Can a snipped tongue tie reattach?

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My ds was diagnosed with tongue tie at only a few weeks old, we had to go to have it cut when he was 8 weeks, it turns out that it was tied in 3 places - at the front, back and at the side to the gum.

He is now 9 months old and has never once stuck his tongue out and I'm yet to see him lift it from the floor of his mouth yet. It seems to sit just behind his bottom two teeth.

Can it reattach?

Hi there

Both my children had posterior tongue ties and yes they can definitely reattach! I had one great feed at the hospital about half an hour after my daughter (age 2 weeks) had two snips. Then she refused to feed for around 24 hours as she was on so much pain and so distressed. Apparently the posterior tongue ties snips do hurt unlike the anterior ones. When she was next able to feed we were back to square one.

Long story but we weren't able to get her resnipped and I had about a year of very challenging breastfeeding. We saw various people including a very experienced infant feeding coordinator and a plastic surgeon and yes there was still a strong tongue tie there. The infant feeding lady confirmed they can reattach if you don't do exercises on the tongue. Well no one told me! However the exercises immediately post-op are controversial I believe.

Introducing solids at six months was a huge problem as her tongue basically sat motionless in the back of her mouth, so she was unable to chew. I stuck with the breastfeeding but it was HARD!

At about age one or slightly later she started moving her tongue around and almost sticking it out. Apparently through exercise they can stretch a remaining tie. Someone suggested that the extended breastfeeding may have helped.

My son who was not diasgnosed until too late and he has a slight lisp and some disgestion issues both of which can be tongue tie related.

Anyway sorry this all about me! Different places do snips up to different ages but as a baby gets older and more aware I guess it becomes more distressing for them. Maybe find out about some exercises - tongue massage and games of sticking out your tongue.

Good luck and all my sympathy if it is causing you and your little boy problems.

xxx

Thank you, taking him to get it cut was really traumatic for us both, he screamed for 3 hours and wouldn't feed for 24. He had to have padding to stop the bleeding so I'm gutted to think it might have reattached.

We weren't told about any exercises, other than to keep poking our tongue out to him to encourage him to copy us. We were seen at Russell Hall and I think they only cut tongues of babies up to 12 weeks.

I asked my health visitor, but she said she didn't know what a tongue tie looks like! We are still breastfeeding so hopefully That will help. I'll look up the exercises thanks again for replying

No worries. I should add my daughter is now 21 months and sticks her tongue all the way out, so I am sure your little one will be able to increase the movement in his tongue too.
Good luck with the breastfeeding. I don't think people realise how tough it is with a tongue tied baby. That too did get easier over time as well.
xxx