Bump Boobs Babi

08/08/2025

I had a lovely phone call this week, from the mother of a baby I saw very recently.

Baby had a notable tongue tie that could be described as posterior, very significant reflux and was very unsettled

We didn’t cut the tongue tie.

We made some changes to feeding technique, this was a bottlefed baby so there hadn’t really been a lot of support previously.

We discussed the obvious muscular tension that was present and discussed the possibility of an osteopath referral (cautioning that the evidence for osteopathy in bottlefed babies isn’t yet there)

They went away and tried these things with a plan to cut the tie if no improvement.
There was big improvement! Reflux has stopped, baby is comfortable. Everyone is happy. All from some tiny feeding changes and an osteopath visit.

Tongue tie division is not always needed. It is not ‘just a little snip’. sometimes it’s very appropriate, sometimes it’s a risk we don’t need to take

07/08/2025

We make breastfeeding sound really, really complicated.

You’ll be told all about the importance of a good latch and how to recognise one, you might even be given an acronym to help you remember all those things you need to look for.

You’ll be told all the holds you could try; cross cradle, cradle, rugby (or is that football?) biological, koala

And all the potential issues you could encounter; sore ni***es, hungry baby, cluster feeding, mastitis

However there are precisely three things you need to know

1. Where to get competent, kind help if either 2 or 3 isn’t happening

2. The latch should be comfortable for you. If it isn’t and adjusting the position slightly doesn’t help then see point 1

3. Your baby should be swallowing milk every one or two sucks during active feeding. This is a little tricker to notice and may take some time watching videos, watching your baby and working with your midwife, a lactation supporter, a health visitor or someone else to learn to spot but once you see it, it’s very reassuring. If your baby isn’t swallowing well at most feeds, most of the time then see point 1.

If 2 and 3 are working, nothing else matters. If 2 and/or 3 aren’t working then no matter how many times people tell you, your baby has an excellent latch, you need help from someone who can figure out the problem with you.

13/06/2025

Just a quick message to say I am away until 22/6. Check the ATP list for alternate tongue tie providers

Find a tongue-tie practitioner near you. Access support for infant tongue-tie. NHS, home visit, and private clinic options available.

09/05/2025

🌟 Is Your Baby Struggling with Reflux? It Might Not Be What You Think… 🌟

Many parents are told that reflux is just something babies "grow out of" — but did you know that tongue tie could be the hidden cause?

👶 Frequent sick
👶 Gagging or choking during feeds
👶 Fussiness or arching back after feeding
👶 Short, unsettled naps
👶 Constant feeding but never satisfied

These signs of reflux might actually be linked to a tongue tie — a small restriction in the tongue that can cause big problems with feeding and digestion.

✨ The good news? A simple tongue tie assessment can help identify the issue — and it's often the first step to calmer, happier feeds and a more settled baby.

📅 Book your baby's Tongue Tie Assessment today — and take the first step toward more peaceful days (and nights!).
BumpB***sBabi.co.uk

07/05/2025

People often say 'you can't tell how much milk a breastfed baby is getting?' and they ask questions like
'how long is your baby feeding?' to try and guess how much milk a baby is taking
but a 20 minute feed isn't equal to X ounces of formula and a 40 minute feed equal to Y ounces, it doesn't work like that.

The only way to tell how much milk your baby is getting is to watch them feed.
Babies should starts their feed with some quick sucks to get the milk going, they then settle into a pattern of sucking and swallowing. A baby feeding well will only need to suck one or two times to get enough milk to swallow, they do this with some pauses for some more quick sucks to get another let down and then at the end may settle into some sleepy fluttery sucks with very little swallowing.

Babies who are feeding well and swallowing lots, may be satisfied in 5 or 10 minutes of feeding.

Other babies especially sleepy newborns will stay on the breast for ages, even an hour but when you watch them, they rarely swallow. These babies may seem content, fall asleep but then wake for more milk in 5 or 10 minutes because they are actually hungry. They need help to get more milk and to feed more efficiently.

Watch for swallowing!
If your baby is swallowing infrequently and taking 4,5,6 or more sucks to get enough milk to swallow, get some help.

05/05/2025

What do we mean when we say your baby has a posterior tongue tie?
That probably depends who says it.

Some people mean that the frenulum (that tissue connecting the tongue and the floor of the mouth) isn't right on the front of the tongue but is still restricting movement

Some people mean that the frenulum is very normally placed but is short and/or inelastic so causing issues with how your baby uses their tongue

Some people mean the frenulum is actually behind the mucosa at the back of the tongue and is likely inelastic or short causing a restriction (there is a lot of controversy about this now and fewer practitioners would divide such a tie as we are more aware of the potential issues with doing so)

Lots of us really no longer use this term at all as if a frenulum is causing a 'functional restriction'. it is a tie and discussion of treatment options depend on the likely cause, how restrictive it is and the symptoms experienced.

Myths about posterior ties include

They don't exist- some frenula which are further back on the tongue and floor of the mouth can cause significant restriction and problems with feeding and benefit from treatment. Equally some frenula right on the front of the tongue cause minimal restrictions and problems with feeding. Its why photos do not help in diagnosing tongue tie. Without a good understanding of how that baby uses their tongue and how that is affecting them, you cannot diagnose a tongue tie.

-they're harder to divide- this is really not true, often it is easier to divide a posterior tie as you have better visualisation than with a very tight restrictive anterior one. Nor do they tend to bleed more.

