Tongue tie - resnip for an older baby?

[mrsjohno]

Hi

I've posted here before when DD2 was younger and we were having major problems with breastfeeding - posterior TT cut at 3 weeks, high bubble palate, recessed jaw and chin. She has an exceptionally disorganised suck (pumps finger with tongue/ chomps/ only sometimes sucks correctly with suction, cups finger etc then this seems to tire her so loses suction)

Well, things haven't improved much and we're now at 17 weeks. I'm still putting her to the breast, she'll do her best, I express, top her up with ebm. I couldn't work out why we had so little progress - if she needed to grow, if she was nipple confused or what.

Asked a lot of people to check her tongue and everyone said was fine BUT after she'd had a lot of osteopathy and grown a bit we finally saw someone who said she was sure she still had a significant posterior tongue tie (evidenced by poor latch, suck, inability to maintain suction, twisting of tongue on lateralisation)

We have an appointment tomorrow at Kings for another division which terrifies me. I was hoping to know if anyone else had had an older baby 'redone' and what the outcome was. I'm guessing she'll have a lot of bad habits to undo and might find the procedure more traumatic. I'm worried it's too late to make a difference or that she'll refuse the breast altogether. But don't want not to do in case it is the solution we've been waiting for.

Am a wreck!

Hi mrsjohno, I remember you from a previous thread.

Have you joined the "Tongue tie babies support group" on Facebook? There are lots of people on there who have had revisions done at older ages. Just be aware though that people tend to post more often if they are having problems, so it skews your perception of how successful the revisions generally are.

Did you ever have any improvement in feeding after the revision at 3 weeks? I just ask because we didn't and when the lactation consultant saw it had reattached at 6/7 weeks, she said she didn't recommend resnipping as it hadn't helped the first time around. We went ahead and had it done anyway by laser at 9 weeks, as I thought perhaps the scissors hadn't gone deep enough, or perhaps it had reattached too quickly to give him chance to relearn how to use his tongue.

How is your DD on bottles? My DS is much much better now, but I am not sure if it is due to the second snip (which I suspect might have actually reattached), or just due to getting stronger. If he had been like this on bottles 2 months ago, I would have probably tried harder to bf as it suggests he has a strong enough suck.

Good luck with the revision, you have done so well to get this far. Your DD must be stronger now than she was at the first revision, so hopefully she is strong enough to use her new tongue.

Yes, I remember you too! How are things?

That's interesting about the recommendation from your LC. DD's tongue definitely got stronger and the LC who did snip said she 'suckled well' when she saw her again 3 weeks post snip, but this was a bit of a one off I think! She's still very inconsistent and disorganised in her sucking and even more so after the osteopathy which freed up the nerves to her tongue apparently. It's supposed to be the release of all that tension that's shown up more TT rather than a reattachment but who knows.

She is dreadful on bottles - we have to use a premature teat for the slowest flow and she chokes on that every feed (we hold it straight, paced bottlefeeding etc) to the point where she refuses bottles mostly as they stress her out so much. Have been worrying I've been trying to switch her between the two too much and she just hasn't learned either but not sure how to get milk into her (sns also not a go-er)

Will check out the FB TT - thank you x

We had cuts at 8, 14, 16 and 26 weeks with dd1 due to not enough being cut and scar tissue.

After her last cut which was very successful we went on to feed to 14 months. There were no difference we found from having it cut at any on the four times!

Dd1 was never able to suck a bottle and at 2.5 still can't use a valved cup as doesn't suck.

Her latch was appalling before the cuts but I had to keep feeding her as I felt I had no option but we got there.

That's great that she improved after the first snip, it is a good sign. Good luck today, I hope it goes well and I'm sure it will. Just wanted to say as well, that 17 weeks is still pretty young compared to some of the babies on the Facebook group who are having ties snipped at 8 months/1 year/2 years etc.

We are in much the same position as we were 3 months ago, except that now DS is much better on bottles. He has even moved up to the 3 month teat. He does lose suction sometimes, but otherwise is drinking calmly and can be quite quick when he wants to be. I still express a bit and bf at night - I must be the only mother who actually enjoys getting up in the night! I occasionally try putting him on the breast during the day. If he is properly hungry, he cries until I give him a bottle. Otherwise he will sometimes latch for a bit unless there is something more interesting going on in the room. I'm not confident he feeds that well as I can always express plenty after he feeds, but then again perhaps that is because he is not hungry to start with

We start solids in a couple of weeks and am simultaneously excited and nervous!

Well, we went to the clinic and she does still have a ptt and a very disorganised suck but I chickened out of a resnip today ... as her weight was actually ok, she did some great sucking on my finger as was ravenous by the time we'd been seen and transferred a really decent amount in the test weigh they did. So am going to see how she does in 2 weeks time and reassess.

Not sure if was a reasoned decision or a scaredy cat one ... Have a feeling I'll just have to do it in 2 weeks' time instead ... Hmmm. She seems to know she's dodged a bullet this afternoon though and has fed well and been on great form ;)

Good luck with solids, pigs! I have to say I loved the process with DD1 - enjoy!

Wow, sounds like she did a great job! I don't think you're being a scaredy cat at all, it sounds like a well-reasoned decision to me.