Help! Possible upper lip tie? And tongue tie.

[aumismommy]

My son is 5 months old.  We have had bf'ing issues from the get go.  He feeds great when just waking up or right before a nap, which as a newborn was almost all the time so it wasn't as bad then.  Now that a few months have passed it is getting harder.  His mouth doesn't nurse it seems more like his lips are nursing.  I never see his tongue cupping my breast at all.  He is very gassy, always grunted and really pushed to poop.  We've done CST, Bowen, massage, to see what the problem is.  Recently, at a visit to the mw's (he's been getting weighed every week for the last 4 weeks to see how he's doing cuz he wasn't putting on weight like we wanted) we noticed his tongue had a heart shaped tip.  Seems after a bunch of research and talking with the mw's that he has a tongue tie.  It doesn't go all the way to the tip of his tongue but when he's crying (which we try not to have happen often, but) his tongue is on the bottom of his mouth.  The sides lift, but not the center.  And when he plays with his tongue to blow bubbles, and "talk" to us, his tongue only goes so far as the end of his upper lip. 

I felt better after learning this and that we could have it fixed...now I'm looking at his upper lip.  My husband and I have always wondered about his mouth since he was born because: when sleeping his lower jaw depresses in and back and his upper lip "floats" doesn't connect to lower lip to close his mouth, sometimes it does, but 80% of the time his mouth sits slightly open.  Also, his upper gum line, between where his two upper teeth would be there is a smoosh (nice vocab huh) of flesh.  Like an inverted channel.  Not as in cleft palate at all, but opposite.  I remember when my two adult front teeth came in how I had a little dangly down piece of skin/gum there and it hurt as my two front teeth grew closer together.  Does this make sense?Anyway, now I just swept my finger under his upper lip and the frenulum goes from not quite the tip of his lip maybe a few mm's away from that, to almost the tip of his gumline, where the dangly down piece of skin is. 

His latch has never felt like it was right.  He often pops off and has to relatch.  Now that he is interactive he only nurses for a few moments then sits up frustrated then I have to coax him back on. 

Please help...thoughts?  experience?

[PatioGardener]

Definitely sounds like a tongue-tie - so sorry your midwife or doc didn't catch it earlier! 

Are you going to get it clipped?

My little guy had his upper lip tie clipped at 2 months and it really helped his latch.

Good luck!

(There is a great resource page on tongue-ties in the breastfeeding challenges forum - just scroll down here: http://www.mothering.com/community/wiki/breastfeeding-challenges-resource-list

and also http://www.mothering.com/community/wiki/tongue-and-lip-tie-faq )

[aumismommy]

Thank you.  It seems he has a tongue and upper lip tie.  We have an appt today to get them both clipped.  Praying it all goes well.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by aumismommy 

Thank you.  It seems he has a tongue and upper lip tie.  We have an appt today to get them both clipped.  Praying it all goes well.

Thinking of you and your DS.  Please stop by to say how it went.  I hope he nurses well and often right afterward!

Oh - and I learned the hard way with my DS's lip tie clipping - be sure to flip his lip each time you nurse.  DS's tie reattached as it healed.  It is not as bad as it was to start with, but if I had known to keep it open it would have been even better.  I wasn't touching it because I was worried I would hurt him.

[aumismommy]

We got both clipped and it was hard, but he did great all day afterward.  He nursed, slept, then woke up really happy.  We gave him homeopathics and a bit of tylenol but he is definitely nursing better.  Stronger suction, better let down, etc.  Thank you for the advice on flipping his lip.  I too am scared to hurt him but will make sure I do a good job in stretching his lip and tongue before nursing.