How did it come about? Like breastfeeding my other two I had problems such as it really hurting and becoming sore and cracked. However this time when Joseph was crying I noticed that he tongue wasn't really moving due to the piece of skin that is attached. I googled tongue tie and his tongue was exactly the same. Both my other children had same but I wasn't google friendly then!
What is tongue-tie? From NHS
Tongue-tie is a birth defect that affects 3-10% of newborn babies.
Normally, the tongue is loosely attached to the base of the mouth with a piece of skin called the frenulum. In babies with tongue-tie, this piece of skin is unusually short, holding the tongue down and restricting its movement.
Tongue-tie doesn't always cause problems. Sometimes, the skin anchoring the tongue may be so thin that it soon breaks, for example if a spoon is accidentally pushed under the tongue.
However, in some cases tongue-tie is severe and the tongue is almost fused to the base of the mouth. This prevents the baby from feeding properly and also causes problems for the mother (see below).
Problems tongue-tie can cause? Also from NHS
Breastfeeding
Babies with severe tongue-tie will not be able to open their mouth wide enough to latch onto their mother's breast.
They cannot get any milk, so they end up sliding off the breast and chomping on the nipple with their gums. The mother's nipples soon become sore and the baby fails to gain much weight.
To breastfeed successfully, the baby needs to latch onto both breast tissue and nipple, and the baby's tongue covers the lower gum so the nipple is protected from damage.
My Story
Due to the pain I stopped feeding for 24 hours as I had been given a referral for the tongue tie to be snipped. I had to use nipple shields which cut my milk supply and personally I hated wearing them and breastfeeding became not an enjoyable experience! Due to the low milk I had to combine feed to satisfy Josephs hunger. It turned out Joseph had 100% tongue tie that would have restricted him with feeding from breast, bottle, spoon and even speech. After the tongue tie was cut I tried my hardest to up my supply without the shields for 2 weeks but it made no difference. I was so tired, upset, angry that the tongue tie had caused such problems to my son, me and my family. It was too late for me. Some mums persevere, I would of with baby no1 but Joseph is baby no3 and my other two are under 4 years so feeding for about an hour ever 3 hours or less was too much for me.
If I have another baby one day I will check the tongue asap and get it cut there and then if they have a tongue tie. I would love to breastfeed at least one of my children.
So sorry you had such a bad experience with this. My son has a tongue tie as well, but our situation was completely opposite from yours. The lactation consultant at the hospital pointed it out to me on the first day and started freaking out that I "had to have this taken care of immediately!" She made us super paranoid, and when we asked the Pediatrician for a referal to "fix it" he was more like "Get a grip people. This baby is growing perfectly fine!" We never did have it snipped, but Bubba managed to double in size before he was even 3 months old. You're definitely right though. If you're having trouble breastfeeding it's a good problem to check for.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! Thats brilliant that it didn't affect you and your baby! Its great that you weren't forced to have it cut. Unfortunatly my son had reflux too so that could have made feeding worse! Typical x
ReplyDeleteMy two (and their younger half brother on dad's side) are all tongue tied. Doctors wouldn't snip my son's tongue and he had trouble feeding. Thankfully my son and I worked it out and I was able to nurse him for 9 months. Now that they are older (18, 14 and 10), we consider it a fun family trait and my kids refuse to have them cut.
ReplyDeleteThats amazing that you were able to work it out on you're own. To be honest we did work it out with my first son but due to other factors only breast fed for 6 weeks. I don't think it could have been possible to not have Josephs cut as it was 100% so the worst of all the tie's. We have a family trait that we can curl our tongues. My other half has a small tongue tie and hes unable to do it!
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