Tongue Tie - should be checked for at birth

[tyotya]

Why don't they check for tongue tie as soon as the baby is born??? My granddaughter went for 12 days without a proper feed due to this condition - she lost over 1 lb of her birth weight, and the parents were absolutely distraught because they couldn't figure out what was wrong. Daughter in law was in tears because BF wasn't going right. The problem was eventually spotted by a MW at the BF clinic. The doctors and MWs who failed to notice this are a bunch of idiots whose incompetence could have killed a beautiful little baby, and certainly ruined what should have been a joyful experience for the parents, especially the BF. They made stupid excuses like 'girls don't usually get tonge tie' and 'it was a particularly difficult case to spot'.

I am furious, but unless you're rich enough to afford the world's best lawyers there's nothing you can do. Anyone else got an opinion on this?

Have to agree with misscreosote - my son had a quite severe tongue tie at birth, to the extent that his tongue was forked if he tried to stick it out. I pointed it out to the pediatrician, who said it was policy not to snip them unless they were causing severe problems (this was at Chelsea and Westminster).

I guess the fact that we could not get my son to latch on until 48 hours after birth, and even then had big feeding problems and very sore nipples, was not "severe" enough!

He was eventually snipped at 6 weeks, and it was a great relief.

Like many others, I guess I was too tired/confused/inexperienced to make more of a fuss when he was born, but I do blame it for a lot of early problems. I am now pregnant again, and if I have any suspicion that this one has a tongue tie I will simply refuse to leave hospital until it is dealt with.

This thread has been so useful to me and very timely. I am just so sorry and sad for the mums and babies who have suffered so needlessly. It is really shocking actually.

Ds is my sixth baby and i am not aware of any of my others being checked for tt tho it's possible they were.

My hv has been really helpful. When I rang her on Friday to voice my concerns she told me she had done some investigating for me and the snip could be done at Hove Polyclinic down here in East Sussex. She had originally said that i would have to go to Hayward's Heath so obviously isn't that used to referring people. I am definitely going to have it done tho I feel quite anxious about it.

Smallorange, I think that's a good point that 'MWs seem to expect BF babies to be hungry and screaming'.

There have been so many messages saying what problems TT causes (shame, Daphnedownunder). If I can find time over the next few days I am going to try and bring this to the medical world's attention - although my correspondence with La Leche League may bear fruit. La Leche have said they will talk to local BF counsellors. They said:

''LLL is not a lobbying Charity so this is not something we can pursue as an organisation. However, individual Leaders are aware of the apparent increase in tongue tie and do look out for it.

I also represent La Leche League at Non Government Organisation Stakeholder Meetings and on the Baby Milk Coalition, and in this role I meet many Infant Feeding Advisors and representatives of health professional organisations. I can certainly bring this to their attention when I next meet them and ask if there is any way this could have a higher profile.''

Tragically SIL gave up trying to BF - they were by then so worried about littl'un's condition. At least she is putting on weight now - and going to be a looker, too!
xx

I was breast feeding in hospital and it was so difficult at the beginning and all the midwives kept telling me she’s fine nothing wrong with her even though I kept telling them the latch feels wrong and painful, I changed positions and nothing helped she was constantly crying, she ended up in scubu for four days on oxygen and I was still trying to breast feed but every time I tried getting her to latch her oxygen levels kept going down, so in the end I put her on bottles with my milk as I could bare to see her in so much distress with it, after a couple of months I realised she wasn’t latching onto a bottle correctly, so I told my hv and she said it was fine but I still took my daughter to the doctors and explained my situation and it turns out she had a really bad tongue tie I know now if I’m ever having kids again I will make them check for one

Another case to add... when my DD arrived early I was told by neonatal nurses she had a slight tongue tie but it shouldn't cause any issues. 7 weeks later and several bottles of formula already consumed due to the HV's insistence and my own lack of understanding, I hired a lactation consultant who diagnosed a 90% tongue tie and snipped it herself. Sadly DD had grown to love the bottle and my supply had dwindled massively so it was too late :(

I was told by a BF consultant that our hospital no longer has funding or expertise to deal with TT so they try not to get 'too involved'. Agree with a PP, HVs should not be dishing out feeding advice without proper training and ability to spot major issues such as TT. In my NCT class, 5 out of 8 babies had severe TT - it's that common.

I'm a midwife and it's been useful to read through all the posts on this and appreciate the hardship it causes when we miss a tongue tie. I think (at least at my hospital) we are all aware of it but it can be difficult to see. You have to wait until you get the opportunity of the baby lifting their tongue to get a good look. The general policy is to only check when there is a problem with feeding which perhaps should change.
Actually I think in our trust the problem is more speed to get treatment than diagnosis. We have a tongue tie clinic to which a parent can be referred to but that can take some days to get an appointment. As a lot of the posts on this thread show, a few days of taking a bottle can prevent a baby going back on the breast. No wonder people are paying for lactation consultants.
I'm also a little surprised at how reluctant we are to cut a tongue tie if it isn't causing a problem with feeding. To be honest I have a bit of a thing about tongue ties because my OH has one. I hope this isn't TMI but....let's just say it can cause some limitations. If anyone is interested I've written a blog post about it thesecretmidwife.co.uk/uncategorized/should-your-midwife-consider-your-newborn-babys-future-sex-life/
I hope you don't think that's too icky