I had heard of tongue-tie before somewhere so I was vaguely aware. After my ten minutes of searching online and a few looks into Annalee's mouth, it seems to me she really does have lip-tie (I wasn't able to get a good look at the tongue and I don't really know what to look for there anyway). It certainly would explain my continued pain in nursing and her inability to continually get a good latch and possibly even some of her digestive issues. This friend gave me the name of the lactation consultant in town that diagnosed their daughter so I am going to call her tomorrow and see if she'll meet with us and look into Annalee's mouth.
More questions than answers, really, but an avenue to explore nonetheless. Click here or here or here if you are curious. I wanted to post to see if any of you folks out there have any experience or knowledge with either lip-tie or tongue-tie. If so, I'm all ears.
Also, this doula friend of a friend grew up next-door to my aunt and uncle in Crosby, ND. Our friend is from there too. Nothing like meeting people and knowing where they are from, where their roots are. I missed that when in SC. Glad for that happy perk of living in ND again... especially as it turns freakishly cold and snowy tonight.
-Heather
UPDATE: the lactation consultant today agreed Annalee has a significant lip tie. She told us of an ENT doctor that all her folks see here in town but we need a referral from our family doctor before we can make an appointment. We have to wait until Monday to get that referral faxed in, then hopefully we can schedule something for next week?! It would be so great to have less pain when trying to latch...which Annalee hasn't done in maybe two weeks. The lady also gave more tips and things we should change and try to get her back to breast. She then said I get 10 gold stars for all my work in pumping and trying. Anyone know the going exchange rate for gold stars??
2 comments:
nora has a pretty intense lip tie, and i think that is why i dealt with so much pain this time. it will get better, i promise. i'm not sure if it got better because she got older or because i got desensitized/callused hahah. it caused her latch to be more shallow, and i used the exaggerated latch technique that was on one of those links you posted. that did help. it was always more painful on my left side. i think the intense pain lasted a couple months with intermittent seasons of it for another month or so. anyway, just wanted to encourage you that it will get better as she gets older.
Caleb was tongue-tied when he was born. That was part of the reason I had such a hard time nursing those first few days. I was so sore! We got it fixed a few days after he was born and it made all the difference. He was able to latch easier and a lot of our nursing issues went away.
My aunt, who is a speech therapist, said it best to get it fixed as soon as possible because it can cause speech issues later in life. I'm not sure if the same is true with lip-tie, but it might be something to look into.
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