My son is Tongue-Tied

Jacinta - posted on 06/30/2009

My son was tongue tied and we had it cut when he was 7 days old. Apparently it is just like a pin prick and the sooner you do it, the easier it is. I was soooooo nervous, but he only cried for a second and stopped as soon as the doctor gave him back to me. (I couldn't hold him or watch!) He didn't bleed or anything. If you wait until he is older to see if he has speech problems it becomes more of a major operation. All the best with your decision, I know how you feel but all the worry was for nothing in my experience. Good luck.

Crystal - posted on 06/29/2009

Quoting Cheryl:

My son is Tongue-Tied

my son is 11days old and we have discovered that he is tongue-tied. we are debating on whether we should get it cut. he is eating ok from a bottle but not the breast so i have to pump all day for him. the dr says we can get it done if it interferes with his eating or speech. we wont know if he has speech problems till he is much older so should we do it now?

We had t get my sons don because he was having trouble eating it took seconds and he hardly even noticed it healed very quickly and realy helped with his brest feeding he is way less gassy.

Cheryl - posted on 06/29/2009

well i thank all of you for your help. i think we have decided to go ahead and do it. my husband is TT but never had his clipped and also never had any speech problems but I dont want to take that risk with my son. we would rather be safe than sorry! i will let you all know how he does on wed thanks again

Amanda - posted on 06/29/2009

My first daughter was TT, all the way to the tip of her tounge, I would like to point out if a TT can breastfeed DOES NOT mean they do not need it clipped. My daughter was the best breastfeeder out of all 3 of my children and she was the only TT one. She feed so well they didnt realize she was TT until she was over 3 months old. We got it clipped because there was no way possible she would be able to speak. Why wait until they are speaking to find out there is a problem and then put your child through Speech theorpy.

She was not given any medication, to get her TT fixed, a simple clip with scissors, and done. She was feed and done crying about it all within seconds. It is no big deal.

Melissa - posted on 06/29/2009

My 3 mo was TT, I chose to snip it when she was 5 days old. I was so happy! She tore my nipples up and clicked when she ate. I worked with a lactation consultant and I had to finger feed her with pumped milk for 1 week. I needed time to heal from her damage and time to retrain her how to eat correctly. Chances were good that my childs speech would have been effected...but your right you can't tell right now. What I can tell you, from our experience, it was quick for her, there was no blood, she nursed right after and fell asleep. No hard crying form pain, etc. It did wonders for us, I'm glad I did it- she nursed like a champ now. Good luck with your decision!

Jennifer - posted on 06/29/2009

My daughter was tongue tied at birth and it definately affected our breastfeeding. She could not latch on and the lactation consultant that I had was terrible about it. She blamed me for not trying hard enough and never bothered to look at my daughter's mouth to see if there was a problem. It wasn't until the pediatrician looked at her that we discovered she was tongue tied. We did have her frenulum clipped at two days old. They did the clipping in the nursary of the hospital. We never saw any blood or tears from her. They applied a local numbing agent and she was fine. She never latched on because she was happier with the bottle. She had to work too hard to get the milk from the breast. At the same time, I still feel we made the right decision in getting her frenulum clipped.She hasn't had any speech problems and she has developed fine even without the breastfeeding. As our doctor explained it to us, it is infinatly more difficult to do it at two than it is as two days. That is because the frenulum thickens as they get older and the doctor runs the risk of cutting into veins. When they are little, it's a simple scissor snip like when you have extra skin on your finger. It hurts for a second and then it is over. When my son was born eight months ago, we looked at his tongue before we looked at his fingers and toes! lol. His tongue is fine and he is still a champion "boob-man" as my husband describes him. If it is affecting your son's ability to latch and you feel that he will still take the breast, get it done now. You'll never have a reason to regret getting it done, but if you don't you may regret it later. If he does have speech problems and you need to do it when he is older, it will be a world of trouble.

Sherry - posted on 06/28/2009

My son also was "tongue tied" and we discovered this in the lactation office a few days after he was born. It was deffinitely affecting our breastfeeding so we decided to have it clipped. It was done in the Dr's office and took about 2 minutes. My son cried, but was quickly comforted and was fine. I can say from our experience it certainly helped. My husband was also tongue tied and he did not have it clipped. He did howerver need speech thereapy in grade school.

Ildiko - posted on 06/28/2009

my son had it and we didn't clip. The Dr said it wasn't too extreme and predicted it wouldn't affect his speech. I did affect his latch and I went through A LOT to get nursing to go well. I don't know if it just developed better as he got older or what. But, it's no problem now.



I also am in the "no unnecessary procedures" group. So, I was against it.



I hope you don't have an extreme case. Best of luck.

Guggie - posted on 06/28/2009

DD had a really tight tongue tie and a high roof. On the day we scheduled the clipping, I was nursing her literally before leaving to go to the appt when she got a good hearty latch. We cancelled and she has been fine since then.



