First-time mum's plea after being dismissed by experts only for baby to be diagnosed with tongue-tie

A first-time mum has pleaded with others to trust their motherly instincts after she was dismissed by healthcare professionals only to discover that her baby had tongue-tie.

Amanda Phillips gave birth to her first child Phoebe seven months ago. While she was delighted with her newborn baby girl, the mother admitted the first 10 weeks of her life were tough, as she appeared to be choking on her milk and would pull away after one or two sucks.

She told the Irish Mirror: "I was breastfeeding her and I knew she had this clicking sound when she would feed."

"When she was four weeks old she started rejecting the breast and would pull away and scream, for two or three days straight every time I tried to get her to latch on she would scream and be uncontrollably crying." Amanda, who is a midwife, went to a lactation consultant to try and figure out what was going on.

When she mentioned tongue-tie she felt completely dismissed, and that she was being blamed. She said: "We went to a lactation consultant and I told her what happened and she didn't want to hear of any tongue-tie, I don't think she agreed with the concept at all."

"I found on the journey there's a lot of negative association with tongue-tie and that they are needlessly done. So she made me feel bad for even questioning that I would put her through that procedure at all. She told me it was more that she was probably feeding off my stress and that I needed to relax more."

When Phoebe was 10 weeks old the mother made an appointment at the National Tongue Tie Centre, as she couldn't continue to watch her struggle. It was then that the young baby was diagnosed with tongue tie, and while Amanda said she was upset, she was also relieved.

Tongue-tie is where the piece of skin connecting the tongue to the bottom of the mouth is shorter or tighter than usual. While it might not cause issues for some it can cause feeding difficulties, speech impediments and poor oral hygiene.

There are different treatments available for tongue-tie depending on the child or baby's age. Phoebe had a frenectomy procedure done to relieve her tongue-tie. This involved doctors using a CO2 laser to release the tie.

Amanda, from Co Clare, said her little girl is now seven months old and doing amazingly, and will "eat anything".

However, she's disappointed it wasn't caught sooner and encourages any mother who knows something is wrong with their baby to trust their gut.

She added: "It was a very difficult few months until the procedure was done and I saw a huge turnaround for her. There was instant relief, I can't believe I even questioned myself about doing it. If this was diagnosed a lot sooner it would have been done and she wouldn't have suffered for so long."

"I went so many times about the feeding issues and some of them were telling me she is feeding off your anxiety. People were saying to me 'Remember it's your first baby', but no one knows your baby the way you know your baby."

"I knew for a fact something was wrong and I kept looking for answers and was never satisfied and there was a reason why I had that maternal instinct."

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