"Tongue-tied" Baby

My middle daughter is tongue-tied, 3 years old. I wish I would have it clipped when she was a baby. She had a rough time, and really still does have issues, with eating. She has a hard time chewing food well- and often gags on it because her tongue isn't able to help the chewing process effectively. Her speech is only slightly effected, I believe because some of the more difficult sounds- like L are in her sisters name so she has a lot of practice! She is traumatized by the dentist already so I am waiting to get it clipped. If I would have known it was a pretty easy thing in infancy to have it done, I would have had it done then.

Good Luck!

Two of my three were tongue-tied at birth. While they were still in the NICU we had the ENT come and do a consult and he looked at them, watched them nurse, etc. Since both could nurse well, he said it wasn't an issue and that most will loosen over time. It didn't affect their nursing at all- in fact they were both better in the beginning than my non-tongue-tied son.

But- the ENT up being 1/2 correct. For my son- his did loosen over time and all was well. For my daughter it did not- it stayed tight- when she stuck out her tongue it was heart shaped, and she couldn't lift the tip of her tongue to behind her teeth and it started to affect her articulation. At age 3.5 she had it clipped surgically, and started speech therapy.
In hindsight I wish she had been clipped at birth- she may very well have still ended up having articulation trouble anyway (in both sides of the family aunts/uncles have needed it) but at least I would know it wasn't from that.

You are correct in that they take the "wait and see" approach- and I do agree with the idea behind it. But there's a part of that will always wondered if we had been more proactive about getting it done earlier as a preventative that she might be able to say her Ls better :)

If you can, have it done now and not later. My son was tied so slightly that we did not realize until he had a problem with speech at 4. He had been in speech therapy for 2 years and the therapist suggested we have it looked at. When we went to have it realeased it was a day surgery thing and he was "put out". He is now 5 1/2 and he does remember it but not as pain. The good news is that it helped his speech and he has now graduated from the program and has no problems.

I think it all depends on the severity of it. My 5 month old was tongue tied at birth and I was all ready to get it clipped, but they didn't seem too worried since she was nursing just fine. When I had my home visit the nurse said it would probably stretch and it has.

I've known several babies who were tongue tied and clipped. It really is not a huge deal, but I imagine these days they try not to do anything unless they think they need to. In both cases nursing was hard. It did help the one baby, but not the other. Long term issues can be speech, but many people are tongue tied and do fine. I guess I would rather fix it quick now than have to later when they can remember the pain. It is your decision... if your clinic will not do it call another.

If he is nursing ok, and getting enough milk, then the problem may not be severe enough to require clipping, but I would make sure that if you notice your supply drop, or him wanting to nurse more and not seeming satisfied, it could be an indicatoin that he's not able to get enough milk out.

My oldest was tongue tied, and we should have had his clipped right away, but I was told over and over again it wasn't a problem, nursing was just tough, etc. Finally we forced it, had it done, nursing went fine after that. It was literally like 5 seconds, one clip, a spot of blood he wiped away, baby stopped crying ,latched on, away we went. We were in the office all of 3 minutes for the appt.

So if you are hesitant about the procedure itself, I would go ahead with it. While we dont like to see our babies cry, this was SO FAST, but it really helped him, and me, out.

All three of my children have been tounge-tied (gotta love genetics!). I was nervous getting the first one clipped and waited until he was two months old. I had many problems with nursing because he could not get his tongue past his lips. I never made enough milk for him most likely due to his problem. The procedure is very minimal which is why I have not hesitated with the other two. Nursing has gone perfectly with each of them. Most doctors have told me they do not recommend it for speech issues anymore. It's an easy procedure, but I probably wouldn't bother with it unless you are having nursing issues.

A.

Hi M.,
Our son was tongue-tied at birth, and we had it clipped when he was 5 days old. We were having trouble nursing because the location of his frenulum was at the very tip of his tongue. It was obvious the moment I saw his crying little face looking up at mine when he was born. The doctors that I saw were not too concerned, but that may have been because they wanted to see how nursing went. When he had trouble nursing, all the lactation consultants directed me to go to an ENT specialist who would do the procedure. Some family practice/peds will do it as well. When the ENT saw him, she said "oh yeah" as if to say it was quite an obvious case. However, the procedure took about 8 seconds with the help of her very able nurse. There was about a drop of blood. I was able to nurse him immediately . I seem like an old pro, but I was crying in the doctor's office and couldn't watch.

I think it really depends on your own observations. Your little guy seems to be nursing well, so his may not be as severe as my guy's. I think I am even tongue-tied a little since I cannot easily lift my tongue to the roof of my mouth, but I have never had any trouble with speech.

My son had his frenulum (sp?)- the skin connecting the tongue to the bottom of the mouth- clipped 2 days after he was born. The nurses mentioned to me the first day and would speak to the Dr. When he visited he told me it is quite rare to cut these anymore-but he would take a look at it. We did talk about some difficulties my son was having latching on. He came back after examining my son and he said his tongue was pretty restricted by his frenulum and recommended clipping it. It was quickly done and we noticed some immediate improvements in his nursing. I appreciated the Dr.'s stance in avoiding the procedure unless there are problems-which was the situation in my case. If I were you, I'd wait and see-too.

My 6 year old daughter is tongue-tied (so was her father who got his clipped at 16 yrs. old). She nursed fine and I did schedule an appt to get it clipped and when I showed up, they wouldn't do it at the clinic and said I needed an appt. at a hospital because she was under 1 years old (we lived in Seattle at the time). So I never got it done. Her speech is perfect and now we consider it a special part of who she is. When she was three I was concerned about her speech, but that change quickly around the age of 4.