Tongue tie

[Soph]

Ned who is now 1 week old has pretty bad tongue tie. It doesn't seem to affect his feeding as yet, but just wondering of other bubs that have had it, and those who have had to have it snipped. Does it also affect speech later on?

[Trillian]

hey Soph, nice to see you again LOL. If it is bad, I would get it snipped because it can interfere with feeding and sometimes speech later on as they get older. Paige has a mild tounge tie, and it didn't affect her feeding, and is so mild it wasn't even picked up until her 6wk check up, so it was never snipped. It hasn't affected her speech either.

If you get it snipped, it really doesn't bother them and they don't have any dramas with it to feed afterwards from what I have heard.

[tiggy]

Hi Soph,
Noah has a moderate to severe tongue tie. It interferes with his feeding all the time. We were told to have it snipped when he was 12 weeks old but he needed a general anaesthetic and I couldn't bring myself to do it. The lactation consultant gave us some excercises to do with him to try to extend it. He can now get his tongue to the end of his bottom lip.
I lost the breastfeeding window though and now he is going in after his first birthday to have the op as all the paeds,ECHN, speechys and ENTs have said it will interfere with his speech. He'll have to relearn how to use his tongue because he has compensated for it.
In hindsight I should have just gone and had it done when he was tiny.
Some ENTs won't do it unless the baby is under a general, I have heard that there are some dentists who will just snip the frenulum with a local.
Not so many years ago, midwives used to go into the nursery and just snip any tongue ties they saw, to help with BF but of course now it is not done due to informed consent.
It's good that Ned is not having any troubles with feeding, that is a good sign that he may not need it to be snipped.
Let us know how you go.

[Phteven]

Imran has tongue tie and we thought about getting it snipped but since he managed to learn to breastfeed with it we didn't bother. If he has speech problems later we'll get it snipped.
The midwives at Westmead have started offering to do really early snipping again - they just snip it and put the baby straight back on the boob again so they avoid all the risks of a GA

[kmh]

my DD who is 10 weeks has tounge tie, she is brestfeed it does not really interfer with it, i took her to see the pead and she is on the waiting list to have it sniped, she will be under when she gets it done, but i think it will be better getting it done now then later on. I can let you know how it goes when we get it done.

[Pandora]

Milo's was snipped at 7 weeks, no anaesthetic, and I fed him right away.

At one week, if it was assessed as OK to snip, they would do it right in front of you, wothout anaesthetic.


In Melbourne, at the Royal Womens Hospital they do the procedure without anaesthetic up util 4 months.

This is from their website:

In early infancy (up to 4 months), the procedure may be performed without anaesthesia with little discomfort to the infant. The infant is placed supine with the elbows held flexed securely close to the face. The tongue is lifted gently with gloved finger and thumb so as to expose the frenulum. With sterile scissors, the frenulum is released by approximately 2 to 3 mm at its thinnest portion, between the tongue and the alveolar ridge, into the sulcus just proximal to the genioglossus muscle. Care is taken not to incise any vascular tissue (the base of the tongue, the genioglossus muscle, or the gingival mucosa). There should be minimal blood loss, i.e., no more than a drop or 2, collected on sterile gauze. (Ballard JL, Auer CE, and Khoury JC)