PLEASE HELP - 3wk old with TT struggling to BF - but sent to cranial osteopath before doing anything

[sarmum14]

Hi all,

Sorry for long thread but am desperate and feel like I’m going insane. I have a 3wk old DD who I was determined to have a positive BF journey with after a less than positive experience with DS 4 years ago who was mixed fed.

At day 4/5 DD started refusing to latch, lost loads of weight at Day 5 weigh in and I hired a lactation consultant who gave us nipple shields (which sort of work!) and indicated a tongue tie. She referred us to a tongue tie specialist who we then saw (also privately) and said there was a tongue tie but it scored as “borderline” so not to do anything with it. But as DD weight was not increasing even by week two, this specialist instead advised that we provide expressed mill top ups after each feed, pump 8/9 times a day and continue to BF using shields.

So that’s what we continued to do but not without its problems - milk pooling in DD mouth, spluttering and choking, still falls asleep at breast and also sometimes has difficulty with the bottle too. Got in touch with lovely local (and FREE) breastfeeding support group who did some Skype sessions with me and referred us to the hospital TT clinic to be seen.

Went there today and the minute we walked in the lovely midwife instantly spotted DD’s tongue tie and also showed me my own(!!!) but said DD jaw too tight so they couldn’t do anything about it. She recommends I see a cranial osteopath (which I had already been doing but not one I had used before with DS and this one I didn’t feel was actually doing anything - she made me chant mantras but never talked about what she was doing with DD).

So now I feel back to square one. There is a TT, but not doing anything about it. And going to find another Osteo to see if they can help with DD’s jaw. Has anyone had something like this with their LO? Can an Osteo help with symptoms that seemingly point to TT?

And in the meantime do I continue to feed, pump and give a top up 8-9-10 times a day? I have a 4yo who I don’t get to see anymore because of the relentlessness of feeding DD and actually mental health taking a battering because a) I’m so worried about DD and b) I don’t have time to even leave the house for a walk.

HELP WITH ANY ADVICE PLEASE. X

I’m sorry I don’t know much about TT as my DCs problem was facial nerve damage from forceps causing a hideous latch and CO Iv always been very skeptical if I’m honest but didn’t want to read and run! I did 6 weeks of the relentless BF, top up with expressed milk and pump and then usually ended up topping up with formula too as I could only pump a couple of mls at a time on the advice of BF support and it’s crippling so please go easy on yourself and I hope you can get some answers here

Not sure I can help or not @sarmum14 but we had a 100% tongue tie which was divided at 1 week. It didn't solve the latch issues and we were recommended going to a cranial osteopath to help to loosen up the tightness of my LOs jaw/neck (he also had a large misshapen head (which turned out to be exactly how my DH's head was as a baby!). I pumped and bottle fed until he was 6 weeks or so and then started to try feeding more directly (had been showing him my breast all along to keep the interest). By 8-9 weeks we were breastfeeding full-time.

He just needed time to recover from the tongue tie and different nipple shields (was given Medela ones in hospital but actually the MAM ones worked better for me).

Good luck 🍀