Lip tie and feeding

[MeadowHay]

DD is 9 and a half weeks, I had hell breastfeeding her from the start (which I have documented extensively on MN when I've been utterly depressed about it) and have now given up really and am slowly weaning her on to formula. She was checked by the hospital tongue tie clinic last week after a month long wait and they looked at her for about 10 seconds and said no tongue tie. I didn't think she had one tbf so not doubting that, but the clinician didn't comment on whether she had a high palate or not as a midwife from the infant feeding team at a different hospital mentioned. I also forgot to tell the clinician (I don't know whether they were a doctor/nurse/midwife?), probably because I felt so rushed, t hat one of the problems I have with DD latching on to breast is that she always angles the nipple into the side of her mouth and angles away from me, on both sides. I forgot to mention this to the clinician, and until the appt all the bottle feeds had been given to DH - now that I'm also bottle feeding her I've realised she does the same thing with the bottle, she always angles the teat to the side and never takes it in the middle of her mouth. After staring at her with the dummy it seems she does the same thing with that too but I've never noticed. One of the BF peer supporters mentioned a few weeks ago that the latch looked ok apart from that her top lip wasn't flanged out straight and mentioned the possibility of a lip tie. I assumed the hospital would check this but it was specifically a tongue tie clinic that we attended, with a leaflet purely about tongue ties, and as I say they hardly looked at her, literally held her down, looked under tongue, no tongue tie, bye. Apart from her funny latch on breast/bottle/dummy (which makes BF extremely painful for me), she also feeds very slowly and frequently, and this was more of a problem with BF as I would have to BF her almost non-stop - I know this can be normal, but it's just another thing that might link to lip tie? Also falling asleep after a feed, then waking up and crying and rooting about for more, as if she's had to work so hard to feed that she got tired, but didn't get enough to be full? We also noticed within the first week that she has a bit of a callous type thing in the middle of her upper lip which I've since read is a sign of a lip tie.

So..any thoughts on what I should do? Is lip tie a thing that is remedied, if she does have it? Who would I even talk to about it? I doubt a GP would really know anything about it, and apart from that one breastfeeding peer supporter, none of the others/midwives/HV/GP have ever mentioned it when I've discussed my feeding difficulties with them, only about tongue tie. I imagine that if I saw the GP they would assume the clinician at the tongue clinic should have checked her for it and brush me off. I know you can get private tongue tie specialists, are there people who can see her privately about a suspected lip tie or is that not a thing?

My experience of lip tie is that no one cares, Ds had quite an obvious one and I was told it'd probably resolve itself as it tears easily if they fall over etc when older. He drank his bottle straight.

Have you seen your health visitor? They're probably a good first point of contact

Have you tried different shaped teats or correcting the bottle in her mouth?

Both my DC have quite a significant lip tie.
I was told with DC1 that no one would do anything about it unless it affects her adult teeth (she had quite a significant gap in her top front teeth although it's now closing).

With DC2 I was told when he had his tongue tie cut that a lip tie could be done but not on the NHS and that they tend to reduce as the face grows and become less of an issue which I think is what is happening with DD or they often split during a fall anyway (ouch!) .

Ouch, that sounds grim! One of my motivations for getting it checked is due to concerns regarding speech and dental development, I don't know if they're warranted concerns or not? I don't really know anything about lip ties, just seen it briefly mentioned online with some symptoms regarding infant feeding. No health professional has mentioned it except one BF peer supporter, as I say, although the infant feeding team midwife said DD has a high palate and I've read that's more common with babies with tongue/lip ties.

HV is coming on Tuesday morning so will raise it with her then. DH thinks we should take DD to GP and talk to them but I reckon they'll just dismiss it, and your replies confirm that. I have just posted about it in my local BF peer support FB group too to see if anyone has any suggestions/advice.

I had a significant gap in my top teeth when I was little, dentist thought I might need a retainer to fix them but eventually they fixed themselves, but I do still have a not-insignificant overbite...wonder if related/if lip ties run in families like tongue ties do?!

I have tried when bottle feeding her to gently move the bottle into the centre of her mouth but she resists this and turns her head to ensure it is in the side. I used to try and gently move her head to keep her straight on the nipple when BF too but she would forcefully resist and turn her head to ensure it was sideways on. Often I'd be able to initially latch her straight on but as soon as she was latched she'd turn her head slightly to the side so she was angled sideways with the nipple angled towards one side of her mouth. I mentioned this to HV ages ago but she said "maybe it's just the shape of her mouth". Likewise the clinician at the tongue clinic told me "some babies just aren't designed to breastfeed" and "it might just be the shape or size of her mouth".

I haven't tried different bottle/dummy teats as didn't want to confuse her too much when I was still trying to continue BF although I guess I've given up with that now anyway so I suppose I could try some others. I mostly feed her with Medela or Tommy Tippee nipple shields now and have done for the last few weeks and she does the same with both.

I haven't read previous responses but it is important to know what is normal frenulum. Most babies will look like they have "lip tie" when it is infact normal attachment. Even if there is lip tie it should not impact feeding because the top lip should be neutral when latched and NOT flanged. Very common misconception.