Tongue-tie Experiences

[PuffedUpPufferFish]

My 4 weeks old DS has today been diagnosed with tongue tie by a private lactation consultant. At the moment the NHS in our area will only snip if you are experiencing weight loss issues as a result - we aren't due to near constant feeding, but I am experiencing quite a few negatives related to tongue tie such as poor latch, bruised feeling nipples, constant unlatching and relatching and generally unsettled behaviour when feeding. So our only real option if we want to treat it is to go private.

My husband is a little skeptical - obviously it isn't cheap to go private, but predominantly he is concerned about putting our son through a potentially unnecessary medical treatment, as he suspects it might just be normal newborn behaviour. I said I had seen various things on here about people who had tongue ties snipped and it had made a massive difference, but he pointed out only the people with success stories might post about it. I can understand his concerns so I wandered if anyone could give me their personal experiences whether positive, negative or neutral.

Obviously the title is meant to be tongue tie!

My DS had his tongue tie cut as a tiny baby privately. I would do it every time asap. It's the tiniest of procedures. My DS was unsettled that day/the day after but half of that was probably because I was panicking! Obv I wouldn't if I had to go through it again.
It could cause all sorts of problems going forward with eating and speech.
It's already causing you potential problems breastfeeding. I assume your husband is worried about that too.
Even if it didn't solve all the breastfeeding problems it would mean he wouldn't have speech problems.

Positive experience of private tongue tie division at approx 14w, after much pain and stress, due to a misdiagnosis of cmpa by my health visitor. Immediately helped with my comfort, and baby's weight gain improved straight away. I couldn't have continued breastfeeding without doing it and only wish I had known about tongue tie sooner.

My now 15 week old had tongue tie which was making feeding really hard and stressful for both him and me. By the time we got it snipped we'd sort of forced our way through it but once it was done everything was so much easier. Breastfeeding aside we also wanted to have it snipped as it was quite a severe tongue tie and wanted to avoid speech issues.

The procedure itself took seconds, and I think was more traumatic for him than me (much like vaccinations). He did an immediate wail, then straight on the breast which helps stop the bleeding and obviously gives the comfort. There was a small ulcer looking wound for a few days after that you have to keep an eye on in case it gets infected but it didn't seem to bother little one at all.

We were fortunate in that our hospital were a bit slow to shut everything down for lockdown, but we were looking into private options as a backup. I wouldn't hesitate to get it done again, feeding since has been much quicker and painless, and our little boy can poke his tongue out 😊

Another big yes for getting it snipped, we went privately too and it was the best £200 I’ve spent on anything baby related. Had it done at 4 weeks, as above, baby was unsettled the rest of the day but I’m so glad I got it done. It didn’t immediately give pain free feeding but then they didn’t promise that either as baby had to relearn how to use her tongue. The company I used (milk matters) posted a while back on their fb page about how they hear so many other health professionals only using weight as a marker for whether it needs doing when it impacts on so much more. Exactly as you said, sometimes weight can be ok but only because baby is feeding constantly to try and get enough which is exhausting for all involved. I found that symptoms of reflux and wind improved after the snip too so wasn’t just about weight and discomfort. Good luck with whatever you decide xx

I was in a very similar position with my son last year. We had him treated privately. It was one of the best things we did. It took a while to get there with his latch but he's nearly 21 months now and he's still nursing.

Do it.
DS1 was exceedingly slow to gain weight, fed constantly (like, only slept 8 hrs a day. The rest of the time he was feeding) and feeding was excruciating. Except he had an "unconventional" tie, which took LLL to identify. The specialist asked to take photos for future reference. He started packing on the weight within a week of the division never has slept week, feeding was better, and ye was more settled.
DS2 had a more classic, less severe tie. I was erring on not doing it, but knowing how simple the division was we went for in. Again, he was much more settled, fed better, and easier latching.
We were fortunate to get NHS referal, but had to travel 90mins to a hospital that would do it.
I would always recommend getting a tie divided if there are any concerns. We have only seen benifits.

It doesn't always work - my DD had hers done at 2.5 weeks and it didn't make much of a difference to feeding....however she did also have severe reflux so that didn't help! My son though has just had his done at 4 weeks and it has made a huge difference. He now only feeds for 5-10 mins at a time instead of 45mins+, is no longer unsettled/fussy, no more horrendous wind and can properly latch on. It makes me smile every time I see him poke his little tongue out! I would always get it done if you can as like PP have said it can also have an affect on speech and eating in future.

My hospital had closed their clinic but are on a very slow phased re-opening and we were only put through for treatment as my son didn't get back above birth weight by 3 weeks - but he did a week later. They were also assessing on other criteria though including the problems you've described and the impact on the mother. My nipples were bleeding and cracked, my mental health was in bits and I also got mastitis. All these things helped move us up the list. Have you asked your midwife if there's anything more they could do to help you get it done on the NHS?

My first baby's tongue tie was spotted as soon as he was born. I didn't get it cut, but things improved a lot after six weeks or so. It was quite hard for me, but my husband really didn't want it cut, partly because he is very tongue tied, but he also couldn't bear the thought.

Absolutely do it. It is the tiniest of procedures, will be all over in a minute and is much easier done sooner rather than later. Untreated tt can, I have read, also lead to some speech and dental issues later on as it affects the shape of the mouth.

As a PP says, it may not be a complete miracle cure if there is another issue going on as well, so do quiz your lactation consultant on whether there is anything else that may need addressing. For example some of our issues were not down to the TT but due to very fast let down (poor DD couldn’t keep up).

