Any experiences of breastfeeding with a tongue tie

[fakeblondie]

DD is now 7 days old.
Fed constantly first 3 nights in hosp o was shocked when she lot 10% and bw down to 5 12.
realised there wss an attachment issue and then noticed slight tonguetie on ay 4/5 confirmed by my midwife collegues.
Im fortunate in that ive got an appt. next week o have it snipped but while waiting its a nightmare.
She nipple sucks and feeds all the time-i mean ALL night long .
I am letting her so that she gets enough.
Shes gaining weight now and doing several wet and dirty nappies.
My milk feels like its never really come in like with the others but i think thats because shes constantly on them.

I am however feeding her eg. last night 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 and 5 each feed going into the next .

Has anyone else had to do thuis while waiting for tonue tie to be snipped ?

Is there anythinh else i can be doing to get her t6o open her mouth a bit more and latch better or is it a case of just persevere until next week and see how long my body can actully go without sleep !!!! x

We have, my advice is to get it snipped ASAP. I had to alternate between cup feeding and breast to give my poor nipples a rest.

My consultant still hasn't snipped DS2, (he's 9 months!)

I expressed and gave bottled breast milk to give my nipples a rest but yes, for us the only real solution was to get it snipped - instantly SO much better!

I guess you've probably already looked at correction positioning etc on the net? Just to make sure you're getting as much out of it as possible until the snip?

i agree you may never have felt engorged because of such frequent feeding.

co-sleep? can you rest in the day? a local lactation consultant may do it privately for a fee quickly, where do you live?

Hi
Its the lactation consultant who is arranging it for me quick so i`m very lucky really.

We ended up co sleeping last night at about 5 and its woRred brilliantly. i was pumping off when i could during the day to try and stimulate my lctation but when the lc said absolutly no need if your feeding so much , shes asleep now and my breats are full ! Yippee.

Nipple sucking is the main problem but we must be doing something right because she weeing pooing and putting on weight now.

Nice to know (sorry ) not alone in the CONSTANT feeding tho, and even tho looking at pics i think its a mild tongue tie-i really want it snipped so my nipples gt a break and poor dd must be exhuasted from constant feeding herself .

Oh good. My DS has a thick tongue-tie and it's caused us no end of problms, like the fact that I had to mix feed.

For what it's worth, and for anyone else interested, we are just north of London. My DS's tongue tie was quite bad but there was a 6 week wait for the snip on the NHS. We rang up the private wing of the Luton & Dunstable Hospital - they said they'd do it the next day for £300 (with GP referral, she was already on board). We said yes as I was desperate and DS losing weight and really struggling to feed (and my poor nips hanging off!!) Anyway, later that day the private consultant rang us at home and said he had seen us on his list, we were obviously desperate and did we know that he had an NHS clinic as well as a private one, and that if wanted he'd do it on his NHS clinic, still the next day, for free.

So he did! It honestly took longer to read and sign the consent form than to do it. They don't need anaesthetic as apparently no nerve endings there, it is literally a snip with surgical scissors, though they put numbing cream on the area - he said this was more for us and our nervousness than for DS! DS didn't cry or anything, don't think he even noticed. There was a small dot of blood, like if you cut your finger, no more than that. They put him straight on my boob and feeding was instantly 70% better I would say, rising to about 85% better the day after.

OP I know you're getting sorted now but I hope that helps anyone else reading and desperate. It has fallen out of fashion in some NHS areas these days but I can honestly say I'd tried everything - nipple shields, positioning, lactation consultants - to no avail, and this fixed the problem for us in seconds and made the difference between me being able to continue BFing or not. So if your local consultant doesn't do it under NHS choices now you can look round for someone else who does - or, like I say, go private. We found out about that hospital through our local BUPA, who told us they didn't do it anymore but could tell us the nearest person who would.

Bupa hospitals sold off some of their hospitals to Spire health care. We had our son's snipped at their Spire hospital in Manchester 4 months ago so they definitely do it there and charge £150 for it and didn't even want a GP's referral (an ENT consultant does it so can see for himself!). Best thing we ever did. His feeding was a nightmare before that - even with a bottle, let alone the breast! He's so much better now.

