Help - ds3 has tongue-tie

[ketchupkisses]

My son is 10 days old and we've been having some problems breastfeeding. The only problems I had with my previous two were excessive milk leaking everywhere and getting them to take the bottle when I finally stopped. So it has completely taken me by surprise that the new addition isn't feeding well and has given me such sore nipples.

To cut a long story short, we've now reached a point where my nipples are no longer bleeding, and he does sometimes achieve a decent latch on one side. However, when he does latch well, within minutes he has unlatched and gone for the end of my nipple again. He also falls asleep during feeds after only a few minutes. He hasn't yet regained his birth weight (my others did within a week) but is gaining some weight slowly.

One other bizarre thing is that he sleeps for 6 hours at night, although I've started waking him for feeds after 4 hours. I can't quite believe I'm worried that he sleeps so long, but I know it is not normal!

The midwife told me he has a tongue-tie today but didn't suggest a course of action other than that it should be monitored and if I'm worried to contact my GP. I've booked an appointment but its not til next Wednesday.

So, can anyone advise me on what I should do between now and next Wednesday, and how I should approach the GP bearing in mind I doubt he has any experience of this and am half expecting him to say "well why don't you give him a bottle then?".

Thanks

do you have any lactation consultants nearby. I think that they can refer you to get it snipped. Whereabouts are you?

If you google tongue tie I think you can find out where to get it done. It's a very simple procedure and the difference I've seen it make is amazing.

Oh and feed him lying down. Much easier and better on your breasts.

A friend had her son's tongue tie snipped last year and, IIRC, it helped her bf-ing problems enormously.

My ds had a tongue tie. After much pain, discussion, crappy doctors and salvation through a lactation consultant and mn we had it snipped. If you want to bf getting it done asap is the best course of action. I was v v worried about the proceedure, but it was over in a minute, ds cried for about 5mins, and then had a (much more comfortable) bf and fell asleep. He's cried worse at a nappy change

The lactation consultant refered me and we were seen the next day by the consultant. It partly depends on where you are in the country too, some consultants don't think it causes probs with bf .

Hang on I'll see if I can find my thread for you to have a look at...

Thread here I was eca btw

My ds had tongue tie too which my sister spotted when he was 6 days old.. after looking into it, it did seem that would be the cause of the (many) problems we were having. It took me until he was 6 weeks to get it snipped and it was very frustrating knowing it could have been sorted straight away if only I´d had helpful doctors. The difference was amazing and immediate in that I noticed a change in the latch straight away. It took a couple of weeks for bf-ing to be 100% painless but that´s how long it took for the soreness from the feeding pre-snip to go away iykwim.

I would say, if he´s got it and it´s causing you pain, don´t hesitate in getting it done..

Congratulations on your new baby son

My dd (3 months old) had her tongue tie released a couple of weeks ago and it has made an immeasurable difference to her feeding. She now goes 3/4 hours between feeds instead of 1.5/2 and is also sleeping through the night

We did have to 'fight' to get it done though as the initial reaction from our HV when i asked her what could be done about it was not a helpful one. She said to leave it and then give her speech therapy when she turned two

I would push to get referred as soon as you can.

In some areas they will do it without anaesthetic whilst they're young (mine wouldn't so we had to wait until she was 13 wks).

The procedure itself was straightforward and my dd's tongue didn't even bleed. There were no complications at all and as i said, bfing improved enormously immediately!

Good luck x

Hi Maveta

Are there no drawbacks to getting it snipped? I've been told the tongue-tie is mild, and to be honest the soreness is getting less each day, so I am wondering if it is something he will grow out of, or something that won't stop breastfeeding as his mouth and tongue grow bigger, but everything I've read on the internet echoes everything I'm hearing here which is just do it.

So do I ask my GP to refer me to a lactation consultant? And if say it takes weeks to get an appointment that way should I be contacting one directly myself or going private? If its a 2 min procedure involving just sterile scissors then presumably it won't be that expensive.

p.s. I'm in East London. It looks like they do it at St. George's in Tooting or Basildon.

If the tt is mild, they can sometimes strech or tear by themselves. I was told the tt was mild, but the probs I were getting were severe, and when I finally saw the consultant he said it was severe. But if the probs are not too bad, this may not be the case with you and your ds. Although, at 10 days I was doing ok and it took a bit longer for the probs to show themselves iyswim.

If you are going to have it done, having it done early is so so much better than when they are older. When they are older the risk of the anesthetic can sometimes worse than the problems of the tt. It can also cause probs with speech development and some children end up having it done at around 4yrs anyway.

Could you ring a bf helpline to get some advice and may be able to see a lactation consultant through them?

Damn, my computer keeps crashing, so better sign off now.

Thanks everyone for all your help. Its reassuring to know that if we do need to go down the "snip" route, it is a relatively straight forward procedure. Also thanks to NappiesLasGore if you see this. You first suggested tongue-tie on my other "sore nipples" thread a week ago. The midwife I saw on Monday said he didn't have tongue-tie, and I was too weak/tearful to press her further. Today a different midwife spotted it without me even mentioning it!

To be honest i have found no drawbacks at all.

I was very concerned that she had to have anaesthetic at such a young age (and a little miffed at this as all the research that i had done said that she didn't need it at her age), but even that worked out to be very straightforward. The worse part was starving her for the anaesthetic but she chose that night to be a total utter angel

Saying that, dd had a severe tongue-tie coupled with a broad and thick tongue and chances were that her chewing (when she goes onto solids) would have been effecting as well as her speech. I figured that life is hard enough without her having to deal with an almost certain speech impediment and that was one of the main factors we considered when we were faced with our decision.

Although i had problems breastfeeding, i managed to make it through to 13 weeks when she had the procedure done ...and we're still going strong now

Good luck with your decision

Quick update.

ds was weighed today and has regained his birth weight .

We didn't bother with the GP this morning. We went to a breastfeeding group instead, and we have been referred for the "snip". The counsellor there says if tongue-tie is causing any problems with breastfeeding at all she almost always advises people to have it done.

Thanks everyone for all your help. Mumsnet is just brilliant for this kind of stuff.