If you're not sure whether your baby may have a tongue tie, book an appointment with us BumpB***sBabi.co.uk

03/05/2025

I became a lactation consultant before I had my own babies. I qualified as a midwife in 2005, 10 years before my first daughter arrived and I took my IBCLC exam in 2010, five years before I became a mother.

There are pros of being a childless midwife and lactation consultant- flexibility (I wouldn’t pull the 24 hour shifts I did as a junior midwife now!) fewer preconceptions, less defensiveness

But there are cons and one of those has to be all that time to imagine how your own birth and breastfeeding journeys will be.

I knew breastfeeding wasn’t always easy but I still imagined, well I’d put the baby to the breast and off we’d go

Here are all the things I didn’t plan on in my own three breastfeeding journeys

- low milk supply due to hypoplasia (not enough milk producing tissue)

- a baby with a terminal illness who couldn’t drink anything by mouth

- needing donor milk (thank you milk donors! )

- weeks in NICU on breathing support and later in paediatric wards and PICU. Managing pumping and being there is hard!

- severe postnatal depression and PTSD

- a baby with tongue tie

- how badly sleep deprivation would affect my mental health

- a baby who would later be diagnosed with autism

- going back to work 12 hour shifts when my babies were six months old

I’m sure there are more. All those experiences taught me a lot. They taught me there are sometimes things that matter more than exclusive breastfeeding (like sanity!) and every feeding journey is unique and personal and what matters in the end is support to meet your own goals.

That is what I try to provide now to new parents. Support to meet THEIR goals and compassion. I don’t have all the answers. Not every problem is solvable. Sometimes paths don’t lead where you planned but as long as you have all the options and make the right choices for you, hopefully you won’t look back with regret.

(The picture is my youngest using a nursing supplementor at the breast- she drank about 750mls formula a day from this until at 8 months she no longer needed the formula and we continued breastfeeding with solids. )

02/05/2025

Sometimes parents come to my clinic with a baby with a borderline tie or no tie at all but typical breastfeeding problems (clicking, unable to maintain a latch, one breast preference, sometimes ni**le pain).

Sometimes we discuss whether osteopathy might be an effective intervention but what is it and what's the evidence?

Osteopathy is a treatment that uses stretches, physical manipulation and massage to treat a variety of health conditions. Osteopaths frequently see babies who have experienced birth trauma, perhaps they've been stuck in one position in the womb, been born with the help of forceps or ventouse or experienced a long labour.

The evidence that osteopathy improves breastfeeding issues is growing. Studies suggest

- it improves LATCH scores in breastfeeding infants experiencing difficulties (ie they attached to the breast more effectively)

- Babies with sucking difficulties treated early with osteopathy were more likely to have normal suck after treatment than an untreated group of babies.

-Babies with sucking difficulties treated early with osteopathy were more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding than babies with sucking difficulties who had standard support.

-Babies with breastfeeding difficulties who were seen by a lactation consultant and an osteopath working together saw more improvement than babies who were seen only by a lactation consultant.

We don't know if osteopathy is also an effective treatment for babies who have difficulties with bottle feeding and we don't yet know how effective it is at treating borderline tongue ties without the need for division although many parents report good outcomes.

25/04/2025

We know money is tight for most people at the moment. A quick reminder about Pay What You Can slots

𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬

We have one donation (pay what you can) slot in every clinic

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬?

Every clinic at Bump B***s Babi
offers one ‘pay what you can’
slot where families can pay what
they can afford for tongue tie
assessment, tongue tie division
and/or feeding support.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭? 𝐈𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞?

Not at all. We offer exactly the
same service in ‘pay what you
can’ slots as in every other
appointment.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭? 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚?

If you would like a ‘pay what you can’
slot simply email us on admin@bumpboobsbabi.co.uk requesting
this including your name, your
baby’s name and date of birth,
your phone number and a brief
description of the issues you are
having and your preferred clinic:
either Risca or Neath and we will
offer you a slot as soon as we
can.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧
𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭?

We offer one ‘pay what you can’
slot in every clinic. This can mean
there is a waiting list but we aim
to offer the next available
appointment. We ask that you
only request a ‘pay what you
can’ slot if you really need to
and if you can’t attend for any
reason, you let us know as soon
as possible so we can offer it to
the next person on the list

I𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐈 𝐩𝐚𝐲?

There’s no
minimum donation for ‘pay what
you can’ slots.

23/04/2025

In the lovely and warm Bronleigh House, Neath today. Seeing babies with feeding issues, tongue tie and reflux.

If feeding is challenging and you need some support do book an appointment to come and see me any Wednesday.

BumpB***sBabi.co.uk

21/04/2025

The Place Newport are reviewing their services at the moment and Baby Group will not be running currently. I'm hoping to get to some of the other local groups soon with feeding and tongue tie info. Hopefully I'll see you all soon. For feeding support though, please do book an appointment in clinic

28/03/2025

! Review !

I've been meaning to recommend this for a while, my favourite reflux resource of all

Why Infant Reflux Matters by Carol Smyth.

This is an excellent book and short to read which is great when you are sleep deprived with an unsettled baby!

A really good summary of the research on reflux, on what works and what doesn't, on what the medications actually do and a discussion of the various causes and reasons for unsettled baby behaviours that may or may not be reflux.

The author's page is also well worth a follow