Tongue tie

[NAB3]

Can anyone give me any advice or experience on tongue tie in children please?

Hi, my cousin has tongue tie when we were little, she had an operation to cut the tie as it was impeding her speech. Was very straightforward as I remenber, and quite common practise, but this is 20 years ago! Sorry don't know anything more specific!

I'm pretty sure ds had it, so read up a bit and apparently it usually just fixes itself: it certainly did in ds's case. However my sister also had it, and had a speech impediment until someone noticed it when she was about 6, bless her.

why?

ds is tongue tied though it appears to be getting better (can poke out more of his tongue now). I think most cases sort themselves out though in some cases it can affect speech - but you won't jknow that until they are at least 3 years old as a lot of childen aren't really speaking clearly til then anyway.

I do think the tongue tie made brestfeeding very difficult for us though we did manage it. For some babies it can cause more problems with feeding and breastfeeding can be difficult.

try this site for info

I think very few doctors will treat it now. Midwives used to do it at birth but now it is left alone. Friends of mine in NW were told they'd have to go to Southampton to get it treated - had to give up BF.

My ds had this and it was snipped when he was 4 as a day surgery case. I'd advise getting it done sooner rather than later as the later you leave it the less movement with their tongue they have. Even now 2 years on ds hasn't got the dexterity to lick round his lips properly and cannot make his tongue into a point.

ds1 was tongue tied had no problem bf but speech a bit slow had it snipped at 2.5 years. My nephew also tongue tied no problem with bf or talking but could not lick ice creams! had his snipped at 5years - hope this helps. I work in a library and one of the students who was into piercing told me he cuts the tongues of adults (yuk!)

When my son was a few hours old the peadiatrician said he had a forked tongue. She asked my husband and I to stick our tongues out, said the baby got it from me and that it was nothing to worry about. When the baby was about 10 months old I mentioned it to the HV and she said oh yes, tongue tie. I hadn't realised it was the same thing and would definitely have looked into doing something about it if I had known. All the HV said was it wasn't a problem as I had managed to BF him beautifully for 9 months. He is almost 16 months and can only say Dada, Daddy, Ding, Dang and Yeah. My husband felt it was okay, as did the HV, as the baby had to lift his tongue more to say the D sound. I always felt it wasn't quite right so I looked in my first 2 children's talking books. They were both saying 2 word sentences by this point, Daddy's car, my cup for example and at 18months my eldest son said I want that one.

Everyone says the third one takes longer as he has the other siblings to talk for him, but they don't. I know what all his sounds mean as I am his Mum but he doesn't really respond when I ask him to say a word. Except to laugh or say Dada when I ask him to say Mama.

Everyone said he didn't react to sound as he had had 9 months + to get used to the sounds in the house. It turned out he was in shock and he was deaf. He is now fine and we have no worries at all about his hearing. He also understands what we say to him and can follow little instructions.

Don't know what to do. The HV isn't worried but then he is my child and I am.

Please dont worry about this.

Both my children are tongue tied, my eldest is 13, and has never had any speech problems atall. He was talking in full sentences at 20 months.

My youngest is 2 and she is speaking normally too. My sons tongue tie is much tighter than Dds, they cant lick around their mouths, but just wipe them! I think it tends to stretch a bit as they get older anyway, they can poke their tongues out a bit.

My son has mentioned getting his snipped, but worries if he had it done now it would cause a speech problem, he wouldnt know where to put it!!

my ds (10 mths) was born with a tounge tie - he couldn't feed properly because of it so when he was about a month old we took him to have it snipped. We had to wait a few weeks for the appt to come through so I had to express and bottlefeed him during this time.

It's a minor preceedure which took no more than 2 mins - ds didn't even really cry, just wimpered a bit.

Thanks Izzybiz. We are going to wait and see a bit loner as he is still little and even though my first two children have done everything at the same age, he has done thinks a little bit later. Maybe that is how he will be.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, It is such a worry being a Mum!!

Your DS sounds like mine (20m) only with more words! I've just been reading the speech delay threads and am now confident he's just a self-sufficient, non-chatty person who doesn't perform on command.
He's not tongue-tied but his big sister (3) is slightly with never any problems. She only has one sound she can't do but it's not articulated with the tongue. Your HV makes a good point about place and manner of articulation for speech sounds so don't worry. In fact I believe one of the main problems for tonguetied folk (after breastfeeding) is snogging!

Yesterday my little man said "mam mama" !!!!

Got Docs appointment on Wed as I will keep worrying otherwise. Obviously if he starts talking before then we won't go.

my son has tongue tie he only could say 20 single words when he was 2 and a half i knew there was a problem with his speech delay as i already had another child and was a nursery nurse i had to keep going to the doctors but they said he was lazy my health visitor in the end said to put your mind at rest i will speak to the speech therapist and get him seen and the speech therapist agreed with me and started working with him.some children do take longer but if you are really worried ask for a appointment with a speech therapist to have him checked and put your mind at rest.by doing this i got my son the help for 2 and a half years before he started school when it is usually picked up then.he is now 5 and wont stop talking.

My dd had her's operated on when she was 6 months at Brighton, and then my DS had his snipped at just 1 week old at the hospital where he was born. A really simple procedure that has meant that I've been able to continue to BF. My daughter is 5 now and her speech is perfect. The only reason I had the op for her was because the HV said she probably wouldn't be able to lick ice cream or the bottom of yogourt pots. I burst into tears and made the decision there and then.

My son is having his snipped next week, he is 6 months old, apparently it depends on how severe it is for them to do something, not looking forward to taking him though but know its best for him in the long run, can anyone explain how they do it?

Dd is nearly 3 and her tongue was quite tightly tied at birth. They don't snip in our area so we just had to get on wth it. She was an amazing breast feeder and fed for 13 months which I think helped stretch it. Her tongue tie is now half way down her tongue (so half way to where a 'normal' tongue would be connected iyswim) and she can stick her tongue out as far as ds. It is a strange slightly forked shape at the end though. She can't make the 'l' sound yet though but I'm not sure if that's just it's late developing or is going to be a problem. HV said she will check again once dd turns 3.

My DD's tongue tie was snipped by a doctor at the hospital at 9 days old. Breastfeeding was horrendous and cutting it made all the difference and I was able to continue feeding her.

It is a very quick procedure. She cried, I fed her and then she was fine.