Suspect tongue tie

[MrsMaow]

Hi all

I’m pretty sure my month old DD has a tongue tie, she has loads of the symptoms (She’s BF and leaks loads and loads of milk, makes clicky noises, falls asleep or gets frustrated feeding, coughs and splitters, very spitty/sicky) and I’m no health professional but I’m sure I can see it when she cries.

Would I be better taking her to GP or speaking to HV do you think?

I’m also a bit concerned about her weight gain, I know it can vary loads but it would be good to know how much people’s DCs gained in their first month so I can try to get an idea of the average

TIA

BF should say FF, stupid autocorrect

You could try a teat size up and see if that helps and try paced feeding.

My son had the same problem and this helped a bit. After a couple more months they just suddenly get better by themselves anyway but I understand how frustrating it is at the moment!

Tongue tie is really badly undiagnosed in my experience. I would take your LO to see a specialist - either a BF counsellor who specialises in it (Do you have any BF clinics near you?) or a specialist midwife. I had to go private to get my LO diagnosed and his was severe. The midwives in hospital completely missed it, even though we were in for almost a week, as did the HV. The referral to get it cut can also take a while and it's best to get it done sooner rather than later

I wouldn't just hope it will get better as it can effect how much weight they gain, can make them tired because they need to work harder to feed and long term can effect speech and language development. Trust your instincts OP

Your best bet is a qualified breastfeeding councillor - they diagnosed DD after a midwife had thought she was fine. DD couldn't latch at all.

Do you know if your hospital has an infant feeding team? Ours will see baby up to 4 weeks old.
Agreed that you need to get your midwife or HV to refer you to ENT for assessment.

Can you call one of the breastfeeding helplines?
Is there a breast feeding support group you can get to? They may know of or eork with a lactation consultant who could check baby for TT
There should be info on both in your red book.

If you don't have any joy with this, thete are private lactation consultants and private clinics that will assess for a snip/laser TT.

Costs can vary.
There are two near us.
One around £200, the other £360.

Are you hon a La Leche League Facebook group?
They can be a very valuable source of information and support.

Sorry. Just seen your correction from bf to ff, so pls ignore what is not relevant to You!

I would recommend finding an IBCLC (independent board certified lactation consultant) in your area. They should charge no more than around £50 to come and see you, advise on feeding and check for TT. Mine was an absolute lifesaver and I will forever be grateful to her. HVs just aren’t qualified specifically enough to diagnose TT unless it’s one that you could see from miles off in which case would likely have been picked up at birth.

If it is TT your GP can refer you to get the division done or you can go private. We did go private in the end as we wanted it done ASAP (ours went undiagnosed for a long time). The process was so easy and quick - didn’t bother little guy at all and made a WORLD of difference. It’s worth getting checked

Definitely get it sorted as it can affect how baby manages weaning, and of course milk intake, weight gain etc now. You can try GP but in my experience they're not fab at TT assessment nor treatment. NHS will treat up to 8 weeks old though, so maybe worth it. Otherwise find a private tongue tie practitioner in your area. HV should be able to tell you who is in the area. Best of luck and all the tenacity to you- don't accept a shoddy assessment. Tongue tie assessment should be thorough and informed. X

I was in your position with my 4mo (at the time). I told my HV and she referred me to a free breastfeeding support worker. She came to my house and watched me breastfeed. She also had a look at DSs tongue and agreed he appeared to be tongue tied.

Unfortunately, at 4mo old, it was too late to get the tongue tie division for free, so we went private. We made an appointment and got it done within a week. The procedure itself took 5mins and it was the best thing we've done. He's definitely improved his feeding. My only regret is that I hadn't done it sooner (stubborn husband and useless paediatrician).

Just updating in case anyone needs help after coming across this thread from a future google.

I spoke to the HV a couple of weeks ago and she had a look at and said she thought DD might have a ‘slight’ tongue tie and would put a referral in. The GP wouldn’t comment either way at the 6 week check as it was the day after I’d spoken to HV and I told her that I’d requested a referral so she said to wait for an expert.

I had a text from HV earlier this week saying the referral has been processed but it could be a significant amount of time before we’re seen, so I found a private practitioner in the area who has just visited and confirmed a severe 75% tie and has snipped it. So not that ‘slight’ and very obvious to someone who knew what they were doing!!

No wonder we had problems with BF at the start, I can’t help but wonder if things would have worked out differently if this has been picked up earlier on, I feel really angry that it’s not routinely checked for.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make if anyone wants advice on a similar situation is - if you suspect tongue tie and can afford it, get seen by sometime privately (it cost me £120 for a home visit from a lovely lady who came out 2 days after I first spoke to her) and if you can’t, irritate the shit out of your HV and GP to get them to do an NHS referral ASAP.

Also thanks for your input everyone who posted 😀

My 4 week old just had his tongue tie snipped... And it has made a big difference to his latch. I exclusively BF so it was a nightmare feeding him. There's still a learning process and not every latch is perfect but I've definitely seen him using his tongue a lot more, and he's taking less time to feed, falling asleep less on the breast, and we're having less reflux issues.