Tongue tie- to snip or not to snip?

[Thandeka]

Have had loads of dramas with breastfeeding but still battling on. At breastfeeding group on wednesday the breastfeeding counsellor checked her for tongue tie and said she had it and reffered her to get it snipped. But then today another MW who came to weigh her said her tongue tie is only very slight and queried whether it was worth getting done.

She does feed for hours (plus we have to give her top ups) and although her latch is fine most of the time we can sometimes get it horribly wrong and i have a painful crack in one nipple that is slow to heal. Also she has been slow to gain weight (almost 7 weeks to regain birthweight- although her brithweight was inflated due to odema from my labour drips). So I am wondering whether it would be worth getting it done just to see if it helps?

any advice?

It wasn't until I had ds2 that I realised how easy bf is. Ds1 is tongue tied and bf was a nightmare my nipples were blistered and so sore I gave up after 2 weeks and he went onto formula. Ds2 came along, no tongue tie, and has fed brilliantly. I bought loads of bottles etc ready for when ds2 arrived, because I thought it was the way bf was, but I tried it and all was fine this time.
We did specialists when ds1 was a baby but they said they didn't snip them anymore, this was in 2002. If I knew what I know now, I would have had it snipped. Hindsight and all that! Hope this helps , and well done for keeping going

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I'd have it done (but not at Bedford Hospital, in the unlikely event that you are anywhere near there).

Ds1 (now 3.11) had a tongue tie and did have it snipped, but not properly. He now has to have it done under general anaesthetic, and it is a much bigger deal.

It can lead to speach problems (thankfully hasn't for ds1). In his case he dribbles when he says certain sounds, can't lick his mouth clean, can't eat ice cream, etc.

speech

it can do apparently.
Think we will get it done as it doesn't seem to be a major procedure and if it helps....

some great info here:
www.babyfriendly.org.uk/page.asp?page=152

Please snip. When they are this young, the procedure is soooo quick that it would be barely noticed.

Does no harm to snip and would prevent ANY problems later in life irrespective of how the issues manifest themselves now or how slight people believe the tie to be.

Had dd2 done at 2 weeks...she 3.5 now. No regrets at all

The general policy in our neighbourhood is, if the baby is having feeding problems (which it sounds like you are), and there is any sign of a tie, get it done.

Tongue ties are weird - a child can have a v severe one, and no feeding problems (in which case you don't have to snip it) and can have a milk tongue tie causing massive feeding problems.

Worth doing now afaik if it has been identified as TT - I spoke to a bfc aboutthis who pointed out it can cause problems with not only speech but also solids (moving the food round the mouth) regardless of the infant feeding method. As they get older, they need a GA to have it done, so much scarier for the child (and you). It is such a little job when they are tiny, I cannot understand why some MW and HV are agin it

I got DD's tongue-tie snipped at 9 days and it made a huge difference to her feeding. Before it she could only open her mouth enough to suck on the nipple. It was very painful.

The snip takes about one second. They cry, you feed them and they're fine after that.

My DD number 2 had tongue tie and one midwife said not to bother and one was very supportive. Feeding was very painful but I was determined. She had the snip done at 3 weeks old at Chester who said it was 75% attached and she was like a different baby within 24 hours so if you have been referred then yes get it done as early as you can. Feeding improved dramatically and no more angry crying that we had had since day 1.

My DS2 has TT but oddly breastfeeding has been problem-free and weight gain fine. He is now 11 months and his tongue seems to be a lot better; he can poke it out and the TT isn't as noticeable. He is absolutely fine with lumpy food; he had puree initially but he was basically eating finger foods from around 7 months.

I spoke to a SALT and she told me to give her a call at 9 months if he wasn't babbling, as this might indicate a speech problem. He is babbling well so I haven't called her.

My dd's tongue tie was snipped at four days and although she did cry, within less than a minute she was feeding and was totally fine. The difference in feeding was noticeable straight away, where previously she used to take two hours for a feed, after the snip she took a maximum of half an hour. Now at 12 weeks she can empty a boob in 5 mins! The reduction in soreness on my nipples was fantastic too! Do it!!!

