My knickers are in a twist! :(

[soon2b3]

: : I can certainly feel my blood boiling and I have a bee in my bonnet! If I could think of more cliches to use I certainly would because I'm NOT HAPPY JAN!

As some of you may know, I had my third child 4 weeks ago (yes, he's absolutely adorable...) anyway... while I was at the hospital, little one was having trouble attaching properly and would only nipple feed. I asked each several midwives for assistance but was told that "It's your third, just persist and let me know if you have anymore trouble" I soon gave up asking and persisted to breastfeed dispite the nipple cracks, bleeding and pain. 4 weeks in the cracks have healed but it's still very painful when he latches on.
My child health nurse stopped by for my home visit on my arrival home from the hospital and as we have met before she just weighed little one and left without doing any other checks.
When he was crying recently I noticed that his tongue was a funny shape, like a fork at the end. After doing my own research and checking google images it's obvious that he has 'tongue tie'. Apparently this is fixed by snipping the bit that's tieing the tongue to the floor of the mouth. But if it's left it can result in major speech problems and will require a general anaestetic (sp) after 8 months of age to have it repaired.
My poor baby!!! No wonder he wants to feed constantly, and his feeds are so short. He must find it so hard! Now I feel mean (although I didn't know) for trying to stretch out his feeds... Actually, I'm getting so worked up about it that I'm close to tears!
Ok, maybe I'm getting over emotional about it but my baby has been choking on my milk because it's coming too fast for him. When it's been falling out of his mouth I thought he was spitting it out when actually his tongue isn't able to hold it in etc etc.
I am so angry and annoyed that I have been patronised by hospital staff, my child health nurse and phone help-lines. Surely, the symptoms point directly to tongue tie, and from looking in his mouth it's soooo obvious.

Rant, rant, rant!
Have any of you ladies known anyone to have this?

[mamajody]

Sorry you were treated so poorly. Tongue tie really is pretty obvious as you have discovered. Several of my friends babies have had thier frenulum clipped for tongue tie issues. The oldest was done at 4 months. It takes seconds, and does not require medication. Apparently the babies object to having their tongues grabbed more than anything. For all babies I personally know, nursing issues resolved immediately. Good luck mama!

[LionTigerBear]

Awww, I'm sorry you both had to deal with this.

[deleria]

My oldest son was tongue-tied and it wasn't seen as an issue until his 1 week checkup with his (amazing) pediatrician. By that time I was cracked, sore, bleeding, crying and about ready to give up breastfeeding altogether. I was barely 20, had no support other than DH, who thankfully was very encouraging.

At his appointment, the ped snipped the frenulum and DS nursed like a champ for several months thereafter. A happy ending It's a very simple proceedure that seemed to cause my son no pain, yet resulted in a very positive outcome.

Also, we found out later that DS1 is hearing impaired. He's in speech therapy to help with some very mild pronunciation issues directly related to his hearing loss, but I wonder how pronounced they would have been with a tongue-tie, too? Food for thought, anyway.

[citizenfong]

Aww, Mama, good for you for catching the problem! How upsetting this whole incident must be for you.

The good thing, as others have said, is that, after that initial adjustment period, things are sure to get much, much better.