Signs of tongue tie?

[moobaloo]

Hi

I'm having trouble feeding my one week old DS. It was ok in hospital but since my milk came in he is hard to latch and when he does it hurts. He doesn't seem to open his mouth wide enough (or maybe I have big areole?) I've tried different positions, expressing some off first etc.

He lost 10% of his birth weight so I've been expressing like mad on the midwives advice and he's putting on weight now, but I can't crack the breastfeeding. I know using bottles for the expressed milk isn't going to help either.

I'm wondering if he may be tongue tied. Can I ask what were your signs of a tongue tie and what happened?

Many thanks

Signs are:
Tongue pulls into heart shape and can't be extended very far
Nipple is squashed or lipstick shaped when baby comes off
Nipple feeding or shallow latch
Tongue doesn't touch top of mouth when crying
Falling asleep at the breast after short time
A clicking sound as suction is broken, particularly at letdown

Can you get to a breastfeeding support group for someone to assess you? Congratulations too :)

Look at this: milkmatters.org.uk/2011/04/15/hidden-cause-of-feeding-problems-however-you-feed-your-baby/

The heart shaped tongue/not sticking out far is a sign of anterior tongue tie. posterior tongue tie does not always show these signs.

Signs for us (posterior tongue tie) were as follows:

• baby's mouth kept slipping off the nipple and having to be relatched often. Needing to feed in a specific position to stay on.

• very messy feeding, lots of milk leaking

• struggling and fighting towards the end of feeds (or, in the early days, falling asleep very quickly before having a proper feed)

• very windy baby, uncomfortable especially at night, very hard to burp

• flattened nipples with white tips after feeds

• "clamping" feeling when feeding

• clicking sound when feeding

However she could stick her tongue out miles!

Despite my DC2 having a tongue tie that you could see which was snipped at 2 weeks, I was totally clueless about posterior tongue tie. After 9 weeks of weight gain issues with DC3, we self referred to ENT only to find out he had PTT.
My learnings are that for PTT, only a qualified ENT health care professional can diagnose it, certainly my midwives & HV didn't even suggest it as a possibility.
If you think it's a possibility I'd get a referral ASAP. I wish I had.

Yes, gps and HVs are pretty rubbish at diagnosing TT, especially posterior. midwives also. A few know what they are doing but lots don't. you usually need a specialist TT clinic or BF counsellor to diagnose.