Tips how to improve drinking from the bottle

After the release babies need time to adjust, it can feel really different now that the tongue can move freely and can result in the baby being fussy or irritable for a day or two.

Having a tongue tie release may be compared to getting a leg out of plaster, you have to learn to walk again. Remember the baby also drank amniotic fluid with a tongue tie for months in the womb.

The older the baby at the time of the release, the longer they may need to let go of compensating (nieuwe link) behaviour and begin to  drink in a “new” way. Tongue exercises need to be done before feedings to help the tongue to be more flexible.

Stretching the whole body of the tongue to the palate helps the upward movement to the palate which is essential to create a proper vacuum and to prevent reattachment.

The way to get the baby to drink a little before getting back to the bottle is by finger feeding you can use a syringe of any type to put milk in the mouth as shown on this video. This may calm the baby, so that he or she will latch on better with something already in his or her stomach.

Let him or her drink with paced bottle feeding.

When refusing the bottle a pantyhose around the teat, try using a cuddly toy or sock to cover up the bottle. You can also warm the teat, or use a narrower and longer nipple (with paced bottlefeeding), or a bigger or smaller hole. Side lying works well when babies find it hard to drink sitting upright.

Parents who noticed their baby sucked on the cuddly toy, they then covered the teat with it and the baby learned to drink from the bottle again.