Does his tongue tie make my baby a slow feeder - or is he just greedy?!

[arthymum]

After 9 weeks of trying (and sore nipples!) I have finally managed to get my ds diagnosed with tongue tie. He is 12 weeks old now and a feed averages about 50 minutes (35m on boob one, 15m on boob two!) Talking to others, this seems like a long time - is this likely to be because of his tongue tie and does anyone have experience of bf after the tie is snipped ie did it make a difference to length of feeds and/or soreness?

I am really chuffed that we have got this far, even with the soreness, but it would be nice to think that one day I might be sore nipple free!

Some babies feed this long without tongue-tie, it very much depends on the baby. It might be a factor as the latch is never quite as good with a tongue tie. Well done for persevering!!!

I don't think that there are hard and fast rules arthy.

My dd3 was tongue-tied, she fed very very frequently and fell asleep at the breast after only 5/10 minutes as the sheer effort of suckling with the tongue-tie was exhausting for her.

She had her tongue released at 13 weeks - the feeds didn't ever get longer but they were certainly much more efficient and she went much longer between feeds (from feeding every 1-1.5 hours to feeding roughly every 3 hours).

As for soreness - YES it made a MASSIVE difference as her latch was sooooooo much better!

Good luck and well done for perservering. Keep going, its soooo worth it

Get it snipped, pronto! You've done a amazing job as plonker says, but ask for an urgent referal from your hv or gp. Have a search on here for tongue tie too, there's been a few threads recently and the concensus is that dividing it is never a bad thing and improves latch and feeding immediately

We got dd's snipped at 3 weeks and she began feeding quicker.

My nephew got his snipped and it made a world of difference. Well worth the £40 to go private my SIL said.

Tongue tie also has implications in later life with speech and kissing apparently.

i second what others have said- get it snipped asap!!! it will make a massive difference!

who diagnosed and did they offer you the snip? keep at them till you get an appointment. where about are you? if in london i can advise you.

good luck and WELL DONE!

Yes DD was tongue-tied and bf for hours on end before she was snipped at 5 weeks. The sore nipples almost disappeared overnight and she began to gain weight steadily.

Just one more vote for getting it snipped - DS was snipped at 2 weeks and it made a world of difference even at that early age.

Yes I am with everyone else, get the tongue tie snipped! There are a list of clinics uk wide that will treat your baby with a simple GP or HV referral. Good luck and well done!!xx

Thanks everyone! I saw a Breastfeeding Consultant at my local hospital who diagnosed it after watching him feed for about 15 seconds! (I had suspected it since week 3 but was fobbed off by MW, HV and GP!) We have now been referred to the the surgeon and are just waiting for an appointment, shouldn't be long.