sitting here feeding and crying!!!!

[slinkstah]

The midwife noticed my 5 day old baby was not latching on properly which would explain the bleeding nips and mastitis!
midwife said baby has tongue tie which is preventing him putting his tongue forward therefore stopping him latching on properley. she said go to the gp for a referral to the peads. she then said i must feed often for the mastitis and also try to express some.

i went to the gp and she agrreed baby has got tongue tie but said that unless baby is not putting on weight then it doesn't matter. i told her about him not latching on properley and causing masitis and sore nips and she said i should be careful about passing mastitis infection to my baby so if it gets too painful GIVE FORMULA!!!

who is right? who do i beleive? i really want to breastfeed but do not want my baby to get an infection.
he is not emptying my breasts properly and not getting enough milk with each feed therefore feeding for half hour then having 5 minute sleep and then feeding again!
has anyone got any advice?

[hewlettsdaughter]

The GP couldn't be getting mastitis confused with thrush, could she? (in terms of transmission I mean).

slinkstah, good luck with this. Hope you get the help you need.

[Pruni]

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[Pruni]

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[slinkstah]

i rang my midwife and she told me not to have formula and not to listen to my doctor, i trust my midwife she was the one who spotted the tongue tied thing and it certainly looks like my baby cannot move his poor tongue forward at all. baby is birth weight at 5 days old thats progress thats why gp thinks there is no problem but i won't be able to bf much longer if i don't get this procedure done as its really becoming a struggle with him feeding constantly and soreness etc

i am gonna get dp to ring round tommorrow and see whether he can find someone who will do the procedure.
the baby blues has really kicked in today especially with all this.

[racheeeee]

Good luck with it, just to reiterate, my ds had it done at 4.5 months and the pain was minimal. He had the bit done under his top lip, and also the under the tongue bit. I would liken the pain to having your ears pierced. There was a teensy amount of blood and he cried for a little while. He was able to eat from a bottle right away.

[NotQuiteCockney]

slinkstah, you're doing an excellent job. Lots of tongue-tied babies don't latch at all. You may want to get some more help with BF after he gets it fixed, as he may have picked up bad habits, so to speak.

[sweetheart]

slink,

My ds had a tt - we saw Mr Griffiths at So'ton hospital to get it snipped. Our doctor was reluctant to give referral (because apparently he's over his budget ) but after I demanded that we wanted it done he backed down.

In the meantime whilst waiting for the appointment, which took about 2-3 weeks to come through, I expressed my milk as my ds fed better from the bottle than he did from me (but still not brilliantly). It did mean though that dh could do some feeds so I could have a rest as I was finding constant feeding a huge emotional strain.

Once ds had his tounge snipped I went to see the breast feeding councellor at the hospital and she helped me get ds back to bf'ing. It took a few days and it was quite stessful but it was well worth it in the end.

Don't be bullied by your doctor - his advice is appaling. Go back and demand a referal!

[cori]

Hi slink.
no advice re tongue tie,just wanted to wish you luck. See if there is breast feeding support group in you area, might be able to advise you i have used one out here and they were full of good advice.

[lazycow]

My ds (still beastfeeding at 18 months) has a tongue tie. tbh breastfeeding is still a bit painful now though nothing like it was in the early weeks. The problem is that tongue tie is dismissed by the health profession as causing no problems but I strongly believe it can in breastfeeding.

I have survived it but would not recommend it to anyone. Be strong about asking for it to be snipped. I eventually made a fuss when ds was 10 months old but was told babies older than 8 months old needed a general anaesthetic to do the snip and that they preferred to wait until a child was over 2 for that. I had thus missed the boat as I didn't want ds to have a general anaesthetic so young either. If he had had the snip done early it would have been very easy as it is quick and painless - the aneesthetic is needed to stop the babay wriggling/fighting while they do it (not a problem with a newborn).

Do insist on speaking to a doctor and getting the tongue snipped - Do not accept that you need to give him formula.

Nipple shields worked for me but I used them for several weeks and ds was latching pretty much OK and gaining weight - just causing me a great deal of pain. Also if your ds's tongue tie is quite a bad one they may interfer with the amount of milk he gets so they may not be the solution for you.

[slinkstah]

Thankyou everyone for all the advice, after alot of research i have found a dr who will do the procedure tommorrow morning, he even said he would do it for free as he hates private!
so fingers crossed all will go well tommorrow morning and my baby will start feeding better and my boobs will recover and we will live happily ever after

[UniSarah]

good to hear you found someone to take you seriously., hope all goes well tomoz, big hug to you and your LO.
let us know horw it was some time.

[Pruni]

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