My son bit his Tongue.

[AnnieNimIty]

And I am not talking, "Oops, ouch that hurt!" or even, "Ahh, a little bit of blood." And it went away... It was 20 hours of bleeding. I must sound dense. Mouth wounds should heal faster than anything and stop bleeding soon... and I should have taken him into the ER way before 20 hours.

Anyway, I will beat myself up over that later.

He was sedated and had his tongue stitched. Two stitches to stop a bleeding tongue artery. Anyway, now obviously nursing hurts, and I can see his tongue bruised and more swollen after each time he nurses.

He is 11 months old and I don't have a lot (hardly any) of experience with pumping and bottle feeding.

My daughter was 14 months when we weaned and I regret that. I want to keep nursing him long term and am afraid this will derail the whole idea.

His birthday is in a few weeks, but I really can't hear "You can wean him at a year," which is why I am asking for help here and not for help from friends/family.

Thanks in Advance

[ewe+lamb]

My son bite his tongue twice - it was awful so much so that I actually had to lift his tongue that was pinned onto his lower teeth -anyway it hurt alot but the difference with us was that the main artery wasn't severed, breastmilk does help along with the saliva in healing but it really depends on how he nurses - where the cut is, from the point of view of the movement he makes with his tongue - i would go so far as to recommend talking/contacting someone who really knows what they are talking about Catherine Watson Genna comes to mind!  As for pumping you don't necessarily need a machine to do that - your hands can do a really good job as well - have a look at this video http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/HandExpression.html although primarily for newborns and preemies we've had a lot of success with this plus a little hand pump - don't panic and although his injury may take a little longer than usual to heal I'm sure he'll go back to it in a flash, also he's perfectly capable to drink from a little cup - you won't need to go out and buy lots of bottles etc for him.  Good luck and I really do feel for you - it's brought back all the memories I had of our ds - just makes you shiver!!