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Infant feeding

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

Milk dribbling when feeding - possible tongue tie?

4 replies

FunnyPineapple · 12/10/2024 19:08

My 3 month old still struggles with feeding from a bottle and a lot of milk spills out when he’s feeding - he can easily soak a bib unless I stop and wipe with a muslin constantly throughout the feed. He also gets really fussy after a short while during the feed and turns his head and starts trying to move the teat with his tongue, only to cry when the bottle is taken until you give it him back, and he tries again!

He was breastfed for 7 weeks but was introduced to a bottle at birth as he needed top up feeds and I also expressed, so it’s not as though the bottle is new to him. Back when he was breastfed he was fussy at the breast and would constantly come on and off and get really annoyed and fussy.

We currently use Tommee Tippee bottles with the size 1 teat still, so I don’t think the milk is too fast flowing. We have tried mam bottles but I just don’t get on with them and he seems to leak just as bad if not worse on those!

He also has bad reflux which our HV put down to a cows milk allergy (along with a couple of other small symptoms), so he is currently on prescription milk which doesn’t seem to have made too much difference to the reflux.

A HV at one of the early visits briefly checked for tongue tie but said he looked fine and I’ve never questioned it until recently but now am wondering if it could be down to that and missed?

I just would like any other experiences and how best to move forward, if I should get him checked/how to spot a tongue tie or if it’s all normal and to keep waiting it out!

Sorry for the long read!

OP posts:
Noodlesnotstrudels · 12/10/2024 19:25

DD2 is under the speech and language feeding team due to some feeding issues she has, but she is also a massive milk dribbler. She had a severe tongue tie, which was corrected, took a long time to heal, but she still has a bit of a dribble. SALT told me to go up a teat size - the flow was too slow and that was also causing dribbling. So i think it's probably worth an assessment by a trained tongue tie practitioner and trying the next size up teat. https://www.tongue-tie.org.uk/find-a-practitioner

Find a Practitioner | Tongue-Tie Practitioners

Find a tongue-tie practitioner near you. Access support for infant tongue-tie. NHS, home visit, and private clinic options available.

https://www.tongue-tie.org.uk/find-a-practitioner

Noodlesnotstrudels · 12/10/2024 19:26

Also, i never liked tommee tippee bottles so you could look at alternative bottles, but it's probably cheaper just to try the different teat first.

FunnyPineapple · 12/10/2024 19:58

Noodlesnotstrudels · 12/10/2024 19:25

DD2 is under the speech and language feeding team due to some feeding issues she has, but she is also a massive milk dribbler. She had a severe tongue tie, which was corrected, took a long time to heal, but she still has a bit of a dribble. SALT told me to go up a teat size - the flow was too slow and that was also causing dribbling. So i think it's probably worth an assessment by a trained tongue tie practitioner and trying the next size up teat. https://www.tongue-tie.org.uk/find-a-practitioner

Thank you I will have a look! I’ve been worried about going up a size because of the dribble already but will give it a go. I was hoping the mam bottles would help as everyone seems to like them but I just can’t seem to get them so they don’t fire a constant stream of milk out. But I think it’s just me!!

OP posts:
Noodlesnotstrudels · 12/10/2024 20:14

FunnyPineapple · 12/10/2024 19:58

Thank you I will have a look! I’ve been worried about going up a size because of the dribble already but will give it a go. I was hoping the mam bottles would help as everyone seems to like them but I just can’t seem to get them so they don’t fire a constant stream of milk out. But I think it’s just me!!

We also tried mam and DD really didnt take to them. They were really wide in her mouth. We use nuk first choice bottles (also combi feeding) and SALT recommended Dr Brown bottles, but they were really expensive so we've plodded along with nuk.

I also feel like it's really counter-intuitive to go up a flow, but the way it was explained to me was that if the flow is too slow, they get out of sync with their sucking and breathing etc, which leads to dribbling.

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