Treatment for tongue tie in north west

[Tortycat]

Hi. My ds1 is 5 weeks old and has eventually been diagnosed with a tongue tie. This has affected breastfeeding and I had to start topping up with formula a week ago as he still wasn't back to birth weight and had started to lose weight :( We got his tongue clipped privately by prof bruce at spires, hale, but it has made no difference to his ability to latch. We also went privately to milk matters in Huddersfield, who said the clip isn't complete and needs re-doing, but my DH didn't want them to do it as he prefers to go with a consultants opinion ("it may not help - doesn't need redoing"). Does anyone have any experience of either or these people/ places? Stupidly I cancelled my nhs appt at stepping hill as got a private appt quicker and was desperate as I want to keep breastfeeding. Wondering who's advice to go with now?

Is there a BF counsellor (NCT?) locally, or infant feeding specialist (NHS) you can go to for more support? There is a big TT support group on FB too that may be able to help. Is he latching at all, or latching badly, are you still having clicking/pain? I had a reduction in pain post snip, but no increase in milk supply due to getting bad advice at the time from mw (this was 3 years ago) and was never fully able to build up supply, but many people can. Are you also pumping, taking fenugreek etc? TTs can rejoin after a snip too. Have you tried asking for help on the breastfeeding talk pages here on mumsnet? They were a lifeline to me at the time and so supportive. Sorry to hear you are going through this x

Thanks for the tips - I'll check the facebook group out and breastfeeding pages. I have been to local nct advisor, but she missed the tongue tie. He's latching on but badly, and if anything is worse since the clip. Luckily there's no pain, which makes me even sadder when I think I won't be able to breastfeed. I am taking fenugreek and started pumping, but don't seem to express much even when my breasts feel full :( I'm also hoping to try and get my nhs appt back if possible for a 3rd opinion. Conflicting advice on everything is driving me mad! X

Hi i went to milk matters and they diagnosed the tie and snipped it. I was pleased with them and they obviously had experience with ties . Fortunately after about a week my dd feeding has improved in that there is less pain but im having problems with her weight gain as i am avoiding formula top ups although i may be forced to now due to loss of weight!

Have you got a local breastfeeding counsellor in your area? Maybr contact the hospital or a sure start centre or you can maybe do a google search?

Im on fenugreek too so now how frustrating it all is. I refuse to pump because dd is on my boob all day and i just cant face pumping as well.

Maybe post this is breast/bottle feeding section, ive received some really good advice there.

I got the tongue tie done privately as i wanted to breastfeed and knew that if i had to wait for an nhs appt i would have to give more formula as the waiting time was 6 weeks. I would consider letting milk matters snip the tie because the longer you wait the more your supply will dry up because the breast isnt being drained. I had this problem and have been feeding round the clock to get my supply to where it needs to be. Good luck .

Thanks for replies. I would have had it redone at milk matters but DH didn't want to. I'm now going to a breastfeeding support clinic on weds where a midwife has experience of tongue tie and hoping she'll check it. Starting to lose faith though after so much conflicting advice from professionals. Feel my supply is drying up as ds can't effectively suck, and expressing (when I have the time to do it) barely gets anything. All very demoralising. Hope your dd's weight gain improves :)

anywhere on here you could self refer or get a referral to?

Helen Howard is a NHS midwife in Glossop who is a specialist lactation consultant and an expert in tongue tie. She runs an NHS tongue tie clinic in the paediatric department at Tameside hospital. She is excellent and I would highly recommend her.

There's a highly recommended drop-in session at Stepping Hill on Wednesday afternoons, 1.00-4.00. Perhaps try there?

Luckily for us, DD's tongue tie was spotted on the ward before we were discharged and snipped there and then by the Specialist Midwife, Sarah McKie, who is great.

Thanks for the advice. I did manage to get to stepping hill yesterday to the drop in clinic. They said there's a bit of tie left but not much, but can't say if re clipping would help. they said they wouldn't clip it anyway and advised me to go back to prof bruce. He's now on hols for 2 weeks! They were supportive though and gave me some tips on how to latch. Guess we'll just gave to wait a couple more weeks and take it from there. Felt sad going out with girls from nct group yesterday - they were all breastfeeding and I was praying ds1 didn't wake up so I wouldn't have to shamefully pull a bottle of formula out. Stupid I know.