Anyone had experience of not snipping tongue tie?

[PerpetualStudent]

Not sure whether this was best posted here or in health.
My DS is 8 weeks old, has been gaining weight slowly and seems to feed in small but CONSTANT bursts. His latch looks ok, though he gets a bit 'slidey' and grumpy when he's tired.

If it's useful to know: He's had a little bit of mixed feeding with a bottle top up in the evenings on and off (was treated for jaundice in the hospital so we were strongly encouraged to top up from day dot)

HV is now suspecting tongue tie, and sent us for a referral to get it assessed. Thing is, I've had such mixed reviews of TT-snipping, from it being life-changing, to being a total pain or actually pointless as it grew back!

So I wondered if anyone had experience of leaving TT be - do you wish you had had it snipped, or did it all work out?

[MoJangled]

Not really answering your question - but in the 3 weeks before we had DS's snipped, it was awful - couldn't feed properly (him), agonisingly chewed boobs and mastitis (me), tired and frustrated (both of us). Snipping was a miracle for us and breastfeeding became a pleasure (and he GREW!!!). I suspect it's grown back a bit but it really helped when we needed it most.

Sounds like you're not in quite such dire straights, but before deciding against, try to get advices on how severe your DS's TT is - this can be easier said than done. And look out for adults in your family with untreated TT, which can affect them in subtle but important ways. DH has unclear speech which I think has affected his career - and he can't snog... . if it's a thing in your family you might want to take that into account. I'm considering getting DS assessed again for this reason, even though at 4 its not causing problems.

[HighOverTheFenceLeapsSunnyJim]

Not the same situation as you but my 6 day old DS has a slight tongue tie. If it hadn't been pointed out I wouldn't have thought anything was wrong as he feeds fine, gained on birthweight etc (he is my third breastfed baby). So I am going to leave it, I think. My DD2 also had a tongue tie but her latch was very sloppy, she clicked & came off a lot, so although she gained as well I had hers snipped at 14 days.

[PerpetualStudent]

Thanks for your advice, went to a breastfeeding counsellor today who diagnosed it as being severe enough to get snipped. Still feeling a little hesitant - I've not had any pain, bleeding nipples or any of the 'usual' TT signs on my side, and he does seem able to stick his tongue out & move it around.
The counsellor said these were red herrings though - the key thing is his tongue movements when he's got his mouth open wide to latch. And that the TT would be making his sucking weaker, which might be why my nips were getting spared! Really hope this is the case and the snip makes the difference to his weight gain...
I'll report back on how it goes (in 4 weeks or so, got to love NHS waiting lists!)

[MrsLeighHalfpenny]

DH has a tongue tie that was never snipped. He has no idea how he was fed, of how well when he was a baby, but it certainly doesn't affect him now

[Lottiedoubtie]

My 10MO has a tongue and lip tie that went undiagnosed for 9 months... it spelt the end of breastfeeding as combined with severe weight loss and jaundice at the beginning I was told I wasn't producing enough milk and that I had to top up and express. So began a miserable few weeks of that and BF never got 'properly' established.

I wonder if BF would have worked out if I had realised and got it snipped- it makes me sad that I didn't realise sooner. As it is the dentist says that the lip tie is severe and DS may need it cut if it interferes with his teeth growing (top teeth just coming though so we will see...)

That probably doesn't help you.... but I think I'd err on the side of taking action before you get urged to give up BF because of slow weight gain.

[CloserToFiftyThanTwenty]

I have a partial tongue tie: I can't stick my tongue out very well or roll my Rs to speak Spanish, but apart from that it really has no bearing on my life at all

[MumOfOne14]

I had my DS's tongue tie snipped at 3 weeks because of struggle latching, it was a very thin tie, but it was to the tip of his tongue. Honestly I haven't looked back, best thing I've done, especially when I see his little tongue poking out I had an abscess too by 3/4 weeks so I'm wondering if the tongue tie was the cause of it!!

[WiIdfire]

Firstly, there is no evidence that tongue tie snipping does or doesn't work unfortunately. I spent ages trying to come up with a medical trial that tested the procedure reliably, but it was just not really possible.
Secondly, If you do want it doing, then 4 weeks is way way too late, it should be done at a few days really, I wouldnt want to wait much longer than that.
Thirdly, the only reason to get it snipped at this point is for feeding. Its too early to worry about speech etc, as pps have said, not everyone's speech will be affected.

[PerpetualStudent]

wildfire when you say 4 weeks is too late, would you therefore think its not worth doing at 8 weeks+, which is obviously my option now.

Found out today the lead peadiatrition (excuse spelling, on phone!) at my birth hospital 'doesn't believe' in TT, so they don't check/refer for it!
So seems the key time for getting this sorted, the hospital was bunging DS under jaundice lights and flooding his system with formula

[catchingzzzeds]

I would get it snipped. My DS had tongue tie but had no problems feeding so it wasn't snipped as a small baby. Nearly 3 years later and significant speech delay he had the operation a month ago. It was awful for him and us and involved a general anaesthetic.

