Tongue tie

[purplewoofer]

My little boy is 14 weeks. He has tongue tie (heart shaped tongue and he has never /can't stick his tongue out his mouth past his lips). He is ebf and luckily does not have any issues feeding, quite a chunky lad and gaining weight on 75th centile.

I asked health visitor about his tongue when he was about three weeks. She did not look at it but said they do not do anything about it over here (not living in mainland UK) unless there is an issue with feeding. Is this likely to cause any issues when weaning (planning on soon baby lead) or speech when he is older?

Many thanks

Are you on Facebook? There is group called Tongue Tie Babies support group with loads of information on it. It's worth joining.

We decided not to have DS tongue tie corrected as I was and am able to BF. The feeding specialist we spoke with seemed to think it was unnecessary considering that he fed well and was gaining weight.

He is 22 months old now and does not show any signs of having problems with pronunciation. We did BLW and had no problems at all. The feeding specialist did say that he might have problems licking ice-cream cones. Not at all, in fact he is a pro!

Some ties cause little or no problems.

Other ties cause numerous problems and alter the structure of the mouth and face.

Some are in between.

And some people are tied, but they don't realise that some of their problems can be stemming from the restriction.

I would suggest that you read up on ties and make an informed decision. Also, I would also suggest that unless the HCP has taken a specialist interest in tongue tie, they probably don't know much about it, even though they have an opinion on the matter. Seek out the experts.

DS1's tongue and lip ties have caused no end of problems. Poor feeding/sleep problems/gastric problems/structural problems - high palate and associated dental issues, restricted nostrils=mouth breathing/ENT problems to name a few. He is 7yo and we had his tongue and lip revised last year. He is wearing braces and headgear to correct his orofacial structure which has been distorted by the incorrect swallowing action.

DS2 is also tied. He is 3yo but we have chosen not to revise him yet as he isn't suffering any of the problems that ds1 had. There is a question mark about his speech, so we may yet have him done.

Here's some reading for you:

here

here

here