Having Tongue tie snipped tomorrow- what to expect

[thenewaveragebear1983]

well, after quite a difficult 4 weeks EBF my new baby, and struggling with blocked ducts, pain, cracks, cluster feeding and yesterday's constant feeding I've finally got an appointment at the lactation clinic at my local hospital where I'm hoping the will snip DS's Tongue tie. I really had to be persistent, and refused to wait til next Tuesday for an appointment. I really feel this is my last resort for breastfeeding, as after 4 painful weeks I'm at the end of my tether. So, has anyone got any experience of this or any advice?

It is a very quick procedure and DD whimpered a little but didn't yell. The encouraged me to feed her as soon as it was snipped. There were a few spots of blood but nothing serious. They were going to lie DD on a bed to do it but I, on the advice of the HV, insisted on holding her and cuddling her close with boob at the ready. The difference was almost instant, her latch was so much better and I didn't feel I was being grated anymore.

Remember to keep your nipples well moisturised with Lansinoh or similar as the changes in suck mean a totally different way the nipple is stretched!

Hi! I've got experience of this and the operation it really quick and simple- the doctor or midwife will literally snip the tie with a pair of scissors. It takes about 2 secs and you breastfeed your baby right after it. My DD had hers snipped at about 14 days old and it sorted out our feeding problems pretty quickly. I'd recommend expressing with an electric pump for some of the feeds if you've got badly cracked nipples to give them a chance to heal.

My sons was cut at 5 days old, he didn't even wake up and I felt the difference when he fed straight away.

They did my DS at 3 days old. They make you stay outside the room at my hospital. He cried quite loudly but stopped when I went in and cuddled him.
The cluster feeding and constant feeding can be quite normal at this age though so that might not stop!

Thanks everyone, I'm really hoping that it works because I've been in so much pain this week can't continue breastfeeding if it doesn't change. I was expecting to have to wait a week to see results, so your experiences are really making me hopeful. I'm hoping they will actually do it tomorrow, not just look at the latch again and 'wait and see' which I've had a lot of over the last few weeks.

Same as others, it was very quick and relatively painless, my LO had it done at 6 weeks and cried for a minute afterwards but I breastfed him straight away and he was fine. A small bit of bleeding and it was completely healed in a day or so. Good luck

Echoing the messages above. The difference was almost immediate. Best of luck

Ds's was done at 6 weeks, a 50% tie, and he cried more from being woken up and held by strangers than the actual snip. He was very grumpy for the rest of the day but improvements after the first 24h were massive - shorter, more efficient feeds and a total absence of the agonising colic he'd been suffering.

There are potential risks as with any surgery, but to me those were outweighed by the potential benefits.

nanny could the Tongue tie be causing his wind then? DS is very windy and very difficult to get a burp up- I never put the two together! He gained 11oz last week, so I thought the only one suffering with the tt was me as he was gaining weight.

My theory (I've never seen any science to back it up but it makes a lot of sense!) is that he was swallowing air due to the poor latch which was getting trapped and filling him up causing more feeding and more air. Infacol and gripe water weren't touching it. Luckily I live in a very sensible area that sends you off to a particular support group and they do it on the spot if needed, no messing around!

i think it def contributes to windiness, but more importantly the overall quality of feeding. we didn't want to wait for the referral (3wks in London!) so we privately hired a consultant to do it and DS1 had his 100% tie cut at 9 days and DS2 80% tie cut at 10 days. In these early days of bf it pays dividends you'll see the difference x wishing you a lot of luck x

Dd2 had hers cut at 2 weeks and it put an end to our bf. She just couldn't latch properly afterwards and so I've been expressing ever since (she's 5.5 weeks now).

I keep trying and she'll take about one feed a day.

But, she bleed a lot and wouldn't go on straight afterwards which l believe is unusual. She also wasn't hurting my nipples just not feeding properly so was loosing weight. All the mw who saw her feed said perfect latch so we were all bit surprised at her weight loss.

DD had a 90% tie and was snipped at 7 weeks. Made all the difference to feeding which has been very painful, and allowed us to go on BF for nearly a year. No regrets at all.

The procedure made her cry, obviously, but a feed immediately calmed her. It was less of a drama than her imminosations tbh. Not much bleeding at all.

It was emotional for me though. Handing my newborn over and seeing her taken into the next room then hearing her cry, was excruciating, so if someone can go along to hold your hand I'd recommend it! It is all over quickly but as a new mum it's not an easy thing. Good luck.

Yes I found it rather traumatic when they brought wailing DS back into me with blood running down his face.

We are also encouraged to 'massage' the wound to prevent it closing back up, which was horrid - you have to push down hard for 30 secs twice a day and it hurts them - very hard to do.

It didn't make any difference to us but I would still recommend it as I know it works for most people and you do get over the trauma!

DD got tongue-tie snipped at 6 days, and contrary to what everyone said the change took almost a week to kick in - so don't be disheartened if there's no immediate change. Also, if you're not using them already I definitely recomm nipple shield!

My DD had hers snipped st 2 weeks old. It was a quick snip but quite traumatic for us both I think. It bled a lot and took ages to heal properly. It didn't make any difference to BF unfortunately- in fact I had to express for 48 hours because she couldn't latch at all. We did persevere with BF though but it sadly wasn't the fix I'd hoped for.

Thanks everyone for your advice. dS had it snipped yesterday, showing some improvement with feeding (such as taking the 2nd side rather than falling asleep on the first and waking hungry after 30 mins) and is much less windy today. Generally seems a bit more chirpy and less grouchy as he had been for the last week. Hoping things will continue to improve!

Congrats OP, sounds really positive