We didn’t get my son’s done as didn’t realise he had it until he was about 6 months. He didn’t lose any weight but gained slowly ultimately dropping from 75th-25th centile (weirdly no health professional but me was concerned), fed all the time, and I had terrible pain at the start though that went by about 3 weeks in. He hasn’t had any issues with feeding or speaking but I wish I had realised sooner and had it done asap and feel awful that he had to work so hard to feed for so long and I didn’t know. I’m pregnant again and will be getting a private lactation consultant to look at my baby in the first days after the birth to get it sorted ASAP if it happens again.

Another big yes for getting it snipped, we went privately too and it was the best £200 I’ve spent on anything baby related. Had it done at 4 weeks, as above, baby was unsettled the rest of the day but I’m so glad I got it done. It didn’t immediately give pain free feeding but then they didn’t promise that either as baby had to relearn how to use her tongue.

This was my experience too, DC had it done at 4 weeks after near constant feeds (28 feeds in 24 hours was their best effort) and upset. It took probably another 4 weeks to settle but I then fed until 16 months with no problems.

As others have said, it's a very quick, tiny intervention, no different to an injection. My DC was absolutely fine after the initial shock cry. My private midwife was also excellent and kept in text contact for a few weeks to check everything was going okay and giving advice.

All 3 of mine have had tongue ties and were snipped. My first was premature and the tongue tie wasn’t picked up until he was about 5 weeks old, out of hospital and I was in agony feeding him. I managed to get an NHS referral to a maxilo facial clinic at the hospital where it was snipped. It made a huge difference and I went on to feed him for 2 years which would never have been possible otherwise.

With my second, I knew what I was looking for and when it became obvious after about a week that he was also tongue tied and he wasn’t gaining weight, I was able to get his snipped at the breastfeeding clinic at the postnatal ward at the hospital as an outpatient. I later heard that they stopped offering this about 2 weeks later.

When I had my third 3 years later it was next to impossible to have a tongue tie division on the NHS in my area so I paid to go private when she was less than 2 days old. Was definitely money well spent and saved me many weeks of pain and heartache.

Weight isn’t the only issue as other posters have said. For me, the main problem was the pain when feeding. I breastfed all my babies for years and would never have managed this without having their tongue ties corrected. The procedure was very quick and easy each time and none of them seemed to suffer anything further than a few seconds of pain at the time. Definitely less traumatic than the vaccinations they have.

My advice would definitely be to do it. Good luck. X

First baby procedure done around 6 weeks, second only after 6 months because it was a posterior TT and we hadn't noticed! Wish we'd realised and fixed it sooner. It was 6 months of discomfort that just wouldn't have been necessary if we had. The guilt I felt for putting him through 6 months of pain and discomfort was far worse than the procedure (which is tiny). My first slept through the whole thing!

Three kids with tinge the here. First one snipped at three weeks, by which time bits of my nipple were falling off. Wholly new experience afterwards. First two snipped privately at 1 week, massively improved breast feeding. I did enquire about NHS but referral and appointments took so long that I would have lost my mind

Both mine had mild tongue tie and upper lip tie.

With my eldest it wasn’t diagnosed till much later after major feeding issues and bad colic. I blame the colic on the difficulty feeding.

With my youngest, the feeding was easier, probably because I had nipples of steel, but we got the tongue tie diagnosed and snipped by 6 weeks. The first feed after the snip was amazing and I understood how easy breastfeeding can be. Unfortunately by the next day, the tie must have re-attached, as the feeding went back to normal. If she had had colic then I would have gone back, but the hassle to get it done in the first place, I decided not to.

My third child had an obvious anterior tongue tie, had it snipped on day five and by this time I was bleeding and in agony from his latch. Things improved then and again at five months when we had his posterior and upper lip tie lasered by a specialist dentist. This cost a lot but he stopped taking in so much air and was so much more settled.

Thanks everyone. We are all booked in for Sunday! I had so many issues feeding my older DD and she ended up on formula 10 days in, so now I am wandering if she might have had it to. She was checked by a couple of people, but then two different midwives checked my son and said he was fine before the lactation consultant spotted it today.

When I spoke to the tongue-tie lady she warned me, as a number of you have, that it can get worse before it gets better as they have to relearn how to feed. How long did you mostly notice until an improvement? Just spent three hours cluster feeding with him constantly unlatching then wanting to relatch every few seconds and I'm drained and desperately hoping by this time next week we might be seeing the benefits.

DS1:
0-24 hrs post division was bad.
24-48hrs past division was hell.
After that, it got easier and easier.

DS2 just got better and better every feed post division (but he wasnt nearly as bad as his brother, was 4 weeks vs 6 weeks, and is generally a much more laid back kid!)

@PuffedUpPufferFish I recommend you read this article
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tongue-tie-controversy-experts-caution-against-unnecessary-surgery-20200604-p54zil.html

My DD had hers cut twice, didn’t make a difference, it actually made feeding worse for quite a while. I didn’t receive any support afterwards which I think is imperative for it to work. Will you have any follow up/ someone check if it has reattached etc? Because that’s half the battle.
I can’t help but this tt are way over diagnosed these days in an attempt to put all bf issues down to that due to a lack of other help. But that’s just my own experience. As you can see it works wonders for some people! My advice would be make sure you get the support afterwards and push for a re-check if things aren’t improving.
Good luck!

Think * not this.