QUESTION: My baby has been diagnosed as being tongue-tie. I am getting very discouraged because he does not seem to like to nurse on the left breast for more than 3 minutes. He does not seem satisfied. He eats well on the right He takes a very long time to nurse. I can sit for 1.5 hours before he is finished. I have started giving him about 4 bottles of beast milk a day and and nursing about three times a day. He seems satisfied longer when I do that.

I have plenty of milk . I want to know why he doesn't seem satisfied when I nurse him and he does when I feed him a bottle. I have asked my doctor, other nursing women, and a mid-wife. They all keep telling me there is nothing wrong. I do not want to sit for 1.5 hours each time to nurse because I have a 17 month old to take care of.

Please Help!





By tongue tie, do you mean that there is a thin but strong piece of skin under his tongue preventing him from sticking out his tongue beyond his lower gum ridge?

If so, this is called a tight frenulum, and this prevents him from sucking well. The artificial nipple of the bottle is easier to get milk from. All he has to do is compress his gums and suck in his cheeks. On your breast, he must work his tongue back and forth and up and down, and his short frenulum is preventing this.

This is very easy to fix. Tell, don't ask, your doctor to clip it. It is painless and if done correctly, virtually bloodless, and will make all the difference in the world, not just now, but when he begins to talk. Tell the doctor you want to prevent the need for expensive speech therapy when he is older. If your doctor won't do this, find one who will. Go back to the person who told you the baby was tongue tied, and ask them for the name of a doctor who will clip the piece of skin. Do this tomorrow.

Good luck.
Debbie Rabin, OTR, CLC





 

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