tongue tie

Sept30Madison

We're working on breastfeeding to decrease the amount of pumping I do every day. It's going ok, but not great.  DD is not as satisfied and seems to tire out more at breast than bottle.  I'm seeing a LC and she said that DD has a tongue tie and that breastfeeding will likely get much better if it's clipped.  It's a very non-invasive office procedure. Anyone with experience with this?

karebearmccroar

DS was tongue tied, but not in a super obvious way that was noticed early on. All of a sudden from weeks 7 to 8, he didn't gain weight for a week, turns out that my milk switched from an oversupply practically squirting in his mouth to supply and demand. Since he wasn't able to latch well, he stopped transferring milk. My nipple would sort of slip in and out as he tried to suck, almost like if you tried to suck on a straw but couldn't hold it in place with your lips. The LC said he had a thick band at his tongue base, the ENT said clipping it may or may not help. We decided it was worth it- not a pleasant procedure, but quick. It was the best thing we did since I may have had to stop BFing at that point. As it was I had to take a weekend and pump every 2 hours around the clock to build my supply up again since it had gotten so low from him not draining the breasts for a week. Then he had the surgery early in week 8 and was latching better within 2-3 days. Also, I'm a speech therapist, and moderate to severe tongue tie can really affect speech development of certain sounds later on. Worth doing it now rather than when they are older IMO. Mild cases like my son's wouldn't have affected his speech though, just latch, so something to be aware of. 

SBBBE

Out DD was severally tongue tied and unfortunately we didn't figure it out until my nipples were in rough shape. The ENT said she had one of the worse cases he had ever seen and she would have speech problems of we didn't have it taken care of. I wasn't surprised because it looked so bad.

It was a super quick and painless procedure. DD cried for about two seconds mainly becuase she didn't like the dr holding her mouth open. There was a tiny drop of of an then she was fine. We still are nursing full time but she has made a lot of improvement.

I have known two people that didn't get their tongue clipped until they were older and now have speech problems so it can happen.

srd3

Excuse me for replying here.. I am just a lurker due to IC and Irritable uterus.. But I was a tongue tied baby. I was diagnosed "Failure to Thrive" after losing to much weight and not being able to breast feed. They didn't realize I was tongue tied until I was around 5 if I remember the story right. I did end up getting my tongue cut, with a laser, when I was a sophomore in high school!! They don't recommend doing it that late because it can cause speech problems. I would say to do it now while she is little that way you can also avoid speech problems from ever developing! I opted for the laser since I was older and the thought have having someone just reach in with scissors freaked me out..lol.. But they can do it that way in office!