Tongue tie snipped yesterday

[FredKiller]

DD is 4 days old and we've struggled to feed since birth. TT specialist diagnosed her with 90% TT yesterday and snipped it for us. Since then she seems in pain and hates my boobs. She will eventually latch when she gets exhausted and wants to feed to sleep, but it can take anything from between 20mins to 2 hours (last night) of screaming first. Am pumping and offering milk via syringe so she's not too frantically hungry. But nothing seems to work.

Does anyone have any experience of how long it takes for a TT snip to make feeding easier? Or are we just doomed to failure now as she's too traumatised?

We've been in near constant skin to skin since birth etc.

I am no expert at all.

We had tt snipped last Friday at 3 weeks old and it improved feeding straight away, no trauma at all.

BUT... at 4 days old we had terrible feeding problems due to my milk coming in and he behaved as you describe.

Do you think your problems might be because of the milk coming in rather than the tt snip? Are you engorged? have your boobs and nipples changed shape? do you think your milk is changing from colostrum to actual milk?

What positions are you using? after our snip I went back tot he bf clinic and they got us in a 'laid back nursing' position which has improved our latch and his feeding enormously.

We had a TT cut at 8 days and DD latched on and hasn't latched off since. There will be an expert along soon but please don't give up if you are wanting to BF. At 5 days old I am sure with the right support you will get through this. It maybe part of the crazy few days when your milk comes in. Do you have a MW coming in soon? There is also helplines to call, La Leche League and the national breast feeding one. Is there a support group near you that you can get face to face help at?

Congratulations and best of luck.

Have you tried feeding lying down Fred? That really helped us. I got rest, skin to skin and DD2 latched on really well.

My milk is well and truly in. But I am incredibly engorged because she's not taking enough. Am seeing a lactation consultant on Saturday (who snipped the tt). And am going to a bf group at 1pm today. Not sure what they can say though, I've tried every position under the sun. Nothing works. It's so heartbreaking not being able to feed her properly.

Around day 5 when I was engorged I had to pump off around 30ml from each before he could/would latch on.

We then offered that to him at the end of the feed if he hadn't been on for long or just stored it if he had.

By day 5 for us we were using a bottle to give him the 30ml but we were very careful to hold him on his side in bf position and the bottle horizontal so he had to work for the bottled milk.

Don't get disheartened, there's still loads of time for this to work out for you.

Ok so hormone levels have fallen a bit so have got some perspective.

Lactation consultant recommended a small pre-feed of EBM via tube/finger before offering the breast, so she isn't frantic with hunger. Last two feeds this has worked well and she latched on perfectly after. Still not spending as long as I would like on the boob, as I guess the pre-feed is filling her up/knocking her out. But a vast improvement.

Still concerned about whether she'll ever transition on to just me rather than EBM and whether the small feeds will be enough to keep my supply up, but I guess the priority is her gaining enough weight/getting calories in the early days and while the tt heals. And a straightforward feed has given me time to put DS to bed, which is lovely as I've hardly seen him.

Thanks everyone.

If you're engorged and the milks flowing fast she might be getting enough even in a short feed. You can only tell by nappies and weight gain.

Don't panic. We were where you are (but much slower to get snipped) and could now be excl bf-ing at three weeks (we're doing one bottle per day out of choice).
My ds has put on plenty of weight too.

Hi Fred. Glad things are going better and you got support. It's hard when you have other DC too. My DD2 feeds really quickly. I was a bit freaked as DD1 would feed for 45 minutes however DD2 from only a few weeks is often feeding for 10-15 minutes.

Yeah, I'm expressing about 70mls in 20 minutes so it's flowing pretty fast.

Midwife weigh in tomorrow. Fingers crossed!