I would urge caution with assuming that any ENT consultant will do it. We were told DS had a tongue tie and took him to see an ENT who we were told would cut a tie and was an expert in this field but he refused to even acknowledge that DS was tied as it wasn't a full tie. In the end I was referred to a lady called Anne Dobson who will travel throughout the country to clip ties. I rang her at 12pm and she was with me at 1.30 and she's based in london but travels extensively and is also a lactation consultant. The cutting cost £150 and was the best thing ever. Feeding improved immediately, DS gained 12oz in the next 6 days and BF has been easy and painfree ever since.

i had limited success with the "posting" method

basically you compress the breast a bit so it is flatter as baby latches on, and once they;re latched on you can try and "post" more breast into the mouth.

using a cross cradle hold, rather than having her justy lying across you (so you are holdin breast in one hand and baby in the other to prevent her slipping off)

Hmmm. This sounds like my DD2, she's been feeding for 7 hour+ stretches and is also 7 days old.

Her sister was the same though so not sure it would be tongue tie? Does anyone know how I can check it?

Casserole - we're not far from Luton, are you able to tell me the name of the NHS clinic you went to in case we need it?

My LO's was very severe, pretty much anyone could have seen it so we had no trouble but I do agree with what fivesweeks says, best to have GP's referral if you can get one (our GP was useless). Why in this day and age can it still be such a nightmare to get TT's snipped?

If a baby is feeding for more than 40 minutes per feed after the milk has come in (which I hope it has at seven days), then it's worth seeing a BF specialist. The problem may be a tongue tie, or it may be a bad latch.

How are your nipples, with or without you?

I had ds done at Kings college hospital. Top consultant. Tried everything pre. nothing worked. but you have all our sympathy. after, so much better. hope its better for you. hang on in there.

Thanks NQC. They are not too bad now, have toughened up a bit, just pain from friction from constant feeding I think - I had a bad latch at the beginning with DD1 and that resulted in proper cuts and bruises. This doesn't feel as bad.

Interestingly though, I realise I've been using thisisyesterdays posting method without even realising it.

Oh, and different boroughs, different medics, have different attitudes to TTs. You can have a posterior (aka normal, visible) tie or an anterior one. Either can cause a problem with feeding, either can be snipped.

WIWO - I would really get yourself to a BF specialist, they may well be able to recommend some other options or positions for you.

Helpfully, as well, you can have a baby with a severe tongue tie, and no breastfeeding problems (My DS2 was like this) or a baby with a mild tongue tie that causes huge breastfeeding problems.

Hi
My ds was tounge tied and he was on the breast constantly for the first week.

Would echo what everyone else said, also apparently they can grow back! so keep an eye out.

Also because of the tounge tied my nipple developed a deep gash and the rugby hold was reccomended to me to help prevent it getting any worse.

i had mine snipped at the royal free in hampstead but rang up for an apointment the midwife had referred me but it took ages for them to get back to me so I was pro-active instead.

WOWY - it was the private wing of the luton and dunstable hospital we were referred to, but then the same guy did it in the bog standard NHS ENT clinic of the same hospital. Had to be referred by someone. It was my friend who is a midwife who spotted it - maybe ask your HV/MW/GP what they think?

If you live near Southampton, Mervyn Griffiths is the guy who did the research that led to ties being cut (it was so controversial at the time some other docs tried to get him struck off for advocating it) and is the author of the article on the NICE Babyfriendly page. He will cut for you too. They take a cheque for £100, and then attempt to claim from your local NHS trust. Mine paid up so it cost nothing, and because it's officially private, the wait is almost nothing.

I'm afraid lactation consultants don't always cut correctly. Mine didn't and it took weeks more before I saw Mervyn Griffiths. Apparently this failure to snip properly is not common, but not unheard of either.

Withorwithoutyou, tongueties run in families. My DH is badly tt as well. If one child has it then there's a bigger chance that the second may, too.

research

UN Babyfriendly advice

Partial list of hospitals around the country who will snip.

There are pictures of tongue tie on Wiki, and as a rule of thumb if the tip of your baby's tongue has that sort of twin curve that the top of a heart shape does, they are probably tied.