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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

How long did it take for feeding to improve after tongue tie division?

4 replies

trrk · 08/08/2022 10:35

How long did it take for feeding to improve after tongue tie division if it did improve? My DD had a posterior tongue tie divided 10 days ago (when she was 3 weeks old) and I've only noticed small improvements in breastfeeding since. She still wants a topup feed after breastfeeding and often doesn't want to breastfeed at all unless she is at some magic point between too sleepy and too hungry. My supply is probably also not great as I've had trouble finding time to pump in between looking after her (lots of contact napping at the moment) and have only managed to do it 3-5 times a day. It feels like we are in some sort of breastfeeding limbo where I'm happy she's getting some breast milk but it's not working for us overall and each feed ends up taking ages. I feel so discouraged and don't know how long to perservere before giving up on breastfeeding. I'd be keen to hear how others got on after tongue tie division, both positive and negative.

OP posts:
Shkbop · 09/08/2022 14:52

Long answer sorry! My DS was born 55th percentile but dropped over 10% of body weight and had to be on top ups. He kept refluxing everything, no-one could tell me what was wrong. Yo-yo between oversupply and undersupply. He dropped to 2nd percentile. I watched endless videos on positioning, rang helplines, Web chats, even drove to a mum's breastfeeding group at 3 weeks post c-sec. He wanted to breastfeed so badly but his latch was crap. We saw a lactation consultant at 3 weeks. He was diagnosed posterior TT, divided then. The next 3 days he refused to nurse unless skin to skin for hours on end. There were exercises we were meant to do in his mouth but he was so colicky/windy/refluxy that there was no way to do the exercises 6x a day in between crying. Latch was still painful, still only gaining minimal weight. Returned to lac cons 4 weeks later and was told TT still there. Had cut again a week later. We managed to do the exercises twice a day for 7 days following. Not sure if it's because he's bigger (10 weeks) or if division worked but his latch is better. He is also on infant gaviscon so less colicky. I've made the decision to phase put BF because since formula top ups he's climbing above 9th Percentile and he seems less upset. He also seems to reflux less on formula.
I pump 2-3 a day (even if its just 50ml) and breastfeed overnight and morning. I've only recently put him to bottles only in the day though and thats not going so well as he nurses for comfort, for wind pain and to go to sleep.....so the bottle doesn't tick those boxes and he refuses a dummy.
I would say do what you feel is right. I have really struggled mentally through the whole thing and have worried about his weight, alongside very unhelpful family members (formula fed 2x generations on both sides). I've also seen alot of positive stories on reddit and here so don't feel disheartened as I am a small sample. Tongue ties seem much more common than I thought, it's crazy!
If you don't feel latch has improved I would get them to check to see if tie has regrown.

Pizzaandsushi · 09/08/2022 15:59

Not sure how helpful my story is but I had 3 different people (a health visitor, midwife and lactation consultant) diagnose a posterior tongue tie on my baby when he was 2 weeks old and couldn’t latch properly, had terrible wind and reflux and my nipples were so painful I even lost a chunk of one during a breastfeeding session with a nipple shield.
anyway we got referred to the tongue tie clinic at Alder Hey children’s hospital. I got there hoping they were basically going to solve all our feeding problems but they assessed him and said he didn’t have a tongue tie. Here is there stance on tongue ties and posterior tongue ties - alderhey.nhs.uk/application/files/4015/4687/7790/Tongue_Tie_Leaflet_-_PIAG_0028.pdf

I was devastated as I knew it meant my breastfeeding journey was going to end pretty quickly which it did. They said to me, some babies just have smaller jaws and it takes time for them to grow and get bigger and improve their latch so if you can persevere and practice different positions, try shields etc then with time you may see an improvement as your baby gets bigger.
I still have a lot of grief over not being able to breastfeed but know I did the best I could and there is nothing wrong with formula feeding. The most important things are that your baby is fed and that your mental health doesn’t suffer. Happy mum, happy baby.

Somethingsnappy · 12/08/2022 17:13

It usually takes about 2 weeks for BF to get really effective after a TT division. It takes time for babies to relearn how to use their tongue, and they find it tiring. Lots of perseverance skin to skin etc, and your baby will get there!

Somethingsnappy · 12/08/2022 17:16

I'm sorry you had that experience, @Pizzaandsushi. It sounds like you were really let down there. If anyone else reading this is struggling with a similar experience, it is worth going private, if you can afford it. Things can be very slow on the NHS, or unhelpful sometimes as this poster found.

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