Tongue tie trouble

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My little boy was tongue tied for 3 weeks without anyone noticing! It wasn’t until he was 4 weeks old until I was able to get it sorted. It took approximately a further week for him to get used to it being untied. That first month was pretty hard but we got through it. Here's a little debrief of the month, what tongue tie actually is, and ways of spotting it..

Straight away from when Xander was born he struggled with feeding. He cried the whole time in hospital, kept pushing me away when I tried feeding him. The midwife suggested my milk still needs time to kick in. I was planning on solely breastfeeding but by that evening I was getting worried, as he had been crying most of the day. I ended up phoning the hospital back and they also said that my milk probably hasn't kicked in and to try bottle feeding him but to keep trying the breast to help with producing. It was pretty late on Boxing day evening, no shops were open and I had no formula. It was a long night of no sleeping. Connor was at Tesco for 6am. The formula has a very similar affect, he would take some and pull away, nothing really settled him.When he did settle it was only because he had cried himself to sleep.

One midwife told me that it takes some woman a few days before they start producing enough milk. Xander didn't really play ball and seemed to be settled whenever the midwife was visiting, think they thought I was exaggerating just a new mum panicking. One time when the health visitor came she saw me feeding, he started pulling away and crying. She thought maybe he hasn't got a good latch and offered to help but I knew the latch was fine from when I previously breastfeed Ryker.

This continued for 3 weeks of him not settling, not sleeping much, but I kept persevering and it got to the point where I spent most of the day feeding him (well trying to). It did work because my chubby bubby was putting on weight so me re-latching him over and over helped.

Eventually after research I realised that he was tongue tied.Thankfully my local hospital had just started a breastfeeding walk in clinic that deals with tongue ties. The lady there told me he has the worse kind of tongue tie and would almost definitely have speech problems if its not cut. I was booked in for the following week.

It was a very short procedure. They wrap the baby in a muslin/blanket, and its a quick snip with a pair of very sharp scissors(which they let us keep as they have to throw them anyway). He cried but stopped near enough straightaway when I started feeding him. There wasn't even too much blood which was a bonus as I don't do blood and I was already scared as it was. My babies first mini operation.

Warning signs your baby could be tongue tied:
Still fussing after a feed.
Not latching on properly (To nipple/teat).
Dribbling milk out whilst feeding.
Not poking tongue out.
Not putting on weight.

Its important if you have any of these issues just to mention tongue tie to the midwife, health visitor, or even go see your local doctor. It is very easy for them to check. The longer you leave it, the more problems it causes.

Thank you for reading I hope my experience might help some mums out there. Feel free to leave your stories in the comments section.