Tongue tie - does feeding ever get better after it's been clipped?

[SilverSage]

My DD had a very tight posterior tongue tie that wasn't diagnosed until she was 5 weeks old. Feeding had been a nightmare - it was very painful, and I had shredded nipples by the time she was 3 days old, so started using nipple shields, but it was still hurting.

We had it clipped the day after she was diagnosed, and a week later things are no better. It's still hurting, even with the nipple shields. They did say that because she had got used to feeding in a certain way it would take time for her to learn how to do it properly. But I want to know how much time?? As I'm starting to despair of ever achieving normal, pain-free breastfeeding. The lactation consultants keep saying that we're doing everything right, and I just have to be patient, but I really don't know how much longer I can keep this up. It's really starting to cause me huge amounts of stress now, and it's making me miserable.

So I was just wondering, does anyone have any experience of feeding after having tongue tie clipped? Does it ever get any better? As I seriously need to think about whether it's worth persevering or not.

DS had a 75% posterior tongue tie snipped at 5 weeks. Feeding got better over the next 2-3 weeks as he got better at it and my mangled nipples started to heal. It was soon an absolute doddle and we fed until he was 16/17mo. I hope it can be the same for you.

My only other thought is that she is probably going through a growth spurt so she is probably feeding lots and lots, so it might not just be that things aren't working.

DS's tongue tie was snipped at 5 weeks too. I have to say that things got worse before they got better as we both had to re-learn about positioning etc, and it does take a while for your nipples to heal. I can't remember how long though, sorry. I do remember getting through quite a lot of paracetamol.

We got there in the end, and BF until he was just over 12 months.

You have done brilliantly to get this far, my advice would be to take it one day at a time and I am sure it will gradually get better.

My DS's tongue tie was treated at 11 weeks. For us, feeding also got worse before it got better, and it didn't get better for maybe a month afterwards. But gradually the improvement happened, and I'm still feeding him at 15 months.

I remember the despair of constant painful feeding very well, and you have my sympathy. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. The improvement, when it came, was very gradual, to the point that I wasn't even sure things were getting better. When you're thinking in terms of getting through one day, or even one feed at a time, any improvement can be hard to notice. I had to keep reminding myself of how much worse it had been a couple of months before.

Wow, you have much more mental strength than I have Iwrotetothezoo. I really don't think I can endure this for longer than a couple more weeks without seeing definite improvement. It's really starting to wear me down.