Tongue Ties...

Yesterday we went to the doctors, Euna has had a string of colds and bugs and as much as I KNEW I was going to get the "it's just the time of year" speech I wanted to double check.

As it would happen I got the loveliest German doctor. He had a real soft, calm doctors voice and whilst he did indeed give me the "it's just the time of year" speech he did it so nicely without the slightest hint of "you hysterical moron, do not darken our doors with you idiotic neurosis again". 

So understanding, he was, I took it upon myself to ask a couple of nagging questions I'd had, one of which was about her tongue tie. Now previously when I had asked about this I had been told it was slight and as long as she was feeding I shouldn't worry.

Anyway... Turns out her tongue tie is significant, about 75-80% which is apparently a lot. Doctor was surprised we were breastfeeding and when I said "oh no she's always been a good feeder" he asked hadn't I been in pain? Well yes I had. ALOT! Tears were had at every feed infact, then right at the point of breaking I was admitted to hospital for other reasons, administered a fair amount of heavy duty pain killers (this is all pre-blogging days, I will catch you up one day) and so the pain was masked and forgotten.

Apparently it's to do with the tongue not being able to come out and around the nipple and make a proper latch. The latch is consequently then achieved by harder more concentrated suction on the nipple. Dr. Google also informs me it can lead to permanent nipple damage! YOWZERS! 

Well this happy ending goes that that didn't happen and since about week 4/5 breastfeeding has been a joy but it's good information and further confirmation that we could all benefit from knowledge like this being more widely available! How did it take SO long for this to come to my attention? And I am by NO means a passive parent, if this had been on the radar I WOULD have picked it up.

Lesson

1. Keep working on my EPIC breastfeeding post... Clearly there is still much to learn.

2. More research to be done on the tongue tie, for now we have decided to leave it and avoid "the snip" until such time that she will not need a general anaesthetic for it or if we see it causing her some issues with speech.