Whitney Port Opens Up About 'Tongue Tie' and the Painful Side of Breastfeeding
Whitney Port gave birth to her son Sonny in late July, and about a month later, she's opening up in a new video about her struggle to nurse her baby. In a YouTube video titled “I Love My Baby But, Breastfeeding,” the Hills alum tears up while talking about the severe pain she's experienced while nursing Sonny.
Port says in the video that although she’d heard that nursing “doesn’t really come easy to most people,” Sonny successfully latched on soon after he was born. “I thought I was doing really well and the nurses said that the latch was good,” she says. “But after about 24 to 48 hours of doing it, it just started to get so incredibly painful. And we came home and I just hit a breaking point and said, ‘I can’t do this. It feels as though someone is slicing my nipples with glass.’”
So, Port decided to do a mix of pumping and bottle-feeding Sonny formula to “give my boobs a little rest.” Pumping was less painful than nursing, so she visited a lactation consultant who said the pain she experienced during breastfeeding could be because Sonny was “tongue tied,” meaning his tongue’s range of motion is restricted. As a result, Port says, babies bite or suck harder to try to get milk.
Port took Sonny to his pediatrician who confirmed that he was tongue tied. The baby had a procedure done to increase his range of motion, but Port says nursing didn’t get better. “I tried it yesterday morning once he had the procedure done and then I tried it this morning, and it’s just—it’s really painful,” she says, as she starts crying. “I’m not sure whether if it’s painful just because I’m getting started again, or if it’s painful because he’s not latching on correctly.”
Port is clearly torn up over the struggle to nurse, and it’s hard to watch her cry on her video. But she later thanked her fans on Instagram, saying that she has “gained so much confidence” from the support they’ve given.
Tongue tie is a medical condition and it can definitely make nursing painful.
Tongue tie is a condition that occurs when the tissue that tethers the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth (the frenulum) is unusually short, thick, or tight, the Mayo Clinic says. If that happens, an infant won't be able to move their tongue correctly, which “may impair the ability to effectively orally feed—including breastfeeding,” Diane L. Spatz, Ph.D., a professor of perinatal nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and nurse researcher at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells SELF.
A baby’s tongue needs to have full range of motion to get milk from the breast comfortably and efficiently, Leigh Anne O'Connor, board-certified lactation consultant and La Leche League leader, tells SELF. The restricted movement that comes with tongue tie (a.k.a. ankyloglosssia) can lead to a shallow latch on the breast, compressing the nipple, she explains. “This restriction does not allow for the jaw to fully open and many tongue tied babies chomp down on the nipple as a result,” she says. So yeah, painful.
Luckily, the procedure to correct tongue tie isn’t usually too intense.
As with many medical conditions, there’s a range of severity with tongue tie, Rebekah Huppert, R.N., B.S.N., a lactation consultant at the Mayo Clinic, tells SELF. For instance, the tongue may not be able to extend out over the lower lip or it might appear heart-shaped when baby cries, she says.
Depending on the severity of the condition, the baby may or may not need a procedure called a frenotomy to cut the frenulum free. This can often be done quickly by a pediatrician or pediatric dentist, Nicole Randazzo-Ahern, M.D., medical director of the newborn nursery at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, tells SELF. If the tie is web-like and near the front, it can be cut or lasered with no recovery time, she says. “The procedure is very quick,” says Dr. Spatz. “The infant can breastfeed immediately after the procedure and mothers will report immediate improvement of latch and of decreased pain.”
However, if the tie is thick and near the back of the tongue, it may require a more in-depth procedure called frenuloplasty, Dr. Randazzo-Ahern says. This is performed under general anesthesia, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even with this procedure, though, there is usually little to no bleeding and a fast recovery. In most cases, no after care is needed, Huppert says.
If you suspect that your baby has tongue tie, see their pediatrician ASAP.
Breastfeeding shouldn’t be painful, and if the cause of that pain is tongue tie, this can usually be fixed by a frenotomy. So if you plan to breastfeed and you’re struggling, it’s important to get an evaluation quickly and to continue to nurse or pump every two to three hours to establish a normal milk supply, Dr. Spatz says. Some women can soldier through until the tongue tie is fixed, but that ultimately depends on your comfort level and how severe the tongue tie is.
However, if your baby is diagnosed with tongue tie during a routine pediatric visit, don’t panic and assume that you’re going to have issues nursing. Although it can cause painful breastfeeding, Dr. Randazzo-Ahern says, many babies with the condition do just fine and don’t require any procedures.
And there are other common causes of painful nursing that don't have to do with tongue tie. According to Dr. Spatz, they usually come down to the quality of the latch. "If the infant is latched on just to the tip of the nipple this will cause pain and nipple trauma," she says. "Sometimes infants will flatten the nipple, which will also cause pain."
Still, breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt and you definitely shouldn’t have to suffer through it. If you're in pain, check in with your baby’s doctor—in most cases, the cause can be fixed fairly quickly.
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