Does anyone have any experience with a tongue tied baby?

D

december05

Registered User
Dear all,
I just gave birth on Monday and I've been breastfeeding my baby. He has the correct latch (according to the consultants at the hospital) but it is still so painful when he feeds. My nipples are sore and they even bled a bit yesterday. One of the nurses mentioned that he looked a bit tongue tied and that could be why it is hurting me because he is using his gums instead of tongue to breastfeed. I've heard of having the frenulum clipped - does anyone have any experience with this or can recommend a doctor we can go see?
Thanks!
 
I don't have experience with tongue tied baby, but I do remember that when I started breastfeeding, it also hurt.... It lasted for at least 1 week or 2, and I had to use lot of lanolin cream after each feeding (usually would rub my nipples with some breast milk, and then apply the cream once they are dry.... Don't remember exactly when it stopped hurting, and didn't need the lanolin cream at all anymore....
 
Breastfeeding a tongue-tied baby can be much more painful than what we would normally encounter in breastfeeding. My friend in India went through this. In her case, she went to pediatrician after pediatrician who wouldn't diagnose the problem, which was finally pointed out by a representative from La Leche League and then confirmed by one pediatricians. After the surgery, which they did in three rounds I think as the surgeon was scared of clipping off too much, breastfeeding was so much better. If you cannot get any help on this on this forum, I would suggest contacting La Leche League here in HK. They might have experience working with tongue-tied babies and also might be able to recommend a specialist.
 
PS: I would like to add that the whole process was quite a struggle for my friend, which she went through because she was determined to breastfeed. Many mums of tonguetied babies seem to switch to bottle-feeding, either expressing or formula. Anyway, I would try to confirm the diagnosis of a tongue-tie first.
 
December: I had the same problem with the tormenting pain. It should only be temporary. Should only last about 2 weeks or so. Use the lanolin ointment it will help. Soon it wont be sore and painful. tip on using the lanolin ointment..it's extremely greasy so try not to get in contact with your clothes, especially on cotton. It will leave a stain and regular detergent just won't do the job. Hope this helps.

One of the nurses had also made a comment about my bb having a mild tongue tie after i gave birth. My ped said not to worry about the tongue tie as long as she is latching well.
 
My 2.5 year-old first son had tongue tie, for which he had a surgery four months ago. It was painful to breastfeed him the first three weeks after he was born, but I'm not sure if it was due to tongue tie, because I felt as much pain to nurse my 2nd son as my first one, and he doesn't have tongue tie . As others said, most people go through pain from breastfeeding the first three weeks before your nipples get toughened up, and you just have to persevere during that time. My first son latched OK, and had no problem with feeding (and later chewing), so that?s why we found out about his tongue tie only much later when we started worrying about his speech delay and saw a speech therapist. If your baby is latching OK, and your pediatrician cannot give you a convincing answer whether your baby has tongue tie, then maybe your nursing pain has nothing to do with tongue tie. But if you are still worried, I can recommend an ENT specialist Dr Hui Yau at Pedder Clinic. He operated on my son's tongue tie. You can find contact info at this website:

http://www.pedderclinic.hk

I hope that helps. Good luck!
 
Oh and I can add that I saw Dr. Hui for my baby's incessant cold and asked him to check if she had a tongue tie (because breastfeeding her was so much more painful than my son) and he said she didn't. So I think he can be relied upon to make a good judgement and not just say there is a tongue tie if there isn't. I really liked him overall.
 
Sorry I have to disagree with the Dr Hui recommendation - after reading this thread I went to him this morning with my 1 year old son. I had him in a carrier and Dr Hui told me not to take him out (in a manner that I would be wasting (his) time by taking the baby out), I did it anyway because it's clearly very uncomfortable for him in a carrier while I'm sitting down.

He tried to assess my son's mouth with him sitting on my lap, without addressing my son or tried to ease him in, so of course any one-year-old would struggle when a masked man comes in with bits of metal poking in his mouth. Throughout the 1-minute assessment, he made absolutely no attempt to calm my son down. He could barely get my son to open his mouth, then decides that my son's frenelum is thick (agree, as with the other docs' diagnosis) and it's very forward (totally disagree, I had it assessed with other docs and I can see it is not when he opens his mouth - of which he didn't at Dr Hui's office).

After discovering my son is tongue-tied, we have tried to get him to stick his tongue out to get a good look at it, and sometimes he does it on cue, so I tried to get him to do it at the doctor's office, but Dr Hui cuts me off, saying 'don't waste your time, of course he won't do it', Dr Hui just constantly talked over me while I was trying and didn't even give my son a chance, again, in a manner that we are taking up his precious time (that we are paying for!!!)

He asked no questions about my son's development, actually he asked no questions at all except what's wrong with him and how I found the clinic. He and his nurses showed not an ounce of care nor a smile, tried to shove me out the door the entire time I was there (no more than 5 mins tops), gave me the shortest answers to my questions and volunteered no information. This experience cost me 1300 bucks!

What made me more upset was the entire reception army (like 5 of them) were unfriendly, did not smile, the one who served me spat out the amount, left my receipt and card on the counter, didn't even say thanks and avoided any sort of eye contact. WTF. The whole place felt commercial and we were all just dollar signs to them. I have seen many doctors and specialists, this is the second-worst experience I have had - let's save number one for another time!!
 
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