Tongue tie snipped - how to get back to exclusive breast feeding

[Bubble81]

My little one is just over 4 weeks old and I have struggled breast feeding him from the start. After seeing a private lactation consultant last week we found he has partial tongue tie. We are getting this snipped next week.

I have been topping up his feeds with formula as he wasn't getting enough from me (I was also expressing when I had the time). I would like to get back to EBF, but at present he has about 3/4 bottles a day. Does anyone have any advice on his I can do this? I have also been taking fenugreek and eating oats!!

Thanks

Kellymom and dr jack Newman good for advice on this. I think you need to start pumping to substitute for the ff you're currently doing. But follow protocols on these sites for re lactation.

I thought you could just pump more and offer more to baby then top up ff afterwards. I think they recommend pumping and plenty of rest with baby on boob a lot as preferable to using fenugreek.

Night feeding meant to help as well.

I found that following posterior TT snip ds2 fed much better so take heart it should help. Then it's just a matter of ploughing on through. It does get easier.

Or you could keep up the mix feeding if it's working for you. I never wanted to mix feed in case it discouraged milk production as my goal was to bf to at least 1yo. I did give both ds a bit of formula during the whole TT / low weight gain and low blood sugars nightmare.

I know you're in a difficult place right now so wanted to offer some (not very eloquent) support

How much in the bottles? After ds's Tt was snipped I carried on mix feeding (giving a bottle sometimes just suited us) but got the bottles down to 1-1.5 a day (so around 9/10oz). I did it slowly over around 3/4 weeks just putting him on the breast quite a lot. I'd let him feed, snooze then fed again. When I topped up I'd bf 1 boob, then the other, then top up maybe 1/2 oz then back on the boob (where he'd usually suck until he fell asleep). I found relaxing and accepting that any bf was a bonus actually helped as I found it easier just to let him suckle rather than constantly stressing about the amount of f he was having. I always made a bottle up for him and just found that after a while I just had more and more wasted milk in the bottles.
I think I was very lucky though and bf wasn't the be all and end all for me- if it was I think perhaps I should have been more diligent and made more of an effort. The mw who saw me when ds was 3 weeks old told be that if I didn't get rid of the bottles within 2 weeks ds would be fully ff within 3 weeks so I suppose that was her experience.

My bf journey started this way, painful latch, cornered into topping up. We had our ds's tongue tie snipped and it eased the way for dropping formula feeds. We never got to ebf but what helped reduce the bottles was a supplemental nursing system. You can buy them, but I had a cheaper homemade version. Wouldn't have been without it and we're still feeding at 19mo.
Good luck with the snip.