Breastfeeding Challenges following tongue tie release

[ThisPerkyBear]

DS 8 weeks old. EBF. Born with 75% tongue- tie which was released at 6 weeks. Also had two osteopath appointments to release tension in jaw and tongue. All done privately as Health Visitor would not refer him due to good weight gain. Prior to tongue-tie release, feeding was very challenging with a shallow latch, slipping off the nipple constantly, milk leaking everywhere, coughing, vomiting and fussiness after feeds. Night feeds even worse as very shallow latch, falling asleep at the breast after sometimes less than a minute, then being hungry again 10-30 minutes later due to not feeding enough. Tongue-tie release immediately resolved issues and feeding became effortless. It’s now almost 2 weeks since tongue-tie release and feeding almost back to where it was prior, with the main problem being a very shallow latch. I don’t know what else to do. Health Visitor not interested. I feel like I’ve wasted several hundred pounds and am back to where we started. Struggling to leave the house (which I hate) as I need to be somewhere calm with a decent chair to sit in to try and feed him, and have no idea if this will be every 3 hours or every 20 minutes. Tongue-tie has not reattached as osteopath checked at last appointment. He also said DS fine and he didn’t need to see him anymore. Has anyone else been in the same situation and how did you move forwards? I’ve had online chats with the National Breastfeeding Network, who are supportive but limited as to what they can do over the phone. I feel really deflated as I thought got everything sorted. I can’t really comprehend anymore EBF until 6 months as I really want to.

My daughter had a similar experience, v shallow latch, bleeding nips, complete nightmare etc. Like you, baby had tongue tie snipped privately and had 2 weeks of easy feeding before it started to get really hard again.
She went back to the nurse who had done the original snip and apparently scar tissue had formed (tongue had not retired, this was a different thing) She freed tongue for a second time and my daughter's breastfeeding journey began in a much better, comfortable, satisfying, lovely way.
She fed him for 18months and has just had her second babe. In her birth notes she stressed that they checked for tongue tie straight away and deal with it - it had caused such terrible stress & trauma before.
Good luck

Thank you. I’ll get in touch with the tongue-tie clinic again

Don’t be relying on the osteopath to assess your baby’s
tie function, definitely go back to the original practitioner.

They say that it generally takes about 6 weeks for full healing after a tongue tie release as the baby has to build up their tongue’s strength and re- learn how to use it effectively etc, and that there will be good and bad phases during that time.

Don’t expect too much too soon and hopefully the TT
practitioner can reassure you.

Thank you

my baby had a tongue tie release at about 4 weeks and while there was some immediate improvement, after 24 hours we were back to square 1 and continued there for 2 weeks during which I kept trying and at the 2 week mark everything just fell into place.

calm space and proper seat to feed - yes I'm afraid that may be your reality for a little while as position and attachment so important especially while they are so tiny.

I agree go back to the tongue tie specialist as I would expect them to offer aftercare support.

can you find any La leche or BFN or NCT feeding drop-in sessions in person? over the phone was horrible for me.

Depressing but good to know haha! Yes I’ll have a look for drop-in sessions.

It was intended to give hope rather than be depressing!

have you done plenty of long stretches relaxing together skin to skin? that also really helps

I’m trying but it’s a bit hard now the weather has got colder!