Today was the day we had to take Little Miss A to the hospital for her tongue tie to be snipped. I was hoping to be able to come back and tell you all about the wonderful experience we had. Unfortunately (but not unsurprisingly given my past experiences with the NHS!) that is not the case.
When we went in to see the Dr and he asked how she was feeding. We explained she was being bottle fed and that although she was feeding she was not having as much as she should and therefore we had been advised to have her tounge tie dealt with by our GP and Health Visitor to see if that helped her.
We popped her on the bed and he had a look in her mouth. When he did, obviously, she had a little cry, wouldn’t you if some stranger put their fingers in your mouth?! He then turned around and said he wouldn’t do it today he wanted to do it under anesthetic at a later date! Both Big Mr A and I looked at each other in bewilderment. We explained again to the Dr why we were there i.e. because we had been referred by our GP.
He then said that if she was a breastfed baby and having problems he would have done it there and then. This is when I went into a bit of a meltdown! I was already, understandably, a bit stressed about having to put my baby through such an ordeal without the ‘B’ word coming up again! I said to him, as best I could through my tears (!), ‘So if I was breastfeeding you would do it today?’. His basic answer was ‘yes’. I asked what the difference was, we had been referred because of her ‘feeding’ issues, surely it doesn’t matter how they are being fed?!! He said those were the guidelines for breastfed babies, there are no guidelines for bottle fed babies – don’t they think there should be?!
Reluctantly, he agreed to do it (probably just to stop me making ant more of a scene!) but said she would probably cry! Er, no *@#” Sherlock, I’d never thought of that, we were just here for a nice morning out! When I asked if it would hurt her, he just shrugged his shoulders! I know you can’t ask a baby if something hurts but surely with his experience he must know whether it hurts or is just uncomfortable?!
Anyway I am pleased to say the procedure itself was fine – well so Big Mr A told me – I couldn’t face being in the room, as much as I wanted to be there for her I am just too squeamish and I knew she had her Daddy with her so she wasn’t alone. Yes, she screamed for a couple of minutes but after that she was fine. There was a little bit of blood but she didn’t appear to be in any pain.
I did apologise to the Dr for getting upset but it is hard enough to make these decisions for your children without being made to feel even worse. I appreciate there are guidelines to be followed but maybe it’s about time the NHS started treating both breastfeeding and bottle feeding Mummies the same and had guidelines for both.
I wish they had told me when she was born just to get her tongue tie dealt with then we wouldn’t have had any of these worries. At the time they said it may or may not need doing and it was up to us. We weren’t really given any information about it. I would say to anyone wondering whether or not to get it done – just do it whilst they are tiny!
My brave little princess after her ordeal xxx
To top it all off we were told to stay at the hospital for 5-10 minutes to make sure the bleeding stopped so we decided to go to the cafe for the only thing I had been looking forward to, a Mocha! Big Mr A put his money in the machine and it said there were no cups left. As we were in the cafe he asked one of the staff for a cup only to be told they couldn’t give him one!
I am so glad today is over with and hope we don’t have to make any more trips to the hospital any time soon.
Mummy of two 