Tongue tie division experiences

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Hello

4-week-old DD is (finally!) having her tongue tie snipped tomorrow.

I'm interested in any experiences of this, particularly how I can expect her to be afterwards. I know all babies are different, and I'll obviously discuss the practical stuff with the midwife tomorrow, but anything anyone would care to share to make me feel more prepared would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks

She’ll be upset, briefly, and you can put her straight on the boob. Depending on the tie she may feed better straight away or it may take time. She might pull strange faces as she gets used to the new motion in her tongue. You may have to retrain her to latch properly. Ensure you get advised on how to massage to prevent it rejoining.
Also be prepared for cross/swaddled baby and you may have to help hold her while they do it. Though it literally takes a second

DD was 4 weeks old when she had her tongue tie snipped. I swaddled her, they opened her mouth, snipped the tie with a pair of scissors. It bled for a second, she cried for a second, I latched her on and we were on our way after she had a good feed.

The doctor said to me, there are no nerves attached to the tie, so it doesn't actually hurt and that it would probably upset me more than her. He was right! Good luck.

It'll be better than you think. Both ds's had to be done. Twice. It's only a second or two!

The actual snip is all over and done with in seconds. They cry, you feed them, they are ok. There may be some blood but will stop v quickly.

Improvement in feeding took about a week with DD1 but she didn’t get the snip till 15 weeks so lots of ingrained habits by then.

DS had his done at three days old. His was only distressed very momentarily. Sadly despite a lot of trying, he never successfully managed to latch on to breastfeed - they told me that sometimes their palate develops differently because of the tongue tie. So I fed him my expressed milk from bottles instead. I'm still glad we had it done though, so that there was no chance of it interfering with his speech later

My daughter had her tongue tie diagnosed at six weeks and had a frenulotomy at eight weeks. I was warned that she would have to learn to use her tongue again and sure enough the feeding got much worse / harder before it improved two weeks later.

This is a great article (written by the person who diagnosed my daughter):

www.motherandbaby.co.uk/baby-and-toddler/baby-and-toddler-health-advice/tongue-tie-symptom-treatment

DS had his done at about a week old, the nurse took him into another room, I heard him cry then he came back in and I put him to the boob. It was all very quick and the crying was brief.

Feeding was difficult for a little while but that was just us both learning. We got there in the end and fed for over 2 years.

Our DC had it done, he was upset for an hour or so then fine.hardly any bother

My DS has his snipped at 4 weeks. He went straight on the boob and settled quickly. However I wasn’t prepared for the massaging the area where it was snipped. This had to be done with firm force and regularly to prevent it reconnecting. That was the worst bit and my DS screamed the place down....

My DD had it done at 3 weeks. She cried for a few seconds but I fed her and she stopped. It took a while to get the hang of using her tongue properly but the second week after it was done she put on loads of weight. I did two sessions of cranial massage because someone told me it helped babies to free up their tongue. No idea if it actually made any difference but it was after those that she began feeding well and she seemed to enjoy them!

I didn't have to do any massaging of the area. Maybe this is a new thing? It's a few years since DD had hers done.

Be prepared that it might reattach. I had to get DD's snipped 3 times. The last of which was at 14 weeks (and we ended up in A&E that night because it started bleeding again - turned out they'd nicked a blood vessel and it wouldn't stop bleeding. That was a grim night.) The good news is that we went on to bf successfully for another 2 or so years. Only stopping when I was about 4 months pregnant with DC2.

Both my DDs had tongue ties snipped. My first was 8 weeks and was brought to me crying once the procedure was done (NHS) but was fine once she’d fed. It took a week or so to perfect the latch but my (really severe) nipple damage healed in a day or 2. DD2 was 4 weeks and surprisingly took at bit longer to feed better and was more protective/cautious of her tongue. For us the worst part was the aftercare exercises but I made DH do them. Totally worth it though, I loved/love breastfeeding once we could do it properly! And the girls don’t seem to have suffered any ill effects.

We did no massaging either.

DD was about 8 weeks - we waited a while on the waiting list as in our area it has to be done by a senior surgeon (which is total overkill!)

We went in, I held her on my knee facing up, feet to me and head on my knees. They snipped twice (I stupidly didn’t realise it would be twice - it’s at the top and the bottom of the tie, so the tongue end and the palate end if the piece of tie is long like my DD)

The nurse popped gauze in her mouth which I had to hold in place for 30 seconds to stop the bleed, and then we fed.

She didn’t cry at all when they snipped it, she cried a bit at having the gauze in her mouth, but stopped as soon as we fed. Maybe 2-3 drops of blood on her bib, tops.

For us, feeding improved almost instantly. No problems at all.

Randomly though, she still has a very defined heart shaped tongue, even over a year later.

Feeding was massively improved by snip for us, it was so hard before. It took baby ubder a minute from snip to boob and fine straight afterwards. Until reading this I knew nothing about reattachment or massage. I think it was part of a bigger issue for us - speach & split uvula so referred for examination of palette but all ok. Glad we did sure it helped speech and completely altered feeding.

We didn't do any massaging either, this was 7 years ago.

My DS was done 4yrs ago and I was given instructions to massage the area three times a day to prevent it reconnecting. Not sure if it’s new or not...... all I can say it was horrible....

DD was done at 6 weeks. Had a boob out whilst they did it so could feed immediately. You can feel the difference! DS was done at 6 hours and both of them were completely fine within about 10 minutes. Just be prepared for them to hold their head still and lots of blood on your boob - I was slightly traumatised!

I had ds2 done in 2013, ds1 in 2016 and dd2 in June this year. When they did ds2 I was still feeding ds1 and she said it appeared he had a tongue tie too but we never had his snipped and he fed for years (and years and years...) Ds2 had no problem with division (crying/normal bleeding) and became a big fat blob, had ds1 done twice and went to a surgeon the third time (normal procedure) who said her tongue wasn't really the problem, it was her palette which was too high to get a good latch. Dd2 also fine, feeds well at 4 months old. There is no proof the tongue exercises help apparently, feeding and finger sucking are the best things to do. All my babies were totally fine afterwards, you feed them immediately, usually takes a couple of weeks to see a real difference but nipples improved quite quickly and eventually I stopped shrieking in pain when they latched. I'm sure your daughter will be fine, good luck, hope feeding improves quickly!

We had a lovely midwife for ours, literally just a snip, brief loud cry, that was it really. DS was fine and same as always afterwards. He was 8 days old and hadn’t been able to latch on up until then and then did that evening, so definitely was worth doing.

My son had his done at about 12 weeks I think. He screamed whilst he was held down and they did it but he was fine within seconds of being breastfed. He was so happy afterwards we didn't get told to massage it either, he's 16months now and I'm wondering if it's reattached. Stupidly I didn't realise this could happen and as I had mine cut just the once when I became an adult it was different for me.

It's definitely worth doing as it's affected my speak and also my mental health as I couldn't talk loudly let alone shout without damaging the tongue tie causing pain.

Dd was snipped at three days - DH sat and held her as they thought I’d be upset but I’m clearly a mean mummy because I was fine standing behind - she didn’t cry either (a bit like the unblinking indifference to her preschool jabs she’s clearly inherited that from me ) she didn’t feed afterwards and despite six weeks of trying we never mastered it but I pumped for 14 months instead..

Hope it all goes well tmrw

Thank you! That's all very reassuring!

Let us know how it was! I think the main reason DS cried was being held down as he doesn't like not getting his on way! He was back to his old self in 5 minutes which is on the whole much better than me trying to trim his finger nails!