We had tongue tie in DD .Surgeon said I was overreacting and as it was mild it didn't need snipping but i countered this with the research that has shown that the degree of tongue tie doen't relate to the degree of feeding difficulty. They reluctantly snipped at 10 days and everything was better - was breastfeeding still at 10 months

my son was very tt - 90% they said at the clinic and it was very noticeable when he was born - he looked like he had a forked lizard tongue! Saying that, he fed fine at the birth and thereafter. We got it snipped at 3 weeks because they said it might affect speech later on and he couldn't really stick his tongue out at all. They were amazed no noticeable trouble with feeding. The procedure was fine, he fed straight away afterwards which apparently soothes it. I think I would always get it done just in case. BF can be so tricky (was with my first child ironically who apparently was not tt), you want to eliminate all potential nagging factors I think.

WOW. Had it snipped this morning and the difference in feeding is phenomenal, it feels so much morec omfortable, I can feed pretty much pain free on a side with a crack inwhich used to need painkillers and toe curling! She is also now seeming satisfied after 40mins ion stead of hour and a half and then needing a 90ml top up! There is one major downside to the snip though- she is now able to scream at several hundred decibels higher! My poor ears -and neighbours! (although tonight was also first time she went off to sleep at 7pmwithout acolicky crying fit first, yay!). Hopefully better feeding means fewer top ups so fewerbottles so less trapped wind screaming pain and less washing up!

Great news! Glad it has improved things, I'm sure the feeding will settle down now. It does always seem to help.

Well unfortunately she has gone back to old habits- feed took hour and half this am! Plus her latch has altered slightly resulting in buggering up a cracked nipple again that was healing. Apparently it can take a couple of weeks to get used to their new Tongue- I hope so - if no improvement by time she is 10weeks I seriously need to think of a new plan. I can't spend 6hours every day breastfeeding and then the time it takes for top ups and pumping probably makes it at least 9 hours in 24hours spent feeding. We need to have a life too!

If she wasn't getting enough before, she may be feeding more to try to increase your milk supply ... I would go with it now as it will make life a lot easier a week or two down the line. Just feed, feed, feed, if she seems hungry don't fob her off with dummy etc ... good luck!

How's it going Thandeka? Our 12 day old baby girl saw a lactation consultant today who said she has a posterior tongue tie. We have to decide whether to have it snipped, and if so whether to get a referral to Bedford hospital or pay the private consultant to do it at home. It's not the money which worries me but rather the weird feeling of having someone do it at home.

DD2 had her tongue tie snipped at 14 months old. I had lots of problem with bf in the beginning but tongue tie was not diagnosed until much later when she did actually feed fine. We still opted to have it done as I was worried about speech problem. She wasn't babbling at all, just grunted really.

It took under a minute to do, no ga, and she only cried for 30 seconds, no worse than when having an injection. After just a few days she started making lots of new noises so we do feel it was worthwhile, especially as the procedure didn't cause her any pain or discomfort to speak of.

So glad I had ds2's done. at Kings College Hospital. His tongue is still very forked at 1.5. But atleast he babbles and says a few words.
How are you doing now OP ?

Growingweeble defo do it- i personally would prefer the hospital- two reasons- one its free! and two if anything went wrong (completely unlikely is the most straightforward procedure ever) then you are in a good place. Though did see the thing about bedford hospital- hmmmm.

Sassyfrassy hadn't thought of that but DD started coo-ing etc after it was done! It could be an age related milestone co-incidence but maybe not! Awesome.

Madam is feeding better and her latch is much improved (week and half later)- just waiting for my nips to catch up and heal! Feeds are still quite long but i think that's also because she likes hanging out at the boob (mummy the human dummy!) as if I latch her off she will often fall asleep and not clamour for more. Still giving her top ups and am pumping her night feeds to give nips more chance to heal (as nighttime both to tired to latch properly) plus more sleep as expressing then bottle feeding still faster than feeding her.

Hoping she will speed up further but am a lot more chilled about it all now- (we are just going with the flow so to speak). When breastfeeding group resumes week after next will start seeing if we can slowly start to reduce the top ups a bit.

Oh and her weight gain the week before she had it done was 80g - her weight gain the week after the snip was 280g (we kept her top ups pretty much the same in that time as didn't want to reduce them suddenly)
and it got the HV off our backs for 4-6 weeks - YAY!