Many mothers are often told, or mistakenly assume, that if they cannot successfully breastfeed, there is something wrong with them. In fact, this is not true. Tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) and/or a lip-tie may be the problem.
Tongue-ties are normally straight forward to diagnose and fairly easy to treat: the tongue is heart shaped when the baby cries; there is an obviously tight frenulum underneath that runs from the floor of the mouth to an area close to the tip of the tongue. Tongue-ties can vary in severity and can include what we call “posterior tongue-tie” which is a lot more difficult to diagnose and recognize. The frenulum looks like it is non-existent so the first instinct is to believe that tongue-tie cannot be the issue. The tongue looks squared off with the floor of the mouth webbing/tenting the tongue. The edges of the tongue will form a cup when crying as it is unable to elevate. The tongue cannot move side to side but instead twists side to side. The tongue struggles to extend out of the mouth while it’s open but is absolutely incapable of “sticking out” when wide open, which is the ideal position for breastfeeding.
Mothers who try to breastfeed their tongue-tied baby suffer tremendously, both mentally and physically. Not only does she have to re-latch the baby multiple times during a feed and deal with feedings that last sometimes hours, she also experiences damaged nipples, cracks, bruises, and pain during feeds. Her risks of breast infection increases and her milk supply can be greatly reduced due to the lack of stimulation from an inefficient latch.
The babies may be losing weight, get sleepy during feeds (as they work much harder than other babies to stay latched), and become extremely gassy and irritable making the parent’s experience even more frustrating. Lip-tied babies end up with blisters on their lips from trying so hard to stay latched. Babies tend to feed a lot more often because their inefficiency results in less intake of milk so hunger kicks in faster.
A laser frenectomy may be the answer to a better breastfeeding experience for you and your baby.