Tongue tie snip recovery

[Catarinah]

My little boy had his posterior tongue tie snipped 4 days ago (he was 4 weeks old, now 5 weeks). My nipples are sore from 4 weeks of breastfeeding with a poor latch so I am currently alternating between using and not using nipple shields. How long until his latch improves? I think I have vasospasm as my nipples appear blanched after feeds and cold weather/temperatures hurt my breasts but I am determined to power through and give him time to adjust to his new mobile tongue. P. S he was 3 weeks early and weighed 5lb5oz, but is now 7lb7 so is gaining really well considering his TT and my pain!

2 of my DN's had tongue tie and took them both around 10-14 days I think.

My ds2 had tt snip too. I had to teach him to latch properly again as he had his own technique which was agony for me. My HV was amazing coming regularly to help me. It took a few days of perseverance but we got there. She showed me a technique of using my good the push his chin down and open his mouth then just pop the nipple in which helped massively. Well done for powering through.

Good? Should say boob lol

Tbh even after the tongue tie snip I had to carry on using the shields as my lo never really managed to sort it out. I did eventually stop, but probably that was 8 months plus. So probably not much help.

Fwiw I always had no issue with milk supply that some suggest can happen with shields.

@Ange211 can you explain your technique a bit more please? I'll try anything. His sucking etc is good and he does open wide to latch, but not wide enough... Or when he does he can't hold the wide latch for long (right now anyway) and tends to slip. Will things get better as his mouth gets bigger?

I hope I won't struggle with milk supply either if anything I'm overproducing and had mastitis as a result!

I feel your pain. DD had a TT and learned an agonising latch. Even after it was cut (around 5 weeks old), it was still unbelievably painful for me. I ended up expressing until she was 3/4 months and FFing her.

When she was around a week old, I ended up in hospital with mastitis after DH couldn’t wake me up. DD was also so upset because she couldn’t latch and when she did, the majority of the milk just dribbled out of her mouth. We were both miserable.

She is now a fit and healthy 6yo. She is very rarely ill and is thriving in every way.

Whatever happens, your DS will be fine.

I felt like dd was feeding a bit better straight away but one week after the snip she still hadn't put any weight on, I was gutted and wondered if it hadn't helped after all. Another week later she put on a little bit and after that she gained really steadily every week.

Every feed leaves me crying because of the pain, my nipples are destroyed and even shields hurt. The thought of having to move to forumla now (only days after TT snip) breaks my heart. He is constantly hungry too he is on my breast ALL THE TIME. If he's not asleep (which is most of the time) the only place he can be without crying is on my breast. Very tiring.

Hi @Catarinha - it's really, really hard right now but I promise it does get better. My DD had her tongue tie snipped at around five weeks old and she's eight weeks now. I felt an immediate improvement BUT it was completely dependent on getting DD to latch properly, which was hit and miss - even now she gets lazy and slips back into old 'bad habits' and I might have to take her off and put her back on several times. Sometimes I get lazy too (usually at 3am!) and just leave it if it's bearable, which is bad, I know . . . this means that it's still slightly painful but completely bearable; nothing like the old agony.

I think the key for you will be to persevere with getting the latch right - I found this video really helpful::

As your DS' mouth gets bigger, it will get easier too, as he'll naturally take in more of the areola.

Have you considered pumping and giving your nipples a break by giving a bottle with expressed milk every now and again? I do this - DH does the 10pm and 1am feeds. The rest come from me. I used nipple shields for a few days as well - carry on, if you need them. If I hadn't used them to let my nipples heal, I probably would have given up as I'd started to panic when DD needed feeding; I'd almost recoil, which was horrible.

I'm not quite at the point where breastfeeding is completely painless and enjoyable but I can definitely foresee that this will be the case eventually.

Having said all that, if you decide to switch to formula feeding, please don't beat yourself up! You tried your best! Don't spend these precious few weeks being miserable - you'll enjoy your baby a lot more when you're not stressed and jn pain!

