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Children's health

DD bitten through tongue.

6 replies

GirlFromTheNorthCountry · 16/08/2016 08:53

Yesterday my DD (1yo) bumped down into her bum and managed to bite through her tongue. It was grim. We spent the day in A and E then were seen by a max fax consultant who said they would stitch her but it meant putting her under a general anaesthetic, or we could give it a week to see how it healed. He was confident that it would heal, as she hadn't bitten it off, just through one side. I decided to give it a week and a see what happened, as want to avoid her going under if possible.

She's fine, is able to eat yogurts, purees etc and breastfeed ok. However, this morning I was thinking it would have started to join back together, but it's still loose- like a forked tongue but at the side, IYSWIM. I'm now worried that she's going to have this weird tongue forever as I won't heal back together and I should have pushed them to put her under and stitch it. Does anyone know if it will join eventually or should I take her back to be seen again? She's not in pain, I'm just worrying!

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DraeneiMage · 16/08/2016 08:56

If it's not impacting her eating I imagine it will be fine?
I also imagine they will still put her under and stitch it if you're really that worried about a slightly disfigured tongue.

If it were me though I would leave it. As she's only 1 she's still learning a lot of her speech and will adapt to a slightly misshapen tongue.

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almostthirty · 16/08/2016 08:58

A little bit I used to look after I certainly s!upped off the front of his chair, bumping his chin on the table, biting through his tongue. I have never seen so much blood. He refused to let a&e look at it, but once it had healed he had the perfect imprint of his teeth on his tongue.
It healed really quickly (definitely within a week) . He was back at nursery the next day.

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vintagechick43 · 17/08/2016 21:26

My DD did this at school when she was 5, fell over in the classroom and banged her chin on a wooden cot. It was horrendous, had about half an inch cut on one side of her tongue. It did heal really quickly, no mention of stiches at a&e. She could only eat soft stuff for quite a while soup, mash and veg, banana mashed up, ice cream and jelly. She is now 12 and has a scar on her tongue which doesn't bother her at all.

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GirlFromTheNorthCountry · 17/08/2016 22:40

Thanks for your replies. DD is doing well, eating a little better (still very soft stuff) and doesn't really seem to be in pain with it. The tongue still doesn't really seem to be joining together at all, does anyone know if it's too early for that yet? I think I expected it to seal back together after a couple of days, but now I'm wondering if it'll heal from the middle of the tongue outwards. I'm not concerned about the look of the tongue, I'm just hoping it won't affect her speech or anything as she grows up.

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vintagechick43 · 18/08/2016 08:16

DD's had started to knit back together within a couple of days, she wouldn't speak for the first day after doing it as it was very sore. But she is a chatterbox and couldn't keep quite for long and I think talking did open it back up again. Scar doesn't affect her talking now, we had a follow up appointment at the doctor's a couple of days after doing it, maybe if your worried you could pop to yours and ask them to look at it.

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GirlFromTheNorthCountry · 18/08/2016 10:34

We have an appointment back at the hospital next week, so they will check her over then, I just think if it's still gaping now then it won't go back together at all and by then it'll be too late to do anything about it. They said to take her back to A and E if I had any worries but I don't want to waste their time as she's fine with it. I just wince every time she puts anything in her mouth! Good to know it hasn't affected your DD's speech. Thanks for the reassurance!