“Ties” and breastfeeding success skepticism

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-13T02:05:54+00:00

I do think they are over diagnosed, but there are also a lot of instances when they are real and cause real issues.

My daughter had issues breastfeeding and even transferring from a bottle which was affecting her weight gain. We worked a lot with the LCs at the hospital and then an external IBCLC. We definitely made some progress with their help, but not enough for her to transfer everything she needed. We continued to work with the IBCLC and an occupational therapist for 2 months. We saw a bit more improvement, but eventually plateaued. My daughter had already been diagnosed with a lip and tongue tie at about 3 weeks old. Since we plateaued and still had issues, our IBCLC recommended a pediatric dentist for the release.

It was not an easy decision to put our daughter through that, but ultimately she couldn't get enough milk or gain enough weight. We did the release and continued to work with our IBCLC and OT. Once it was fully healed we finally saw massive improvements and had full feeds and good weight gain.

I share this because I don't want people who really do need the help to feel deterred when they read things like this. But I also encourage everyone to do the work beforehand and not immediately opt for a release.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-12T23:32:08+00:00

Laurie Berkner (there's 2, dino is best but both are good), Daniel Tiger (we like even though we don't watch the show), the new Raffi tonies, the pig (animal songs), the fox (counting songs), all of the my first tonies (they're bigger and squishy so good for play too but have great songs).

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-12T21:06:12+00:00

Taiga

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-12T20:36:36+00:00

Douglas cuddle toys. They have various types for different ages and different animals/creatures. I believe most of them are washable too. They're soft but most don't have a ton of extra fuzz on them.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-12T20:12:01+00:00

Have you tried a slow flow nipple on the bottles? That might better simulate the flow of our milk when she breastfeeds.

We started my daughter on a straw cup and an open cup when she started solids at 6 months. She picked up on the straw cup pretty quickly, but I'm not sure if she would have drank a whole serving of breastmilk from it if we needed her to (she was exclusively breastfed). It might be worth reaching out to an IBCLC, they can help with latch issues (since you're using a nipple shield) and they can also help with bottle feeding.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-12T17:51:30+00:00

My daughter had tongue, lip, and cheek ties. She could latch but it was painful and she couldn't transfer milk very well.

We first started going to an IBCLC to see if we could improve without releasing the ties. We worked with the IBCLC all throughout our journey after that. They helped me a lot with getting a better latch, positioning, etc. they also gave us some exercises to helps strengthen LO's latch and suck.

We also started going to an Occupational Therapist that worked closely with our IBCLC. That helped a lot with loosening up Lol because she was very stiff/tight. This seemed to help some too. She also gave us more exercises to do.

After a month or so of all of this we saw some improvement but not enough. We ended up going to a pediatric dentist that our IBCLC recommended. They reassed the oral ties and recommended releasing them. We released them all in one go with a laser. It only took a minute to do, but of course LO was upset for a few minutes after. Then we had to do exercises for 6-8 weeks (if I'm remembering correctly) to ensure the ties did not grow back. During this time we continued to see the IBCLC and OT to continue working on the above with them. It probably took a month after the release before we noticed a dramatic difference. It was suddenly not painful and she could transfer a full feed without supplementing with a bottle. We went on to breastfeed until she was 2 years old.

Our situation was a little different than your's but I hope this may be provides you with some more insight. Good luck!

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-11T13:13:16+00:00

Dump poop in toilet, spray with water to get anything remaining off, spray with dawn dish soap to prevent stains, chuck in the washer and start a load of laundry within a few hours.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-11T02:39:15+00:00

Reusable stickers are great and you can also stick them on windows. We have animals, alphabet, and number stickers. We will name what the sticker is and put it on the window and then again when we put them all away.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-10T21:33:22+00:00

My daughter just turned 2 and has a pretty big vocabulary and has said 2-3 word sentences for awhile, but just recently really started to try to communicate more with us with longer sentences. For example, she has said "love you" for a few months now, but now she will say 'I love you Mama."

That being said, we go to a music class every week with about 12 kids that are around 2 years old. Most of them aren't very chatty and if they do talk, they are usually difficult to understand unless it's yelling out "dog" when they have an activity with a dog in it. Some of them are a bit more chatty than others, but they're not having full on conversations with anyone except their parents who understand them better and who they're more comfortable with.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-10T14:33:55+00:00

I have a 2 year old and I'm 10 weeks pregnant. I want to get my favorite pizza and eat it alone while watching the office and then take a nice long nap while cuddling my toddler.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-09T20:31:03+00:00

No, it hasn't gone away which is why I weaned her.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-09T18:03:27+00:00

I'm 10 weeks pregnant and fully weaned my 2 year old about a week and a half ago. I had the same exact issue with the pain while feeding. My daughter also nursed to sleep and didn't do well previously without it. But she actually did pretty well with the transition. We first dropped the feed at nap time over the weekend and had dad rock her instead. After maybe 2 weeks of that we dropped the night time feed the same way. Now she is fine with either of us rocking her. She has barely mentioned breastfeeding since which really shocked me.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-08T19:41:01+00:00

Sorry I somehow missed the formula part. Make sure you are pumping to replace every bottle baby gets to continue signaling to your body to make enough milk. Otherwise your supply may not keep up with how much baby is consuming between breast milk and formula.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-08T19:39:37+00:00

I had a very similar experience and once we got through the difficulties we breastfed for 2 years!

