Latch taking ages with lots of screaming! Help!

[sparkleblue]

DD is five days old. We have had some successful feeds but trying to get her to latch is just proving so so so hard. She starts to scream seconds after being positioned near my boob. Occasionally she gets it but it is taking so many attempts to get her on. We had lots of support in hospital and she also had her tongue tie snipped this morning. I am currently loosing the will to continue! Is it meant to be this hard?! Any advice or just moral support so greatly appreciated!

All of mine were tongue tied and it was tough in the early days but got better very quickly once it was fixed (days, not weeks!)

If things don’t improve soon, do check the tie has. Even adequately released. One of mine had to have a second procedure as he still didn’t have enough movement.

Sympathy & hope that things get much better soon.

They need to take a big old chunk it suprised me how much. But to be honest without seeing it it’s hard to say so I would contact your HV/midwife/local breastfeeding group for support.
In the meantime, position DC next to the nipple and tickle their ear, for some reason that can help.

tie has been adequately

Really feel for you, I was in exactly this position with my first, who also had severe tongue tie. Do you have BF support clinics near you? I would strongly recommend. They'll be able to give you tips for better latching. I found the "flipple" technique really useful. It can just take a while though unfortunately for them to re-learn to latch after having the tie cut, but will be so worth it when they do (it will become much more comfortable for you). Also, might be worth looking into cranial osteopathy. What sort of birth did you have? My LO was forceps delivery and he was holding a lot of tension in his neck which made feeding really uncomfortable for him, especially on one side. This affected the way he was holding himself and opening his mouth to latch. This vastly improved after just one session. Good luck, hope it gets better for you soon

I was exactly the same with my first, who had a tongue-tie. Once snipped it got better in a few days. Really worth persevering if you can (I know how hard it is though), we made it to 9 months and I would've never believed it in those early weeks. Remember you're not doing anything wrong it is just circumstance!

Thank you all so much for some very much needed support. After hours and hours - which included an expressed cup feed in between - we managed to get one feed with a successful latch! The triumph! So she can do it. Just need to keep going. So hard! Thank you!

The lady who did my LO's tongue tie release said often babies go backwards before they go forwards. The babies also need to learn how to use their new tongue - they learnt how to breath, swallow and suck all at the same time and then they need to learn again with a new tongue.

I was devastated the day after my DD2s tongue tie release as she still couldn’t latch at all. It slowly improved over next few days. As others have said the flipple/breast sandwich really really helped. I also used nipple shields as a temporary measure.