tongue tie

[Rohey]

Advice needed. Dc3 appears to be tongue tied. Not so severe that he cannot stick his tongue out but the tip of his tongue is more heart shaped when he does stick it out. The question is, should I leave it as he feeds fine, or should I get it snipped? Can it recify itself? Would/could it affect his speech long term? Advice please...

[pearlgirl]

I have 4dcs - 3 have tongue ties.
ds1 - huge tongue tie (not divided) -fed ok after a shaky start, no speech problems. can't lick an ice cream for toffee.
ds2 - no tongue tie - had speech therapy for certain sounds which were indistinct, lasted about 2 terms
ds3 - small posterior tongue tie( not divided) , fed ok, speech therapy for 18months as he had problems with certain sounds.
ds4 - posterior tongue tie ,feeding hard to really establish, tongue tie divided at 8 weeks (1st consultant said it wasn't serious enough to do anything about)- feeding more comfortable. Sorry can't comment on speech yet as he is only 8 months.

I don't think you can say for certain which tongue ties will cause difficulties with speech later - my boys are so mixed and the one who is the most tongue tied had no speech problems. We had ds4's divided as i really wanted to ebf and didn't feel he was effectively transferring the milk he was getting and it was hurting. When they are little it is a very quick procedure and ds4 hardly cried and fed 30secs after it was done.
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[MoonUnitAlpha]

I had ds's tt snipped on doctor's advice despite it not really effecting feeding - he said as it can effect speech it's best to have it done when they're little as it's a 2 minute procedure, whereas doing it on an older child requires anaesthetic or sedation which is risky in itself.

[xMrsSx]

had my DS tt snipped at 8 days, was only a small one but feeding wasnt going great so I wanted to rule that out as a cause. Just to echo that it was a really quick procedure, DS didn't even cry and fed straight after too. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Rohey]

Thanks ladies...will discuss with gp. However gp said he was not tongue tied so it might take some convincing..lol..

[thisisyesterday]

if he feeds fine i would leave it personally.

i know round here they won't snip them unless there is a problem because it doesn't necessarily cause speech problems

I have 2 children who are tongue tied. ds1 wasn't snipped. he is almost 6 and has no speech probs at all
ds2 is 3, and he had his snipped as we had feeding issues. he does have speech issues, but not connected to the tongue tie

[roundthehouses]

I had ds´ tt snipped at about 11 weeks only because it took forever to get referred, we spotted it at about 6 days and I do believe it was effecting feeding, he wasn´t gaining well, took ages at the breast often falling asleep before finishing and the latch was very painful causing nipple damage. Improved immediately after the snip.

He is now 3.5 and talks without barely drawing breath but so far no one has commented on any speech problems, and i certainly haven´t noticed any.

[PumpUpTheJam]

I know someone who's just had to get her two year old twins' tongue-tie snipped, involving anaesthetic etc, which was a fairly big deal for all concerned. It didn't affect their feeding at all as babies, but was affecting speech. My DD was also tt and was snipped at 8 days but hers was so pesky and stubborn it grew back twice!

[Rohey]

Gosh. Did not know it could grow back...ds is now 23 weeks and he struggled with breastfeeding to begin and his weight gain was slow. But he caught up. It was never painful for me though, so I dismissed it earlier.