If it is interfering w/ latching so badly that you are 100% pumping then I would consider clipping it. They say it doesn't hurt much at all.

Samantha - posted on 06/28/2009

Well they would numb it of course. Why wouldnt they. Sedate puts them to sleep and stops moving not numbs them. They would use other medicine to numb it. There seemed to be no pain afterwards also. She ate that night after getting it done. Babies heal faster then when they are older.

Chelsea - posted on 06/28/2009

It's not just because of the movement that they sedate them. It's the pain. A lot of doctors have no trouble putting a newborn in extreme pain (circumcision). Remember you are your child's only advocate.

Samantha - posted on 06/28/2009

My daughter was tongue-tied as well. It caused some feeding problems at first. We had to use a nipple shield to helpe her latch on for about a month with every feeding. Then one day she didnt need it. Her tongue stretched out enough to feed. When it came to solids all she could do was basicly liquid food. Even when she was 8 months old. If she also coughed she would gag because of her tongue being stuck. All the doctors we took her too said it was fine. BUT she was having difficulties with everything. She also wasnt babbling like most babies her age. I finally got it to where she got her tongue clipped and she is now eating everything she can get her hands on and she is now saying mama and dada. Im positive if we didnt get her tongue clipped she wouldnt of been able to speak and would of had a hard time trying to swallow food. If you want i can email you the picture of how her tongue looked before we got it clipped so you can see if your sons is as bad as hers was.



But just know if you do wait longer they will have to put him to sleep. If he is young under a month they can do it in the office and avoid the hospital. Cause they arent moving and it is easier to get done. Also if you wait until he is talking know that he will probably be in speech therapy to help with speech problems. But also it may stretch out. Its basicly 50/50. My daughter is now 11 months old its been 2 months since the appt and it was the best thing that has happened so far. she couldnt stick her tongue out of her mouth and now she can and blow raspberries.



Just think of all the pros and cons and even talk to a otolaryngologist. that who be who would do the surgery. i wish you luck and with your problem with him latching try the Nipple Shield. It resembles a bottle top and it will help it defiently did for us. :)

Shanna - posted on 06/28/2009

Just wanted to add one more thing...If your son does grow up and you find he has a problem with his speech, you can get it snipped then. No need to put him through that if he doesn't need it right :)

Shanna - posted on 06/28/2009

My mom was tounge tied when she was a baby, as well as my best friends baby (my "nephew") is tounge tied. My nephew and my daughter have the same doctor and I went with my friend to the doctor when they had the discussion about whether they should get it snipped or leave it. Our doctor said as long as he is eating fine and its not iterfering with his life - leave it. The reason being, if it is not interfering with eating and whatnot then its not a severe tounge tie. Therefor, the tounge tie will correct itself before he has any problems with it, like in speaking. Our doctor said that they usually grow out around or before 1 year of age.



My nephew's was left alone and he is 7 months old now and has already grew out of it.



Also, be carefull who you talk to about it. The public health nurses that do home visits and give immunizations and stuff are actually the ones who told my friend to get it snipped RIGHT away and that if she didnt it was gunna cause a huge problem, they got her so scared so she made an appointment to get it snipped. Luckily, she saw her doctor first and he said no way! He actually does the procedure and he said that it was not severe enough to be snipped. The nurses were trying to send her to a different doctor to get it done when they knew that her doctor did the procedure.



So, I would leave it - as long as he is eating ok. My nephew wouldnt breastfeed either, he was formula fed. But you could try nipple sheild too...There are also excersizes you can do to strengthen his tounge and jaw. That was my nephews problem, he was either too lazy lol, or his mouth wasnt strong enough to breastfeed. You should have a lactation consultant at you're health clinic, ask about the excersizes. Good Luck!

Chelsea - posted on 06/28/2009

I would say leave it and see. He can breastfeed but you have to work hard with a lactation consultant to get his latch correct. It's worth the work and the breastfeeding will get better with time as his tongue grows longer. My daughter had a very short tongue at birth so we also had latch issues and she clicked when she ate which made me sore.

Kirsten - posted on 06/28/2009

Im tongue tie and my parents left me and I made it :) haha

I managed to pass it on to my son who is now a month old...Hes doing fine eating but it does make me sore..Its gotten WAY better though (so I can tolerate it fine). My doc thinks im crazy that I don't want to clip him since it does make me sore..haha

I think ultimately it depends how severe it is..if its bad enough he can't even latch on..then it may be more of an issue with speech? I dont really know! My son can at least stick his tongue out to his lips...

Good luck!

Sarah - posted on 06/28/2009

Hmm that's a toughie. Don't know if this will help, but my husband was actually tongue tied and it didn't interfere with anything so his parents just left it alone. I would probably wait and see how he does with talking and whatnot since he is at least eating okay.