This diagram explains it. Hope it helps.

Hey PP I feel your pain. My nipples were scabbed and bleeding at every feed when I had my DS TT snipped. I was so ready to throw in the towel.. But I'm still bfing now and I got through it. Here is how!

1. sort the latch so the old mistakes can't happen again. The best thing my private lactation consultant (I was really desperate to get bfing to work!) said was to get babies chin on the breast. Tickle their nose with the nipple, but hold the nipple back until the baby opens their mouth wide. Then almost drag/push the baby over the nipple so the nipple is the last thing in their mouth and the top lip is just keeping it in. This way they get a nice mouthful of breast and don't end up nipple sucking!

2. fix your nipples. You can buy something called Jelonet which was the only thing that stopped my nipples from re scabbing and bleeding at every feed. You cut a little square and leave it on the nipple between feeds, replacing it every feed so your nipple doesnt dry out. It took about 2 days for the nipples to get into a place where they weren't that sore anymore.

Hope these things work for you!

How are you getting on now @Catarinah?

Hi everyone. I think we've turning a bit of a corner as I've been feeding without shields past 2 days and using shields for night feeds (he tends to nurse for over an house at night for comfort). I tend to rate the pain of feeds so I can reflect and I'd say they're now 4/10 on average... And last week they were an easy 8...

Ahhh that's brilliant, @Catarinah! Well done!

Both of my babies had tongue ties which were divided. As they grow they get better at sucking and developing their latch. It just gets progressively easier and more comfortable . After a big struggle at the beginning I managed 13 months with DS 2. Keep going - it will get better!

Thank you, that's reassuring to hear. He was 5lb5oz at birth and now 7lb14... He's gained 11oz in the last week :)

Spoke too soon... Very painful again tonight :(

Ah that's a shame. Do you have any professional support you can access? My HV was brilliant when I went through this with ds2.

My hv is rubbish. I think he's having a growth spirt so he's been on me constantly last 24 hours

@catarinah that's a shame. Maybe contact the maternity hospital and see if they can refer you to a lactation consultant? Have you tried a sling? My ds2 was really clingy and I found wearing him in a sling helped so he was close to me but not feeding aaaaalllll the time (don't get me wrong it was still lots of feeding) but helped a bit X

Keep going, my DD had TT and DS too but with DS it grew back in 2-3 days of being snipped so had to have it snipped again. After that it got a lot better so go and get him checked again!

Also ds had torticollis which was causing him to pull on one nipple. I got a paediatric physio to help (not a cranial osteopath as it's just woo) and that sorted it out completely. Glad I carried on as now at 6 months feeding is a breeze

My DC is 10 weeks and had his snipped at 8 weeks. I was warned it could take up to 4 weeks for him to learn how to latch properly again and even then it’s not guaranteed if the baby is over 2 weeks old. 2 weeks onwards and I’ve noticed an improvement in sucking (he can now drain a breast) but the pain has gotten worse as he doesn’t want to cover his gums with his tongue. I am just managing the pain now - so hot / cold therapy as needed, expressing, and alternating between paracetamol and ibuprofen for the pain. I am determined to power through until he teethed but probably won’t be able to breastfeed much longer after that

I don't think it's grew back, he's moving his tongue loads and I can still see the wound hole under his tongue. I think I'm sore because he had a growth spirt and was on me (no exaggeration) for about 16 hours in a 24 hour period a few days ago so my nipples took a hit again... I'm just hoping he'll get better at it as his mouth gets bigger. Heat therapy helps as I've got vasospasm which is painful in this cold weather. I've fed him this morning without and the pain was 5/10 ish. I think I'll have to take each day as it comes and hope it'll improve.

Vasospasm hurts! It'll get better when he's bigger and his latch improves but also check your bras, with my DD I found my bra actually causes the vaspospasm as it kind of crushed my nipple. I switched and it got better