Tongue tie regrowth - again

[strawberryzoe]

Hi all,
My first post here so thanks in advance for any advice.
Our LO is 20 weeks now and has a tongue tie that is affecting his feeding and weight gain. It has been cut now four times but each time reheals within a few days/week. It has had a huge effect on his weight gain and he dropped from 75 centile to 2nd by 8 weeks. We had a difficult birth and whilst in hospital discussed TT with the midwives but they said he was fine so I tried to ignore the pain and continue to BF. We first saw a lactation consultant at 10w who confirmed an 80% TT and it was snipped the week after. Feeding improved for a short while but it regrew so we had it recut which we have been doing now up until last week when it was cut for the fourth time.

About a month ago we started to supplement his feeds with EBM at first but now formula as I couldn't keep up the pumping alongside frequent feeding. We have used a supplemental nursing system at the breast but then he started biting and causing further pain due to a poor latch, then finger feeding which was slow and frustrating and now we use a bottle. I'm also taking domperidone to boost milk as the LC was concerned about amount. Have also had cranial sacral therapy and was told no issue there.

Sorry for the essay but we're beyond coping now and don't know what to do next. Sleep is a nightmare as he wakes every hour and just wants to nurse for comfort whereas he feeds every 2 hrs during the day. We want to sleep coach as he is much worse after a 4mth sleep regression but feel should sort feeding out first. Do we bother having TT recut? Should we laser? LC recommended not massaging after cuts so we haven't but we're so utterly miserable/exhausted and don't know what to do....Do we give up entirely on BF? The idea is heart breaking but so is carrying on like this.

It's really ruining our time together and he's such a gorgeous boy but really can't cope anymore. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

My lb had his tongue tie snipped at 7 days old and omg that week alone of breastfeeding the way he was had me on rock bottom, I persivered another week and had to force myself to stop bf and start on formula. It absolutely broke my heart to stop. I done it gradually over a few days. And you no what baby and me were SO much better all round . I how ever was adimant that I kept up the excercises they gave me when they cut the tt because the thought of having it done again! I feel for yous. So they advised against the little excersises to stop it growing back?

You've done incredibly well to get so far. My Lo's tongue tie wasn't discovered until 4 weeks and even though we had it cut, we were all so miserable that we made the decision to move to formula anyway.

I'm not saying you should move to ff, but if you did, you can be proud of getting so far, and that its ok to ff if it means youre not all utterly miserable. Sometimes you need to hear that to over come the guilt, i know i did. I look at my happy smiling lo now and am grateful that that exhausted, always hungry, always angry newborn is gone. Soon you'll be weaning, and in the grand scheme of things, whether you bf or ff from now on won't affect your lo at all, other than how it affects you.

Good luck, whatever you decide xx

Thanks both, I think we're probably over thinking it. You just work so hard to a goal you sometimes lose sight of what it is you're doing, especially with such little sleep!

Sun1983, they categorically said not to do any post snip massage in case of infection or lo developing an aversion to feeding...