Breastfeeding with tongue tie/pumping and feeding at the same time

[DearWilbur]

Hi all,

I am a first time mum to a 10 day old baby girl with a tongue tie. I am breastfeeding and wish to continue for as long as possible as I love the bonding time it gives us.

We have managed to perfect feeding on my left hand side but are still struggling with the right. It doesn't help that my right nipple is damaged and sore. The infant feeding team from the hospital have been out to see us and are happy that her latch and positioning is perfect, its the tongue tie plus the damage to the nipple from the last 10 days that is causing me such pain. They recommended trying to use a nipple shield whilst my right nipple heals.

The waiting time for a referral at the hospital for her tongue tie is 10-15 weeks and I will not last that long in the current pain I'm in.

I really need this right nipple to heal so I can have a chance at getting her back on it. I'm currently in tears whenever I feed her from this breast.

I have ordered a nipple shield as recommended to try whilst my nipple heals and will continue to feed her as normal from my left breast. I do not plan on using a shield on the left at all. I also don't want to exclusively pump and then bottle feed her as I like the convenience of breastfeeding, as well as the bonding time.

My question is, whilst I'm waiting for the shield to arrive, am I okay to put the pump on my right breast at the same time as feeding her from my left? Rather than physically hand pumping when shes napping etc. When I have attached the pump to my right when I'm feeding from the left gives me about 2oz without me even having to do anything. I'm just wondering if doing this is sufficient to keep up the supply on the right whilst I wait for the shield to arrive? Or do I need to pump separately too?

Does anyone have similar experiences to this and has anyone ever used a shield on one side only as a temporary measure whilst your nipple healed? If so, how was your experience?

Thanks so much!

Hello! Congratulations! I had a similar issue minus the tongue tie, baby just didn't latch well to start with. By day 9 both nipples were very bad, the right was worse, I pumped the missed feeds on the right side and exclusively fed on the left for 3 days so the right nipple could heal a little. I wanted to try shields but my local boots only had one size and it wouldn't fit and decided not to order online due to delivery times. What are you doing to heal your nipples at the moment? I was told to use lansinoh cream and moist healing, so keeping applying the cream all the time, my cuts were quite bad so took a few weeks to heal properly. Other things to try (that I didn't know about) are jelonet dressings and silver cups. One thing to think about is while you are only punping on the right, your supply in the left is increasing drastically, when I could feed from both sides again, I was pumping just enough off to make myself comfortable to refuce the supply back down, this took about a week for me personally. We are now at 5 months ebf!

With regards to tongue tie, are you in a position to go private?

That is absolutely fine. Tbh feeding whilst pumping should help with your let down as its a hormonal response rather than just a physical one- looking at photos of your baby helps when pumping so feeding actual baby should really help.

Have you tried a haakaa style pump? They sort of suction hang on your boob. I used one whilst feeding on the opposite boob. In early days it would easily collect 4oz. It's passive, you don't have to do anything other than watch it fill up so you can focus on feeding baby.

Also if you have the funds then go private for the tongue tie, I think its around £300 for a consultation and the division. They can come to you, its very quick. I waited 7 weeks for the nhs to do it but probably spent more on painkillers for my nipples!

Thank you both!

Currently for the healing I'm rubbing in a few drops of breast milk and letting air dry followed by the lansinoh cream. This managed to heal my left nipple which was initially sore, but the right one is going to take longer to heal. I've also bought some cooling gel patches from boots to apply but I don't particularly rate them.

I've got a haakka style pump, I'm wearing it whilst feeding her from the left side and letting it fill up. Every time she needs feeding I'm feeding her from the left and attaching the pump on my right. I'm hoping this is sufficient to keep up my supply on the right hand side. I've only done this for a day so far.

In terms of going private, we were quoted over £400 for it doing and this is unfortunately not something that we can afford at present. 😔

Not sure of your location but £400 seems very high.
The clinics close to me (Swindon and Cardiff) were £150 including feeding support. Have you looked the tongue tie website? You'll be able to locate a lactation consultant who is trained to do a devision.

Or if you are in the south west, our local midwife does the division and is happy to see babies whom aren't under her care. She has seen my daughter within 48 hours each time I've needed her seen.

If you are still struggling with your latch, there is a really fab group on Facebook that will give you free support to improve your little one's latch in the meantime.

Good luck!

I'm in South Yorkshire, a place in Leeds said £400+ and then a clinic in Sheffield said £1800?!?!? Apparently they only do it under general anaesthetic there, I nearly died when I heard that price.

Her latch is apparently brilliant, I've had a few midwives look at it now, plus the midwife from the infant feeding team gave me a home visit to come and look. She tried multiple positions and was happy with her latch, but said that the only thing causing the issue is her tongue tie. She said despite having a good latch, my nipple comes out flat wherever her tongue has been which indicates its an issue with her tongue, not latch. There was nothing else she could really advise other than trying a nipple shield whilst it heals and then trying again, and failing that, going privately.

We were in a very similar position to you, except the tongue tie wasn't picked up til much later. Sending much sympathy, it really bloody hurts! My right was a mess but the left was fine and gave me hope to keep going.

You've probably tried some or all of this but this is what worked for us...

Lansinoh and fresh air. Just keep re-applying and then apply again, again and again.

Lactation consultant - I know it's more money but a lot of them offer virtual sessions and free q&a's on Instagram. They would be able to give you the best advice and a plan to maintain your milk supply. Kathryn Stagg is a good one to follow.

Tongue tie practitioner - if you Google this there's a search function so you can see who's near you. It looks like there's ppl in notts, York and Sheffield, so options to research. We're down south, but had a recommendation for a lady on here who came to the house within a week and was £150, so as pp mentioned your quotes are super expensive.

Chocolate! You need the oxytocin boost

Good luck and congratulations on your baby xxx

Some women feed only or mainly from one side - all is not lost if you end up a bit uneven.

If you have a local La Leche League group they are a really good source of advice.

Yes it is fine to pump on one side while feeding on the other. With a haakaa this is the only real way to do it, it doesn't provide a lot of suction so you will probably struggle to use it to pump separately.

Also, as feeding works on supply and demand, even if supply drops in that breast for a little while, once you get her back on there feeding regularly it should pick back up

Best of luck :)

Congratulations OP! Sounds like you are doing an amazing job so far. A Haaka alone won't stimulate the breast enough to maintain milk supply. You either need to hand express, get a proper pump or feed. As you are early days, you need to be fully emptying the breast every 3 hours or so which a Haaka won't do.

I agree with PP, the quotes you have for private tongue tie release are astronomical. Would this person be close to you?

www.babytobreast.com/services

Yes its definitely possible, I feed exclusively from one side and pump from the other using a manual pump while DS feeds.

I never got him on that side though so now it's just the boob for the freezer stash

A Haaka only gets a few ml for me whereas a manual pump gets lots, the trick is to hold the handle down for a few seconds

Silver cups are the best thing to help with healing damaged nipples. Looks abs sounds odd but they saved me. I was ready to give up but these were amazing and I was very sceptical.

We had a tongue tie divided and it wasn't done under general anaesthetic. I can't remember the price I think it was around £150-£200

www.amazon.co.uk/Silverette-Nursing-Cups-Soothing-Breasts/dp/B00D4MWKNQ

Those are the silver cups