Tongue tie regrowth - any positive stories?

[MrsBadCrumblesClarinet]

My DD had severe tongue tie when she was born and it was snipped at around 2 weeks. Feeding was brilliant for a while but she's now 10 weeks and weight gain has slowed. She's also become very fussy when feeding but devours a bottle if given. A HV had a look and thinks the tongue is still tied. She is booked to have it assessed next week.

A quick search on MN has found loads of stories of tongue ties reattaching several times. If it's reattached once, is it likely to do so again? Does anyone have any stories of a second snip being the final one? I'm so scared our breastfeeding journey will end soon.

Our DD had hers done by laser. Regrowth happened, we took her back and rather than laser they managed to break it enough to deal with the regrowth. It did grow back a little but nothing that caused her any issues. Feeding did take a while to normalise she had a lazy latch, but I ended up feeding until she was past 2 years so got there in the end. Were you told to do some exercises to help with tongue movement? Like running the finger around the teeth so their tongue follows your finger (I can’t remember the others now but the consultant would know or do a quick you tube search). It may help with the feeding as the babies need to learn how to use their ‘new’ tongue and work with the new movement which they didn’t have before

Thank you for replying. No we weren't given any exercises the first time. The HV mentioned that we should have been given some when she picked it up for the second time
Hopefully we'll only need one more snip then. Is it more traumatic when they're that little bit older? I can imagine a 10 week old fighting a little more than a 2 week old!

We had a similar thing - snip at 6 weeks (severe tongue tie with heart-shaped tongue diagnosed at birth, but they lost the referral), re-grew (not as bed as the first time, but the heart shaped tongue was back and more pain on feeding), re-snipped at 10 weeks.

DS was a lot stronger at ten weeks, and I think the nurse had more trouble holding him down (twelve weeks was the Evelina's cut off and I could see why after watching DS). They made a much bigger snip, and told us to keep massaging the wound twice a day for the first week (which was horrible, it made it bleed and DS used to scream, so I made DH do it). Didn't grow back - I'm not sure the massage made much difference tbh, I think it was the much bigger snip. He's 2.5 now, I fed until almost 2 and there's no sign of recurrence. The ENT surgeon told me very few grow back a second time, whether that is because he snips them more aggressively or whether it is because their tongue is stronger so they are doing more, who knows.

Thank you, that's good to know - not that it was more unpleasant the second time, but that it will hopefully be the final times it's required.

Our hospitals only take referrals up to 12 weeks and she'll be 11 when it's done, so I don't know what you do if it grows back again. Go private I guess or give up on bf. Fingers crossed it won't be an issue

Yes! My little girl had hers snipped at 9 days and then it grew back. Actually there was some doubt as to whether it grew back or whether the tie was so deep the first snip just sort of opened up access to the thicker one behind. Anyway. We had it done again when she was about 9 weeks. She cried a lot more and was more unsettled but not in a totally horrid way just more noticeable. She was probably unsettled feeding for that evening but has been smooth sailing ever since.
Interestingly first practitioner told me to do exercises with her which we did diligently so that didn’t make a difference. We did however do some cranial osteopathy after the second tie as she was so so tense from some weird positions she’d had to get herself into so that was super helpful.
She’s now completely brilliant absolutely no tie at all except for her lip (they go hand in hand sometimes) but that affects nothing except giving her a Madonna style gap in her teeth which is adorable anyway.

We had two snips with our second child: first done at 8 days (but wasn’t complete and didn’t get the submucosal portion despite my telling the practitioner that my first child had an entirely submucosal tie [hmmm]). Second division done at about 4-5 weeks and made things much better. This tie did reattach, I’m not entirely sure when, but certainly by about 4 months. It actually didn’t make things too bad, he fed well with his tie and i couldn’t see the point of putting him through it again - we fed until 21 months! Perhaps selfishly, I decided that because he wasn’t really causing me any pain that i would not have it re-divided. But he was also gaining weight. perhaps it’s worth your giving it another go? But reattachment doesn’t have to be the end of feeding his reattached tie was very thick to look at, and the end of his tongue is still now completely blunt with a little connective tissue visible pulling at the centre.

Thank you for your replies. I really appreciate you sharing your experience. I'm feeling more optimistic, just got to manage until
Thursday!

My son had it done the first time when he was 9 days old.

When he was about 4 months old his weight started tailing off and feeding was a little uncomfortable again and so I went and got his tongue function reassess and was told the tie had reattached.

I had the procedure done a second time but was told that if it reattached again then they wouldn't do it a 3rd time.

Things were sorted after that second procedure though I and didn't have any problems with his feeding again.

Thank you @QueenofmyPrinces
I'm glad it worked out