Anyone have experience with lip/tongue ties? Help please!

[LilMiss_91]

Hi everyone,
My son is 2.5yrs old now but when he was born I had a nightmare of a time trying to breastfeed him. He refused to latch at the hospital and they had to give me syringes and cups to supplement. Once I got home then he would only latch in football hold whilst I used my hand to compress the breast (sort of like hand expressing) and this was the only way he would feed for the first couple of weeks. If I stopped compressing he would immediately unlatch. And then he began to refuse to latch at all and when I finally managed to get him on he would be on and off and not able to stay on for more than a few minutes. I had one case of blocked ducts/mastitis, and getting him latched was very painful, he was very windy and colicy and didn't sleep that well and he has always had a very delicate gag reflex and can be sick at the drops of a hat if he coughs once too mamy time or gags on a mouthful of food etc. To my knowledge nobody ever checked him for ties etc and I got no help from the midwives apart from being told to "just keep trying", as if I wasn't! I ended up expressing and bottlefeeding using the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles but it was like he couldn't get far enough onto the teat to create a seal? He'd have gaps at the corners of his mouth where the milk would dribble out and he would take air in. In the end we had to swap to a longer narrower teat and since then he's had no issues. Now I am pregnant with number 2 and I want to try breastfeeding again but terrified of having the same experience again so I have been researching and I *think* my son may have an upper lip tie. He has what I think is good tongue mobility so I don't think a tongue tie is present but I could be wrong. Anyway, what I'm trying to say A) I know nobody here can give a diagnosis but did anyone have the same issues where it did turn out to be a tie? And B) I have an appointment with a GP on Tuesday but from what I've read since I made the appt I'm not sure if he will be the right person to diagnose if it is indeed a tie? Where did you all go to get your diagnosis/how was it picked up and by who? Thanks in advance

 

[mrssat]

Hey! My ds (2nd child) had a tongue tie. 75% apparently which is pretty severe. He initially started OK - latched well etc but a few days into feeding he just couldn't stay on. It was awful he'd get so frustrated as would I! I persevered & hired a pump which was fab so he got my milk from bottles which he had no problems with. I still kept trying with the breast every feed & sometimes it would OK ish but I know something wasn't right. I came across ties online & took him to the feeding consultant at the hospital the lady who runs it is fab & well known in the area amongst feeding mum's for being very knowledgeable. I told her my suspicions & she popped her fingers under his tongue & sure enough she confirmed it was tied. She at the time was training to do the procedure to correct this but wasn't able to perform this just yet so she referred me to a doc at the hospital to get it snipped. It was a while for the appointment but worth it. It was snipped in his sleep he woke for a second but went straight back to sleep. He didn't really take to breast feeding after but I had accepted that. I was still pleased he had it snipped because given the severity of his I think his speech would have been effected.
With this one I plan to have it checked ASAP by the midwifes present at birth or go straight to see the same lactation consultant - I've already checked that she is still there & she is. I think I remember it being hereditary so want to get this checked ASAP.
I think a health visitor or go would be OK to start having lo checked but guess as long as he is OK & developing well they might not take any action.
I hope you have a better time with feeding bubs 2. GL hun x

 

[LilMiss_91]

Hi, thanks hun I'm just so frustrated right now. After looking at lots of pictures of lip ties I'm convinced that's what my son has.
Depending on the GP's opinion I'm not sure what my next steps will be. I don't want to get his tie revised, I just want to know if that is indeed what his issue is so I can better prepare for this baby. I'm researching like a crazy person! I think I've done more revision for this appointment with the Doc than I did for any of my A Level exams :doh:
I read something yesterday that said that other midline "deformities" in the same group as lip/tongue ties include extra/missing teeth (I have an extra tooth that never came through, only found recently via x-ray)a nd cleft palates. There are 2 children in my family born with cleft palates and one born with a tongue tie. When I mentioned it to my OH he said, "oh so it's your fault then". He meant it in a jokey way but I honestly wanted to simultaneously burst into tears and punch his lights out

 

[LilMiss_91]

By the way, do you mind me asking if your DS didn't take to breastfeeding because of the procedure or because it had sort of slipped away because you needed to combi feed beforehand? That's my biggest worry if this baby has a tie and we have it revised, that she won't be able/want to breastfeed afterwards anyway and the procedure will have sort of have been for nothing :/

 

[noon_child]

By the way, do you mind me asking if your DS didn't take to breastfeeding because of the procedure or because it had sort of slipped away because you needed to combi feed beforehand? That's my biggest worry if this baby has a tie and we have it revised, that she won't be able/want to breastfeed afterwards anyway and the procedure will have sort of have been for nothing :/

Lots of babies feed the moment the tie is done and the change can be amazing, however the longer it takes to get it done the more aversions both parties can develop to breastfeeding so it can be hard to get it back if you've bern struggling for months.

 

[lau86]

Ds1 had a tongue tie, we had very similar problems to you. He didn't latch well I needed nipple shields, my nipples were cracked and sore, milk dribbled, he was very colicky and windy. I had mastitis twice and thrush. It was awful.
I had a charity called homestart come and watch me feeding, the first few people who came told me my nipples were over sensitive. It was only when the main lady came that the tongue tie was noticed. His was snipped at 6 weeks and everything was fine then. He still breastfed till 10 months.
Thankfully my younger two have not had these problems, so maybe your second baby will be fine!