing to see a difference - I could cry!).

Bump for you, hopefully a bfc will help more!

Tongue ties, particularly posterior ones, can reattach. Can you go back to the person who resected it in the first place and check this hasn't happened, maybe? If you call them up and explain that you fear this has happened, they may be able to help sooner rather than later.

I agree, check for re attachment, if it has reattached it may be worth getting it cut by a surgeon rather than a bf counsellor?

however iirc it did take a couple of weeks to see real improvement for dd who was snipped at 15 weeks. so I'd give it a little longer if you can bear to.

also... I wouldn't go too much by the clicking and the open mouth, dd continued to click long after her TT was snipped at 15 weeks, I think she clicked till 5 or 6 months old. She also didnt start opening her mouth really wide until about then. But despite the clicking she did get much less windy and could feed more happily and for longer/less frequently.

High palate and/or upper lip tie often go with PTT and that can cause the clicking/slight loss of suction. not much can be done about high palate, and very few people will snip lip ties (there are a few tho) but these generally dont seem to cause so many problems as the TT.

All 3 of my children had tongue ties. My first was not snipped till about 7 weeks and it was too late for our breastfeeding sadly so I expressed till she was 5.5 months. She also saw a cranial osteopath a few times which dealt with tension from birth but not enough to make a huge difference to our feeding. I really feel for you :-(

Thanks all for your input. I had the tie checked and it's fine, no reattachment there thankfully.

Someone today told me that they ha a posterior tongue tie cut and the baby's latch improved a little, but then got worse again (just like me). Apparently it cleared up again after 3 weeks, so maybe I need to wait a little longer.

Someone else said it could be the inoculations he had this week as one of them included rotavirus live vaccine, which can make them very sore and windy for a bit. So a few reasons to maybe hang in there a bit longer.