Could a mild tongue-tie affect bottle feeding?

[mothercourage]

I'm desperately trying to get my 9 week old to take a bottle and have been for some weeks now. Have tried every brand of bottle and teat out there (from newborn to fast flow), different positions while feeding, various kinds of formula, expressed milk, I've varied the temperature of the milk, waited til she's super hungry, got my partner to try, done it at different times of the day...you name it. She gets irate but am wondering if that's because of an inability to suck on a teat due to her little tongue-tie? It doesn't affect breast feeding so I didn't get it snipped at birth but am wondering if it's something I should do now?

No GP appointments at DMC for 2 weeks I've just been told so will try tomorrow morning to get a referral but in the meantime wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience with a positive outcome?

[Designerjooles]

Your doing the right thing - take her to the GP to check it out. But i would also take her to the Townley Rd clinic on the drop in morning as they are the experts (more than a GP) when it comes to mothering/feeding etc.

As far as i know though - tounge-tie does affect feeding but haven't had experience myself.

[ryedalema]

Yes absolutely - our littlest had a tongue-tie and I think there's quite a thread on this if you look using the search function.

It's really easy to sort - they have wonderful ladies at Kings (which is a tongue-tie centre for the South East I believe).

I'd be happy to chat more if you want to pm - but just get your little one looked at, and persevere if you don't get referred to Kings - I think some docs aren't as good at reading the signs as some..

[hellosailor]

Hi Mothercourage,

I'm no expert but wanted to add that our your daughter sounds very much like our daughter was - she is tongue tied which also hasn't ever been treated as it was only diagnosed at 6 months, after 6 months of difficulty with breast feeding (issued was confused as also had reflux so was hard to tell why it was going badly, referral got lost etc)

She was also a VERY reluctant bottle feeder - refused completely, no matter what we tried (everything you've described and more!) until she was over 6 months.

The breast feeding and tongue tie specialists at kings did not think it was likely that TT could affect bottle feeding,as they said that it was an easier action, as it were, than breast feeding with tongue tie. My feeling was also that this was not the reason she refused - it wasn't as if she was happily taking the bottle in her mouth wanting to feed from it and then finding it hard, she clearly didn't want us to even put it into her mouth. Sometimes when she was asleep and we gave tried giving her a couple of ounces from a bottle at the dream feed she would take it in that zonked out state, but never knowingly by day, so it was pretty clear it was not that she physically couldn't drink from a bottle.

If she isn't having trouble breast feeding as her TT is so mild, my gut feeling is that it is not the reason she is resisting the bottle (but as I say I'm no expert!) - I have several friends whose babies never took the bottle despite months of trying, with no apparent reason other than they didn't want to -frustrating I know!

If you are considering having her snipped then I would do it as quickly as possible - forgive me if this is information you already have, but for a period after the procedure (apologies, I forget if it's 2 or 3 weeks) you have to make sure that you wake your baby at night to get them to feed every couple of hours because if you don't then the wound heals over very quickly as the mouth is so good at healing itself, rendering the procedure pointless.) I have a friend who couldn't face doing this as regularly as that, and within days the procedure had to be re-done as it is essential to do it to make the snip permanent.

My long winded point is that this was not an option for us at 6 months old when my daughter had been sleeping through for months, she would no more have fed once, let alone every two hours in the night than you or I would want to! They did say I could 'weke her up to cry' instead if I wanted the procedure, but again, the idea of waking my daughter up to get her to cry every couple of hours at night when she was a good sleeper, was very unappealing. They also said that naturally, the procedure is more unpleasant for the baby the older they are = one of the reasons the cut off point for offering it is 6 months at kings - and as she was 6 months a few days after diagnosis we didn't want to put her through that, plus the night wakings etc.

So perhaps there's an argument to say that if you do think you want it done, better to do it now, before your baby is in a sleep pattern that it would be very difficult to disrupt, than see how it's going in a few weeks.

I have lots of tips for getting babies to take the bottle, sounds like you've tried a fair few of them but I will pm them now in case there's anything of use that you haven't tried.

Good luck!

[Jacks50]

My daughter was TT but it wasn't picked up until she was 8 or 9 weeks. She found it easier to bottle feed then bf. She had the tt snip at about 12 weeks and it was awful and I wouldn't do it again!

If I remember correctly kings will only do the snip if its going to help with bf, not bottle feeding. I'm sure its worth trying to talk to someone about it though.

I think babies who have been bf often refuse the bottle. Some people suggest you introduce it early - around 3 weeks. but then you have the whole nipple confusion thing, so you can't win!

Maybe the clinic at Townley road will be able to give you some advice - and they'll defiantly refer you to the clinic at kings if they think baby needs it.

Good luck!

[mothercourage]

Thanks everyone. I must admit having the procedure done is not something I relish the thought of so will only do it if I really think it necessary. Good suggestion to go to Townley Rd clinic, will do that and see what they say.

hellosailor, your bottle from boob switchover tips are absolutely brilliant. Will be going through them with a fine tooth comb and trying to implement the ones I haven't yet tried. Am going to give Dr Browns and playtex teats a whirl too - they're about the only ones I haven't stocked up on yet.

Think there's a lot to be said for establishing a bottle in the early weeks but am determined not to give up!

Thanks again for all your advice.

[anna_r]

A breastfed baby rejecting bottle at that age is so common. My second (diagnosed and snipped TT at 3 weeks) rejected til 13 months when I gave up brestfeeding then she accepted bottle a month later. My first also rejected bottles for several months. Get checked by Claire Kedves. Fuschia posted a great thread with photos about how to tell if your baby is TT recently xx