7 weeks old, from bottle to breast

[ottawamama]

Please help. My DS was born with tongue tie, something discovered after two weeks of painful BFing with little weight gain on his part. So we adopted the Haberman until we could get his tongue released. That was successfully done last week (yay!). Since tongue tie diagnosis we have been BFing infrequently (really sore nipples and he couldn't move milk) and I have been pumping and on domperidone to get supply up. Well, now we are ready to move back to the breast, but I have some challenges with latch. I can't seem to get him to take more breast as opposed to nipple and boy, it hurts! I am afraid because he isn't on right my supply will dwindle again, so I am post feed pumping. I am really exhausted with the struggle but do want to exclusively BF soon. Any suggestions? How do I get him to take more breast? I know logically he has to, but I can't seem to get the right move down. He is finally opening his mouth wide, but I tend to push my breast in as opposed to bringing him in...sigh. This is such hard work. Oh, he also has a receding chin - like me. Currently we are at two 'feeds' a day at the breat, but I always follow wth bottle b/c I know he isn't BFing well yet.

Thanks.
Nicole

[MarcyC]

You're in a tough situation, but at least you got it clipped. My little guy is tongue-tied, lip-tied and has a recessed chin and I can't get any medical professional to help. Have you tried an SNS (Supplemental Nursing System) or Lact-Aid. It sounds like your little one just need to learn to suck/swallow now that he's got his tongue clipped he has to re-learn. An SNS might help to keep him at the breast for every feeding. You'll still have to pump to get milk for the SNS or you could use formula, if you're comfortable with that, but he'd be stimulating your breast better and getting fed at the same time. Just a thought. We've struggled for 7 months and we're finally at the point where I just pump and bottle feed. I'm not meeting all of his needs so I supplement with formula when necessary, plus he's on solids.

[ottawamama]

medical help

Hi there, sorry to hear you are dealing with all these things too...as for the medical help, it didn't come easy. we live in Ottawa, Ontario and actually drove to Albany, NY for the procedure - 5.5 hours. We stayed overnight. The lip and tongue were lasered by Dr. Kotlow, GREAT pediatric dentist who totally supports BF mamas.

Good luck! I am seeing an LC tomorrow and am thinking SNS may be the way to go for a while.

[karin95]

Sorry you're having problems, even after the clipping!

Have you tried calling your local LLL leader? They can be very helpful, or at least give you a referral to someone who could be helpful!

I just wanted to say that I'm in Albany, and I'm glad to hear that there's a good pro-bfing ped dentist here! Now I know who to refer people to if it ever comes up!