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| Feeding my baby during a follow-up check after the tongue-tie release treatment. |
I gave birth at midnight on Sunday. It wasn’t my first baby—I’ve breastfed for two years, and I thought I knew exactly what to do. Yet the latch was painful, even worse than what I experienced when my first child was teething.
By the end of Monday, my baby was hungry and angry, and my nipples were cracked and bleeding. On Tuesday, the nurse came to check on me and kindly offered some infant formula to supplement the baby. I didn’t like the idea. I had lots of milk; I could feel it. But by Wednesday, the baby had already dropped his birth weight by 7%.
Then on Thursday the baby dropped weight by another 3%. We were discharged from the hospital with two boxes of infant formula. When I saw the pediatrician on Friday I almost burst into tears while telling him that I wasn’t able to breastfeed even though I know I have milk.
“He might not suck efficiently. You should see a lactation consultant and see what she says. Before we find out what’s going on, I want you to supplement him with 1 oz of formula after each feeding.”
The baby started to gain weight after we supplemented him. It’s embarrassing, felt like being told that my own milk was not good as formula.
I saw the lactation consultant on the next Friday. It turned out the baby had tongue tie! It’s almost funny because I’ve been writing for the breastfeeding coalition for years and tongue tie was a topic that has been brought up often. Yet I was clueless when it actually happened to my baby.
Knowing what’s causing all those problems, we immediately scheduled an appointment with a pediatric dentist. At the dentist’s office she showed us how my baby didn’t only have a tongue tie but also a lip tie. It did look abnormal. I wondered how I didn’t notice it earlier.
We decided to have the ties released on the same day. The dentist explained to us how a frenotomy is performed and how to take care of the baby’s tongue and lips after the procedure, including massaging his mouth with coconut oil and giving him Tylenol to control the pain. She suggested us to wait in the reception so that we wouldn’t hear the baby cry during the procedure, “it might be upsetting.”
But I could still hear the baby cry at the reception even though we were three rooms away from where the baby was being treated. That was scary. I told my husband, “Oh my goodness it sounds like he’s in great pain!” For one minute I wanted to stop the procedure and just formula feed. My husband stared at me, “are you out of your mind?”
The dentist brought us our baby in 10 minutes, probably the longest 10-minute in my life. I saw a diamond-shaped wound under his tongue and a little bit of blood in his mouth—just a little, but was enough to freak me out.
That night the baby was very difficult. Every time I tried to massage his mouth with coconut oil, he cried as if I was trying to cut his head off. Baby Tylenol wasn't seem to work. I couldn't help but worry that our neighbors would call the police; thank God that did not happen.
But things became very easy after that first night! Latching was a breeze, and the baby effortlessly gained one whole pound in just one week after the procedure (without formula!) I’m glad we had it done early. He turned one month today. We have two more years to breastfeed.
This is a post originally for San Diego County Breastfeeding Coalition. Photo credit to Mu-huan Chiang.
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