Tackling tongue-tie, together
Tongue-tie affects up to one-in-10 babies and can impact their feeding and growth. Now NHS trusts in Kent are working together to tackle the tie.
All seemed to be going well for first-time parents Rob and Claire Perrault, as they proudly headed home with their new son River in November 2022.
But just a few days later, midwives noticed he’d lost 14 per cent of his birth weight and was jaundiced.
Rob and Claire, from Folkestone, had a stressful dash back to hospital where River was given formula milk and light therapy to resolve his jaundice. The specialists also realised he wasn’t swallowing much breastmilk.
Claire was working around the clock feeding River expressed breastmilk and formula from bottles as well as continuing to try to breastfeed.
She said: “It was hard. We were spending 50 per cent of our time, day and night trying to get milk into River.”
River was diagnosed with a tongue-tie, which can restrict the movement of the tongue and lead to difficulty feeding. An urgent referral was made for Claire to our Specialist Infant Feeding Team.
The team is piloting a Kent-wide Tongue-Tie Co-ordination Service, providing a centralised referral and appointment booking route as well as support before and after the tongue-tie procedure. The service works with East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to provide tongue-tie procedures across Kent.
Claire met with Lactation Consultant Corrina Weatherill, a specialist practitioner trained to support families with complex feeding issues. River had his tongue-tie cut and Claire had extra support to build up her milk supply as she wanted to continue to breastfeed.
Corrina said: “It was a privilege to work with this amazing family, they were so responsive to suggestions and worked hard to achieve their feeding goal. River was a complete joy to spend time with and seeing him thriving makes my job so rewarding.”
Claire said: “Corrina was a great support. I couldn’t have managed this without her. Her knowledge and expertise helped us through.”
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