Tongue Tie & weight gain??

[MummyHunter]

Hi,
My little girl is 8wks and 2 days old and was weighed today at 11lbs 2oz.
She was born weighing 8lbs 12.5oz and dropped down to 8lbs 9.5oz at 5 days and was back up to 9lbs 6oz at 15days so from day 15 to today she has gained 1lb 12oz in 43 days but has dropped from the 91st centile to the 50th.

She is constantly clicking when feeding no matter how many times I try to reposition her, her lips are flared out where they should be but she is getting in so much air she is constantly windy and brings up milk after every feed.

She was looked at today at the weighing clinic by a nursery nurse and the health visitor has just called me to say I need to go to gp for a referral if I want one but she says they won't always fix them as they are not that much of a problem.

What is anyone's opinion on what I should do?

 

[cupcaker]

Hi,

My son had a tongue tie which was spotted minutes after birth. The following day in hospital a specialist came to look at it and said it would probably be fine and didn't snip it. 4 weeks on I had suffered day after day with breastfeeding pain and I broke down to the health visitor saying I think his tongue needed looking at again. She immediately rang around and got me an appointment the very next day (and even an apology for not seeing me that very same day). He too made clicking noises although not throughout the feed.

He had the tongue tie snipped (I was told it was quite a bad one and why hadn't it been done before!) and there has sadly been no miraculous change to feeding pain (however I still feel happier that he had it done, I don't want it to cause any further problems in later life e.g. speech problems). However I've read on here about some people who had immediate changes for the better so it is worth considering.

After the snip, the midwife made me feed him to see how it went. He continued to make clicking sounds but she assured me that he was doing so on 'let downs' where he was trying to cope with the faster flow which I guess explains why it was on and off. If your baby clicks throughout the feed it's meant to be a sign of a bad 'seal' according to midwife who dealt with him.

I found differences in opinion in the midwifes/specialists I came across. The first person I saw about it was very "If it isn't causing a definite problem I'm leaving it alone, let's not go around snipping everything" to the next person who was "Let's try it anyway and see because it's a minor procedure". I was kind of relieved to hear the latter. As babies, it's such a minor thing. My baby didn't even wake up through the snip whatsoever. It becomes harder to deal with as they get older.

I think your health visitor should help out more if possible..they are the ones in the know and who have the right phone numbers etc for these things. Unless they are being funny because your baby is 8 weeks? When the health visitor rang up I must admit I heard her say something along the lines of "He's 4 weeks..will they still see him?" which might be why you've been fobbed off to GP...maybe they only 'look after' you for so long before passing on to doctors. Deffo push for it though if you are unhappy. x

 

[Egyptiangirl]

My little boy was diagnosed at 8 weeks with a posterior tongue tie which was previously missed by all midwives and hv. I had all the same symptoms when feeding and was at my wits end so i saw a private lactation consultant who referred me immediately to a pediatrician who performed the snip and it was treated as an emergency. Even though my lo was gaining weight. You should see a consultant who can refer you if your gp gives u the run around. I defo recommend the snip as although the latch and feeding wont improve overnight as baby has to learn to suck from scratch again, my lo is now 6 months and feeds brilliantly with no probs!! Its a real pleasure now

 

[CandyDay]

I was getting really sore and then my LO was diagonsed with TT. I got it snipped and right away it didn't hurt anymore. It was an easy procedure and am glad I got it done. If they do see one then I would say its a problem so that they snip it. The clicking could be a sign of TT and the slow down in wieght gain. The slow down in weight gain could be natural though as well.

 

[MummyHunter]

We have a GP appointment in an hour and a half so will see what they say.
Poor little girl has just fell asleep hungry as she has been too windy to feed properly
Doesn't help that she had her 1st immunisations yesterday and has a raised temperature and is just not herself since having them
Feel like the worst mummy in the world right now.

 

[MummyHunter]

GP confirmed she does have a tie so has referred is to hospital but it could take up to 3 weeks such a long time to wait when she is struggling

 

[Purplelila]

Hiya

I thought Id share my experience with you .
My DD had her tongue tie clipped twice once privately and then again on the NHS .
Privately it was done at 5 weeks and the NHS one at 9 weeks .
Neither made any difference to her latch at all or her weight gain for that matter , and I feel bad for putting her through it.
They say its not supposed to hurt them , but Im not sure . My DD screamed really loud both times as soon as they snipped and the second time she bled more than 'average'.

She was born on the 50th centile and now hovers between the 25th and 9th and I have been told this weight gain is perfectly fine. ( I was pumping x5 daily and alternating breastfeed/ expressed milk).

They say the snip is supposed to fix all those problems but it didnt in my case . I found that sticking it out has helped .

It also depends on who you see . If they think the pros of snipping outweigh the cons ie pain in mum, poor supply, poor weight gain etc then they go ahead and snip.

Looking back at what me and LO have been through if I had another baby that had a posterior TT I dont think Id snip.

 

[MummyHunter]

We have our appointment through now for 22nd May.

She has only gained 1oz this week don't know how she is growing length wise as they have never measured her and won't do it as they say there is a risk of damaging baby's hips.

 

[CandyDay]

For me the tongue snip worked wonders and the worst part of getting it snipped for her was them holding her still.
I would suggest using a supplemental nursing system...........feeding tube and use it after you have put her on both breasts and she is still hungry then she gets satisfied and she is on the breast only and not taking a bottle. Which will help with your supply.

 

[MummyHunter]

Just measured her length myself and she is 56.5cm which puts her on 25th centile and her weight is just under the 50th centile.
She is my 5th child and none of them are big. They have always plotted around 25th centile for weight and height except my middle girl who was always between the 2nd and 9th.
I am not going to concern myself too much about her weight at the moment as she is still happy and healthy, sleeps well between feeds and is fed completely on demand.
I did use a SNS with my middle girl as they said she was too small and it never did her any good, topping her up made no difference to her overall growth.

Think I just need to chill out and look at my happy girl - she did have her first vaccinations last week and has a cold so maybe a healthy gain is not to be expected this week, will see how she does next week.