My friend needs help !

[hellymelly]

My friend will post herself later,but a rough overview now is that her baby -11 weeks old-is not gaining weight and after a lot of pressure she has been advised to formula feed him.she is really unhappy about this and so is topping him up with some formula and also expressing and giving him the expressed milk.She has been told by one advisor that he has a tongue tie and certainly from waht she has said this seems to be the main problem,he has lengthy bfeeds but he only feeds 6 times a day.She is living in Amsterdam and they seem to have a policy of not doing anything to tongue ties so she is completely stuck,any advice?

Hi there

My baby was tongue tied and its a really simple procedure, and made a huge difference to him breastfeeding. ( I say simple, my DS was a preemie so it involved going to another hospital with two paramedics, a nurse and him in an incubation pod on a mini adventure!!!) Its definately worth your friend pushing her HV or doctor to get it done, it only involves the nurse to 'nick' the tie with a sterilised scalpel, my HV told me in the olden days they used to do it with their thumb nails but DO NOT attempt this now!!!!
Mind you six bfeeds in a day is roughing what I was doing, and they usually lasted 30-45 mins, so sounds like she's doing a great job already! xx

She would like it done but the paediatrician there refused and said they don't do it.She was finding feeding very painful but she said maybe slightly less so in the last few days.My dd had a tongue tie too but it was only slight and my bf advisor said it should stretch as she grew which it did.My friend is finding it hard because everyone she sees is saying to put him on to formula and that is the only advice she is getting really,she has only lived in Amsterdam for about 18 months and this is her first baby so she is struggling to get the help she clearly needs.

There is a bf support organisation in Holland - can't remember the name, but she could Google it. LLL are also in Holland.