Tongue tied

brandi6102 · September 2013

My friend just had her second child last week and found out he is tongue tied. Breastfeeding is not going well to say the least. Her breasts are scanned over and it is extremely painful. I am looking for some help for her.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Is bottle feeding easier for the baby?
Thank you in advance!

emmy236 · September 2013

DS was tongue tied. Breast feeding was extremely tough. We had to go to the ENT doctor and have his frenulum clipped. After we worked with the LC and he still had a really tough time. I ended up pumping and bottle feeding. It just wasn't worth the struggle to force nursing. He was constantly hungry and exhausted from working so hard to suck. Pumping is extremely hard but we made it but I had to do some supplemenation while I got my supply up. We still will try to nurse but its for bonding and comfort more than actually eating. But my little man regained all the weight he lost after birth (over 10%) and is now in the 78th percentile in weight at 15 weeks. Being tongue tied is a challenge but nothing that can't be over come.

Hmschultz · September 2013

LO was also tongue tied. I pumped and bottle fed as well after 2clips and 2 speech language pathologist consultations and six, yes SIX, LC visits. I came to the realization that babies just need to be fed when hungry- and fed with love. I did not want him to be stressed out when eating as his cry for food is he first communication with the world and I wanted him to know I heard him- I stopped trying to breastfeed and went to bottles. I cried for weeks and can cry right now if I allow myself to remember how sad I was during that time. Bottle feeding was easier but if he needs to be clipped do it early. LO needed to be trained on a bottle his suck swallow pattern was terrible. It would take 45 min to give him just a few ounces. We are Much better now but he's also almost five months old. Be sure that if you move to bottles you don't get any of the "better for breastfeeding nipples". Go WTH the traditional nipple like theone from. Dr browns. The is directly from the SLP who only deals with babies with suck swallow issues and has twenty years experice in the field and is also a lactation consultant.

jensriot · September 2013

DD2 was tongue tied and her pedi noticed it at her first appointment. Its been a while, but I think she was 2-2.5 weeks when it was clipped. Another pedi in our group did the procedure. It was quick and we had no trouble nursing right away. The pain during breastfeeding was insane before and got better over about a week after. We went on to EBF for 8 months. I know many women go longer, but given our initial struggle I was really happy with it.

lightgetsin · September 2013

DS had it clipped at 2 weeks. It made a HUGE difference with breastfeeding and he cried for about 30 seconds after it was done.

hyearwood00 · September 2013

My DD had hers clipped at 3 was by an ENT. It made a huge difference with her feeding and the pain it had been causing me. Nursing is now a pleasant experience for both of us!

natmom13 · September 2013

DS was tongue tied and we had his frenulum clipped at 1 week old. He was able to latched before it was cut but he does not latch well and sometimes not for long. I did notice an improvement after that.