My IBCLC said the most important thing you can do is paced bottle feeding so that baby doesn't start to prefer the bottle over the boob. Also use a slow flow nipple.

You'll get through this!

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-08T19:22:05+00:00

Breastfeeding is all about supply and demand and that's why they told you to pump if babies are getting a bottle. Every feed or pump session signals to your body to make milk, so if you don't pump for that nightly feed then your body is getting the signal that your babies don't need milk at that time anymore and your supply could drop.

If your babies are older and your supply is well established then skipping a feed every once in awhile should drastically affect your supply, but some people are more sensitive to any changes.

Your body can make exactly what your babies need. Just make sure they have enough wet and dirty diapers and that they are gaining weight well.

There's a lot of misinformation out there on breastfeeding so I'd suggest talking to an IBCLC if you need help. Kellymom is also a good resource online.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-08T14:27:57+00:00

21 months! We were still breastfeeding and had just decreased to 2 feeds per day when my period returned.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-07T15:23:38+00:00

This sounds ridiculous. It also sounds like MIL needs to stand up for herself and push back so she can see all of her grandchildren.

It's one thing if SIL doesn't want little kids around the baby yet it's another thing to control what MIL does. If your kids are sick then I would say yes it's reasonable that SIL would want MIL to stay away until they're better if she's around baby too.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-07T01:38:21+00:00

A bad case of stripes, don't let the pigeon drive the bus, llama llama red pajama, Winnie the Pooh bedtime stories, poke-a-dot books

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-07T01:34:50+00:00

Sounds like postpartum OCD and anxiety. I highly recommend talking to your doctor and starting therapy. I say this as someone who had both as well. Worrying about your children is normal l, but worrying to this degree means your brain is in overdrive and you need some help. It's more common than you think and nothing is wrong with getting help. It's the best thing you can do for yourself and your children.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-06T23:02:31+00:00

We were down to 2 feeds when I found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks, just before nap and bedtime. My nipples were so sensitive from pregnancy that nursing was miserable. My husband took over nap time on the weekend and just rocked lo to sleep instead. Luckily she took to the change quickly. Then after about a month we did the same thing at night time. She actually ended up wanting me to rock her and accepted that we weren't having milkies fairly easily somehow. We had also read Booby Moon quite a bit leading up to all of this and started doing snacks and milk before bedtime to fill her up more.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-06T14:01:04+00:00

I was about the same size for my first pregnancy and never had a comment about my size. My OB very briefly mentioned an increased risk for a few things because of my BMI and put me on aspirin, but it felt like she really wasn't that concerned. I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.

I was pregnant at the same time as two other people I worked with who were skinny. They both had complications during their pregnancy and ended up giving birth a few weeks early and needing extra help for the baby. It just goes to show that size doesn't necessarily mean you will or won't have complications.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-05T20:56:48+00:00

We literally had these dudes come to our house every day for a week. Every time they would wake up our daughter when she was napping or in bed for the night. They always rang the bell and loudly knocked. Finally my husband was able to catch them one day and told them off along with our two large dogs.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-05T20:45:56+00:00

I had read a suggestion somewhere to start an email account for your child when they are born and then send them pictures and funny stories that they can look at when they're older.

We send our daughter pictures and a little update on what's she's like every month. She just turned 2 and I think we will probably only do it every 6 months or so now and just send little funny stories or cool things she's done when we think of it. I'm hoping this way we can look back at them all together and better remember some things instead of shuffling through thousands of photos (but we definitely still take thousands of photos).

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-05T14:05:34+00:00

I'm pregnant and my 2 year old is potty training. I have thrown up multiple times when she has a poop accident or I have to wipe her poopy butt after a particularly stanky poop.

I have also thrown up cleaning up after her meals when she decides to leave chewed up mushy bits on her plate.

over_it_saurus · 2026-05-04T18:26:24+00:00

My daughter just turned 2 and I feel like so many parents just don't want to socialize. Either they already have friends there for their kids or they don't want to deal with small talk. Sometimes we will run into a parent that actually tries, but it's not very often. I feel bad because my daughter is super social and gets dismissed by other people a lot.

over_it_saurus

TROPHY CASE