[minipie]

I didn't get DD1's TT snipped until 16 weeks (because it wasn't diagnosed till then).

The snip at 16 weeks made a huge difference to DD. For example:

• Prior to the snip she had been gaining weight, tracking the 25th centile. But post snip she jumped to the 75th centile over a few weeks.
  

• Prior to the snip she would often get frustrated during feeds, especially when tired, as she had to work so hard. She would never feed to sleep. Post snip feeds were much more calm
  

• Feeding in public became much easier as she didn't fall off the whole time
  

• She was able to take more at each feed and we moved to 4 hourly feeds
  

• She was much less windy
  

• Prior to the snip I had had a couple of episodes of awful cracked nipples (during growth spurts especially), post snip this stopped
  

It did take about a week for her latch to improve after the snip - as she had to 'relearn'

regarding regrowth: my personal belief is that babies snipped later are less likely to have regrowth (but this is based solely on reading a lot of MN tales about TT!)

In short: get it done! there is no downside (the snip takes seconds) and plenty of potential upside

[Boosiehs]

I agree with All who said get the snip done.

Before the TT snip DS was feeding every 1.5 hours, waking several times a night, v windy. Basically miserable. Falling asleep every time he fed.


After the snip he immediately fed better. Calmer when feeding, less windy.

The midwife at the TT clinic said he hadn't been feeding effectively, had been wearing himself out feeding, falling asleep and waking up hungry.

We had it done at 5 weeks as it took that long for the clinic referral at the royal free hospital.

[Diamondsandpears]

If your area doesn't do it ask for a referral to neighbouring hospital. Special midwives can do it on the ward in some hospitals.

[Onedayinthesun]

Hi OP, my DD now 14 yrs has a tongue tie, which we were advised to leave well alone. She is fine, no speech delay, no long term issues - apart from not being able to stick her tongue out very far. So I'm happy we didn't meddle with it

[Tiggertum]

Hi OP

I had a bad experience with a tongue tie snip at 6 weeks for my DS - but I think I was unlucky and the person doing it wasn't great. She unfortunately snipped a blood vessel so he bled for 30 minutes and in the end she took him to the local doctors to stop the bleed. She did try to latch him to me whilst he was bleeding but without success. Sadly after that he became hysterical whenever he was put to my breast and wouldn't feed at all from me so we ended up bottle feeding.

As I say though I think this was an unlucky experience and not the norm. The person I used was qualified and recommended by a doula but I wish I had done a bit more research first and got some more personal recommendations.

[sophie150]

I'd go for it without question. No one bothered to look in my son's mouth despite problems latching. During an a and e admission for weight loss we were told he had a tongue tie but that it was minor and 'we over medicalise these things'. Utter rubbish. Following the procedure (referral from Nct breastfeeding counsellor for a severe tongue tie ) he instantly latched and his weight gain was immediate. The procedure isn't traumatic for the baby - maybe a bit for the parents!

[MrsLeighHalfpenny]

"flooding his system with formula" is a pretty emotive way of speaking.

There is nothing wrong with formula. Both my DDs thrived on it.

[WiIdfire]

Perpetualstudent - no i dont mean that. If you are already at 8 weeks its still worth going for the consultation. I just mean you shouldnt be made to wait months for the referral to come through.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

I would go for the snip, from surveys most people find it improves feeding. Yes,it can grow back but it tends to be worth it.

A friend didn't have her ds snipped and had no problems, she supplemented with formula when he was tiny and then dropped the formula once he got bigger and was better able to bf. No speech problems.

My dad has a tt and it wasn't picked up, she was gaining eight no problem and I wasn't in pain though her feeding was messy and noisy and we had the classic clicking from a shallow latch and my nipple was lipstick shaped after a feed. I didn't know as much as I know now so I didn't question it. It was fine at first and then 2 or 3 months in every feed turned into a raging battle, she screamed and screamed. She never fed to sleep, we just had to keep battling through the screaming until she had taken enough milk to stop. That lasted until she was close to a year.

That isn't to say it will happen to you but I think you should consider it,you may not be having problems now but it doesn't mean they won't develop and given that the snip is so quick and low risk it is worth thinking about.

[standingonlego]

Get it snipped!!!! Transformational for my 7 week old DS. If hospital are being a pain, go private and expert. The longer you leave, the harder it gets. Why take the chance that things might be ok when a simple procedure can help? If left and DOES need doing later at age 2-3 you are looking at a general anaesthetic and a difficult experience. Just do it.

www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/Parents/Problems/Tongue-Tie/

[standingonlego]

You want your little one to be able to lick an ice cream . My DS is now 8 and it is the single best decision we made to get it done.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Yes! Really, really wish we had though. DS fed almost constantly and would only sleep on me for the first 9 months. He couldn't cope with lumpy food at all. Kept waking in the night for years and has speech therapy on and off till he was 10. So I'd say get it snipped