Can a resolved tongue tie still affect baby when eating solids?

[Joiedevivre83]

Hi there, my DS had his tongue tie snipped at just under 12 weeks. For the first twelve weeks he fed every hour day and night, which improved after we had the procedure. I don't think that his tongue tie has reattached itself (though I can't be sure) while healing but I'm starting to wonder whether there is something else going on in his mouth which is affecting his solid intake. DS is now just over 10 months, 6-9 months we did baby-led weaning, so I know baby-led weaning can mean some babies are slower to take to solids, but for the last month we have been spoon feeding (panic about returning to work in a month's time!) we EBFed until a week ago but now trying to encourage him to take a bottle before afternoon nap.

-Never slept through the night, not yet,
-day goes something like this:approx times
-wakes at 04:00
-bf 05:00 (both sides after 2 nappies and a crazy hour of chatting)
-back to sleep until 07:00
-gets up with dad, not interested in solids for breakfast
-08:00 bf (both sides before morning nap of 45 mins usually)
-10:30 small amount of solids
-13:15 solids for lunch with water
-14:30 reluctantly takes about 3oz from a bottle
-after much fussing and trying to get at my boobs he eventually gives in and falls asleep at 15:30 for about 1-1.5 hours
-17:00/17:30 dinner
-play as don't want him to bath, feed, and bed too early, he'd go at 18:00 if we let him

• bath 18:15

-18:45 bf 1side
-19:30/20:00 bed after bf 1 side
Sips water throughout the day
-23:00 bf both sides


-Extremely wary of going to other people, gets in such a state (cries until you have to remind him to breathe, usually vomits. Now enjoys going to MIL, not the childminder yet, tried one hour with the childminder this week and she had to bring him back as he got so worked up.

-eats with the smallest of spoons, a doll's spoon in fact which is a quarter of the size of a baby feeding spoon, and even that seems too much for him.
-doesn't seem to be able to open his mouth very wide at all, and to me seems to have quite a small mouth (1st baby though so nothing to compare to so closely)
-can't seem to retrieve food from lip, pushes it back in with his finger
-anything which is slightly hard gets spat out, though he was fine with chewing (but not swallowing) all sorts when we were just BLW.
-IMO his chewing seems awkward
-pincer grip not quite there yet
-lip tie which seems to have split, at least a little, after a week of grinding teeth and quite a bit of blood a couple of days ago. Looks like it's come away a bit and top lip looked instantly fuller :)
-has 8 teeth and seems to be a little biter!

Does all of this seem ok? Sorry for the long post, in a panic! HV not a huge help but wondering does a resolved tongue tie still affect eating?

Thanks for reading :)

[Boobybeau]

Sorry, I'm not sure about the tongue tie stuff but your daily routine sounds pretty normal for that age tbh. My ds wasn't interested in solids until between 10-12 mths, I clearly remember he still didn't eat much on his 1st birthday and I was in tears of frustration about it, he just loved his breast milk too much I guess. Hes now 4 and i cant stop him eating, he pretty much eats anything now! I don't mean to belittle what's happening as the tongue tie may well be playing a part but just keep offering food and I'm sure he'll get the hang of it. I also find that teething makes my dc loose their appetite to so could this be playing a part as well maybe?

[Misty9]

Hiya. I well remember the stress of eating/not eating at that age as ds was a nightmare to wean. We did BLW (next time I'll do a mixture, don't care if that's not theoretically possible) and ds didn't eat much of anything until 10.5mths. We were on three meals a day by then but iirc he didn't eat breakfast (bf first thing and just wasn't interested after that) and evening meal was hit and miss too.

Ds was also nearly 100% tongue tied and was snipped at 4wks. We then had a nightmare with him not swallowing solids, but also not seeming able to spit them out - cue lots of screaming until we removed the offending food from his mouth (yes, I know you're not supposed to do that). I believe it was his tt history affecting his eating. Also, I think he's just not a big eater. Now two years old and just been 24hrs without eating much, normal for him so might be for your ds too?

Try not to worry too much - if they're hungry then they will eat. Ds bf until 15mo when he self weaned but that didn't make a huge impact on his solids intake tbh. As for the clinginess, the attachment system is developing around about now I'm afraid, so it's all normal if a little distressing for you. He WILL be fine - can he spend time with the cm with you there too? So he sees they're a safe person?

Good luck :)

[mawbroon]

Are you sure that the tie was completely revised? There are lots of people out there doing frenectomies, but not all of them are skilled at it.

What type of tie was revised? If it was an anterior tie (more obvious one, toward the tip of the tongue), there could well be a posterior one lurking in there still. Lip ties are accompanied by posterior ties about 99% of the time.

Perhaps worth seeing someone who is really an expert on ties. Where are you based?

[mawbroon]

And also, ask to join the Tongue Tie Babies Support Group on Facebook. Loads of knowledge and experience on there.

[BashfulBunny]

I echo what mawbroon said. My ds had his lip tie and posterior tongue tie done at 12 months (don't get me started on how it was missed by so many people ) What you describe sounds like him before he had them lasered.

Since the lip tie was missed on your ds I'd not be surprised if they also overlooked a posterior tongue tie . There are some knowledgeable people on that FB group who might help.