Tongue Tied

jycarrillo

I just found out at DS's 9 month wellness check that he is tongue tied.  Now that he's on finger foods I noticed he couldn't stick out his tongue too far.  Wasn't really presenting a problem, he vocalizes just fine, appears to be chewing his food ok. I mainly asked out of curiosity.  I was surprised when his Pediatrician told me what it was and that it could cause a speech delay.  DS happen to be seeing a ENT for possible tubes, so Pediatrician said he would be the perfect person and time to "snip" it.  However ENT said this week he does not need tubes (hurray!) and wants to wait to see if his tongue will become a problem. (sigh) He thinks its pretty severe, but doesn't want to put him under for that unless it becomes necessary. Anyone have any experience with this.  I feel terrible for not asking sooner.

Assembly_Reqd

My nephew had a tongue tie for 17 years. My sister's pedi said "not to worry" so she never snipped it. He has always sounded a little funny when he talked. To me and others in the family, his articulation always sounded almost like a lisp or if he had a marble or two in his mouth. His mom still claims it caused no speech "issues". Whatever.

Now he is in speech therapy after having it snipped at 17 to learn how to swallow correctly. His tongue movement in his mouth was ruining all the orthadonture(sp) work they did to straighten his teeth. He learned to swallow by pushing his tongue up against the roof of his mouth and this was pushing out all the alignment in his upper teeth. So I guess you could wait until it is "necessary" like my sister did....

If you think about how you eat, the lateral movement of your tongue is pretty useful. How would he clear away food stuck between his back teeth and cheeks? I would think that you would have to be really diligent about brushing and flossing. I am sure there are others who had no issues with their tongue tie, but just thought I would share my sister's experience. HTH! Good Luck!

meldoo2002

My opinion is a little different.  I say the earlier the better... "if" you are going to do it.  Once he learns how to talk using his tongue the way it is... if you snip it he will have many more articulation difficulties.  Your tongue is a big muscle and learning how to control it again is hard work.  I usually don't see speech issues if they don't have feeding issues.  If he breast fed ok and is using lateral tongue motion than I would err on the side of not snipping it.  But that's the speech pathologist in me.

SLO2005

My LO was tongue tied and I swear no on would have picked it up or mentioned it to me.  I noticed right away in the hospital because his tongue was heart shaped on the end.  I believe he had problems nursing too in the beginning this would explain to non stop screaming until he got his tongue clipped!  I say the earlier to do it the better.

carlinlp

Earlier the better. We waited until my son was 8 to clip his and while his speech and eating are fine at 14, he still has odd tongue movements. He tells us all the time he wishes we wouldn't have waited to do the surgery.

jycarrillo

Thank you for your responses. I'd like to take care of it as soon as possible. He's got a couple orthopedic surgeries scheduled for when he turns 1yr. I'm hoping that doctor can take care of it so we don't have to put him under so many times.

Assembly_Reqd

I would ask the orthopedic doctor if he has an ENT who can step in and snip it before your DS wakes up. I am sure they all go through similar training regarding surgery and this procedure is not a huge deal, but IMO that's kinda like asking a plumber to rewire an outlet. Good Luck!!