Tongue tied and not feeding well

[weebubbles]

Hi, my 3 month old is tongue tied and was only noticed 2 weeks ago by the HV. She said it would probably break off and nothing to worry about.

But since my baby was born he wouldnt breastfeed and would pull away from the bottle. He still pulls away from the bottle and he is still hungry but wont feed. The HV thought he had colic and then thought he had thrush but after medicine for these he still pulls away and gets frustrated cos he is still hungry. When I put the bottle back in his mouth he wont take it. He takes around 600ml a day when they say for his weight he should be on 850ml a day. He gained 10oz in 3 weeks.

Also he doesnt coo much and looks to be frustrated cos he cant.

He also chokes while taking his bottle and a lot of his milk dribbles out his mouth. He does this with different bottles and different size teats. We have spent a fortune on bottles and teats to get him to take his milk.

Has anyone else experienced this and what are my chances of geting it cut so he can feed better? as I think he cant feed well because of this.

 

[premmiemum123]

He might be having problems latching on due to the tongue tie and sometimes prematurity which is why feeds are becoming challenging. It can be frustrating for a LO. My LO was also premature (3 months) and is still mastering latching on and the suck, swallow, breathe flow. She sometimes takes the teat in her mouth and if she can't get a good latch on will fuss and cry.
Regarding the tongue tied, it runs in my OH family, thankfully my LO does not have it however his nephews both did and his mother insisted the doctors cut it. Our local hospital run tongue tied clinics, I only know as I spoke to the nurse that runs them as I wanted her to check my LO tongue. She said this condition is becoming quite common now. You should check out your local hospital or speak to your doctor about having it snipped, it is quite straight forward and might solve your problems.
Or you could change his teats...there are so many things to try...

 

[Twinkles]

We have just taken our little boy to our doctors because we believe he has tongue tie, the doc has referred him to Alder Hey and we have an appointment to see a consultant next month. Im so annoyed that nobody checked his tongue through all the time we struggled to feed. Jacob had to be fed by syringe the first few days and was totally unable to latch, he was even on donor milk and my heart broke, when i think back to the anguish it could of saved us if the nurses had just snipped it right there and then,i get so angry. I did persevere with the breastfeeding but Jacob never opened his mouth very wide and never seemed to get a good latch, he did put on weight week after week but then when we hit 5 months he actually lost weight and i had had enough so switched to formula, well he shot forward like a rocket after that, he put on so much weight so quickly - like he was catching up, poor poor boy i feel so bad for not realising that there was a problem, we only noticed last month when we saw his tongue was grooved and he couldnt stick it out.
Jacob also struggles a bit with his bottle, almost like his tongue gets tired and he cant form a vacuum with the teat properly but for me this is 100% improvement from the breastfeeding.

My advice, get it sorted now, absolutely insist on it and dont let the doc's tell you to wait and see how it goes because later down the line the procedure becomes far more complicated for them.

Good luck x

 

[bex]

I haven't got any experience of tongue tie but Niamh has Pierre Robin sequence and her tongue sits very far back as her bottom jaw is very small so her tongue movement is very limited similar to a tongue tie. We use squeezy bottles with Niamh as she also has a cleft palate but i was wondering if squeezy bottles may help your little one as they wouldn't need to suck quite so much as you would be helping them. We now use Tommee Tippee nuby bottles with Niamh and they are fab for us.

 

[premmiemum123]

Do get it done. My partner had his done when he was 5 years old then needed speech therapy.

 

[weebubbles]

Hi, thank you for all your answers. I went to the doctor and he is referring us to a hospital in Edinburgh that does the procedure.
I thought I was going to have to fight to get him referred but the doctor just did it.
Hopefully I will get an appointment at the hospital. I am worried incase the hospital say that we are not getting an appointment or when we get there they refuse to do it.
Fingers crossed that wont happen

 

[Twinkles]

Good luck hon! Glad you didnt have any opposition on it either. Now we're in the same boat fngers crossed our little babs get sorted ASAP x

 

[emmajane]

Oliver was tongue tied too and luckily a midwife spotted it when he was 2 weeks old (although I am annoyed it took them that long) and he had it cut at the hospital. It was 80% and quite a tight one too so I had hoped that a magic chance would happen straight away with his feeding but it didn't happen totally that way. He is most def a better feeder now but it did happen very gradually. Its such a shame that the midwives/Health Visitors haven't spotted it before as it could have made life a lot easier for you all. The procedure was really quick and simple though. He fed straight after and has not had any problems with it since.

 

[premmiemum123]

Great to hear you are getting it sorted.

 

[special_kala]

My LO has tongue tie and has an appointment tomorrow to get it cut. Im scared as it sounds so horrible

We had the same problem you do, wouldnt latch on to breast and when she did just kept pushing it back out. We have switched to FF and she is constantly falling asleep on her bottle. Im thinking that possible its because she is still having to work harder at sucking and just gets tired easier.

Have you had your appointment yet? How did it go?
x