Posterior tongue tie - desperate to know how many weeks to improve feeding post snip?

[LondonMumo23]

I’ve posted before about reflux challenges and got. Really helpful advice and reassurance and I’m just now wondering if anyone can do the same on posterior tongue tie.

At 5 weeks we got my son’s posterior tonge tie snipped. It was really quite a bad tongue tie, and was making silent and actual reflux worse (suspect I also have CMPA so ive cut that out too which is having a tiny difference).

3 weeks on and I’m just losing heart. The first 1.5 weeks were brilliant, he fed so much better, went for really long stretches, he had previously been really gassy and that had massively improved. But now he’s feeding so much worst than before, gulped huge painful chunks of air, hanging off the boob, not opening his mouth. He’s gassier and more refluxy than ever and basically spend all day and a good chunk of the night cluster feeding him because he gets exhausted feeding but then is hungry still.

He has had good weight gain (though I haven’t had him weighed for a week now) and good nappies. I’ve done the exercises religiously for his tongue but it just seems there’s no improvement after this sudden rapid decline.

please tell me when it gets better! I’ve avoided bottles to try and get the latch and tongue working but in my head I’m going to give it another 4 weeks till 12 weeks when my husband goes back to work and then start switching to mixed feeding as this isn’t helping him and is really hard for me. Any reassurance really appreciated, I’ve read it can take up to 8 weeks after procedure to see any improvement!

Can you get to a breastfeeding group? They might be able to help with positioning.

mine had hers snipped at 7 weeks and I don’t remember it getting better then worse, it just very gradually kept improving. But babies change all the time, there’s every chance this change isn’t related to the tie and he would have got fussy again anyway. If he’s 8 weeks there’s a huge developmental leap and likely growth spurt so the cluster feeding isn’t unusual.

you’re still establishing breastfeeding and it’s bloody hard! We had an awful time getting it going but about 12 weeks it all clicked snd been plain sailing since. She’s 2 and 3 months now and still has 1-2 feeds a day!

Hours 0-24 were great, 24-48 were hell on earth, and then things sorted themselves out.

Sorry, not what you wanted to hear.

I’d seek help with positions- from memory laid back breastfeeding is something to search up. But it’s best to have someone physically show you how to do it.

You basically want baby on top of you as you lay back on an incline (sofa) —with the remote in one hand.—

they feel better if they can press a foot on your thigh to push themselves into the correct position too. That’s why it can help to have someone physically show you

Wow that’s a change since I did it!

nhs even refer to it now.

https://www.nhs.uk/best-start-in-life/baby/feeding-your-baby/breastfeeding/how-to-breastfeed/breastfeeding-positions/

Posting for support because we lived with this with our daughter and grandson. He had the worst reflux was so unhappy and clearly in pain it was awful. He had a posterior tongue tie cut a private clinic and that helped as did working out he was allergic to soya as well as dairy. Abandoning breast feeding was so hard but ultimately was the only choice With bottles you can try different teats and feeding him sitting bolt upright helped enormously. He never leant to latch properly. He had good enough weight gain with breast feeding but was so miserable it was heart breaking

My dh and I took turn going round at 6.30 am to take dgs for an hour or 2 so they could try and get some sleep. The health visitors and midwives were sympathetic but bloody useless and life improved when DD stopped listening and trusted herself more. My DD took him to a private tongue tie specialist and paid £200 plus for the appointment that changed his little life. The midwife and health visitors just told her to 'keep trying' He's a gorgeous little boy now charging around but it's no thanks to them those early months have scarred us all.

My advice is introduce mixed feeding now I know it's really hard and it's not what you want to hear but he can't latch properly on the nipple. My DD has just had a super successful breastfeeding journey with baby number 2. It's not a reflection on you breastfeeding is not always best for a reflux baby

Very very similar situation here and it was hellish. So OP I really feel for you.
we had to rely on mixed. At about 17 weeks bottles naturally took over and we were all happier for it. Reflux is still an issue but it does improves.

Thanksnfor this. That’s really encouraging about the 12 week change, that’s what I’ve been rooting for. I just feel there’s no gradual improvement now which is so disheartening every day as I keep plugging away at it

That’s helpful thanks, though I have tried the laid down position and it just makes him reflux after sadly I think because his belly gets pressed in the process

Thanks I’m getting closer to accepting I may just need to start mixing. I am just desperate for the latch to improve so have been avoiding bottles but maybe I just need to face the fact it may not improve. I feel like breast feeding is meant to be better for the baby and easier for the mum - but wifh all these issues the opposite is true for me and bottle and formula + expressing where I can might be best.

It’s incredibly difficult and something I really struggled with too OP. I spent hundreds on lactation consultants. His latches improve over time but my supply just couldn’t meet the demand after our earlier days difficulties.
if baby’s weight is not dropping and you can meet demand hang in there. i spent hundreds on lactation consultants and ultimately after all was said and done it came down to a supply issue and I had to top up with formula.
reflux is a challange. Reflux will most likely continue with formula and bottles…

both my DV has posterior tongue tie divided.
Yhe Latch improved within 24 hours and a week later things were better.

I did combination feeding - and managed to breast feed to 9 months with DS1 ) he lost interest in the boob at that point ) and 14 months with DS2 . I don’t think you need to be too negative or worried about combination feeding , you can upregulate your supply again by feeding more when they are bigger and better feeders . I had periods of doing only breast feeding