Frenulotomy to help with breastfeeding (tongue tie)

[Agut]

Hi All,

I'm a mum of a two month old girl and wanted to ask if anyone had any experience with frenulotomy - was it painful for your baby, were there any side effects / complications. Has it resolved your breastfeeding issues? Has anyone had issues with reattachment?We've had breastfeeding difficulties and were referred to a tongue tie specialist. They are suspecting slight posterior tongue tie which is why she's possibly not latching on properly and breastfeeding is challenging - she needs both breast and formula after every single feed. I really wanted to breastfeed but as it is now it's not very sustainable so basically the decision I've got to make is whether it's worth putting her through this procedure and keep trying or pack it in and stick to formula. Whatever is best for her really.. Please share your experience.

My DD had tongue tie - I’m not 100% sure but I think it was posterior too. Like you it made breastfeeding very challenging and for the first 6 weeks I was BF, pumping to bottle feed, and also topping up with formula as needed. We had the tongue tie procedure in an NHS hospital when she was about 6 weeks old and it made a huge difference. The thought of having the procedure is upsetting, but honestly it just took seconds ans was definitely worth it. After that her breastfeeding improved so much and I continued breastfeeding until she was just under a year. Hope this is helpful and wishing you all the best!

@spottycoat276thanks so much. In the aftermath, how long did the healing take place? I've been told that in that time you need to b careful and sterilise which we are doing anyway but for some reason it made me a bit nervous...

@spottycoat276 Also, have you also had latching issues and was it so from the beginning. It weird but my girl could definitely do it and somehow lost this ability along the way no matter how hard I try to put her on the breast 'properly'

It was about 18 months ago so I can’t remember all the details but it didn’t take long to heal. I think the mouth heals very quickly because there are so many blood vessels there or something? We were told to look out for signs of infection (pus etc) but nothing like that happened. Yes she had issues latching right from the start.

DD2 had a 90% tongue tie which was divided at 9 weeks. We had poor weight gain and very few poos from the start, despite everyone saying her latch looked good. Saw 6 or 7 different NHS professionals, eventually a private TT specialist who diagnosed it straight away. We had to have it divided privately as the NHS in our area won't divide if you are topping up with more than 50% formula (which i already was to stop the weight loss).

The procedure went OK, but we had a long and difficult healing process, which ended up with a SALT referral. I think we were unlucky though as noone else i know has had the same issue. Some improvement in milk supply / transfer but not enough to move to EBF. I continued bf + top ups until she was 9months old and then switched to fully formula until moving to cows milk at 1.

Are you pumping? I had an older child and couldn't commit to an 8x per day pumping regime whilst waiting for the division and i think the damage had already been done to getting bf established.

Whilst waiting for the TT to get sorted, I did 4 x osteopath sessions with DD2, which i think helped as well.

@Slowfeedingbaby Thanks so much. This is what I worry about that, that I will do it and something may go wrong and cause her unnecessary pain and complications just because I find it difficult to let go of breastfeeding. Meanwhile shes also perfectly happy with her bottle and would probably be just fine if I stopped. I am pumping but even with one it's a challenge time wise as in every waking window she feeds both from bottle and breast which takes time. Also it does not solve the latching issue

@Slowfeedingbabyhow did the osteopath help?

They identified that she held her body in a certain way due to the tongue tie - like if we always tilted our heads to one side. She had been breech until 2 days before birth as well so probably all squished up in the wrong position too. So they worked on some of the tightness in her head and jaw. I was very sceptical before going but she always had such a long good sleep afterwards that I figured even in the worst case, it was just like a good massage for her. Just make sure you find a properly qualified / accredited one.

We went to a speech therapist who identified very slight ties in the front of my baby’s mouth and also that her tongue was a bit big so she was getting tired having to hold it up during feeding. She gave us some massages to do on baby’s mouth and I had to put my finger under her chin while she fed, and it saved my breastfeeding.
I could ditch the formula and went to EBF. The speech therapist helped several of my friends with similar issues too. If it’s not a severe tie, it could be worth looking into finding a speech therapist

@Caipullithanks so much. I saw online that potentially if it is small then some exercises might help. Didn't realise SLT could help with such small babies. That's good to know and that the exercises helped. ❤️

My DD fed after the division with an improved latch

2 of my children had TT, one 90% plus. Both had the procedure within a couple of weeks of birth. No side effects or after effects at all. Except that the 90% one could then feed properly.

Both cried for a second then I fed them and they were fine. They were newborns though but I imagine still if you feed straight away that will soothe.