Tongue tie - 8 mths and problems? and one testicle?

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Just had 8mth check for ds2. Had noticed tongue tie some months ago. Is it my imagination. He seems to be having probs with anything chunkier than a puree and gets very cross and frustrated. Im trying him with finger food and anything soft like toast or a piece of bread and butter, even soft carrot just seems to get stuck in his mouth and Im sure its cos he cant move the food around. He's got two big bottom teeth and his gums are rock solid so Im sure its not lack of teeth.
South london health visitor said go to GP. Have already seen GP who just gave usual blurb,..."reluctant to take any action unless affecting speech,and basically told me to go away". This was at about 5 months.
I just hate going to the GP and am beginning to feel that they think Im one of those over zealous mums.
I will go and see the GP again and try to get a referral. I know there have been previous threads on this but is anybody at this same stage or have experience of South London doctors . Will they refer me? and has anybody just gone private for a proper opinion (well I feel that Im being ignored, do you pay these days just for someone to acknowledge your concern?).
Any experiences gratefully received. Oh and the health visitor just also dropped into the conversation that she could only find one testicle -- I just wish Id married a GP!!
Sorry for rant - am feeling quite down about all this.

They could only find one testicle in my nephew up until the age of about 3 when they started to get worried that it might be inside him and could turn into a tumour, they organised one more check up before taking action and in perfect timing it decide to drop. So it will appear eventually!

Message withdrawn

Get a referral for the testicle. They will wait until 12 months for it to make a spontaneous appearance, and failing that will bring it down surgically. Standard age to have it done is now 16 months, which is when my ds had it done. It's not a big operation, but an important one as a testicle that doesn't come down is at significantly higher risk of testicular cancer.

It may of course be that the testicle is just playing hard to get at that age they do move up and down, apparently but get it checked out by someone who knows about these things.

I have paid for private consulations when we couldn't get sensible answers any other way. A private out-patient's appointment is in the region of £100 or so, more if you need tests doing.

Thanks for your reassuring messages about the testicle! I think I will go to the GP about that and see what they say. How do your organise a private consultation ie to pay privately. Do you have to join bupa or something? or can you just ring the hospital? Thanks Frogs, its good to know that others feel that you werent getting sufficient from GP. Anybody with tongue tie experience? Anybody gone private with that?

click here
This is a place who will cut the tongue tie.
I'm not sure if he's too old, you could search the archives in breast feeding, there are allot of threads there.
If you don't want to go down this road you should be reffered for speech and language therapy. Who will help with his chewing an swallowing as wel as helping you to develop his speech. (in some cases a tongue tie can give a lisp.)
HOWEVER my ds 7 months and gags on the slightest hint of a lump of anything! (he is not tongue tied, although I am and have never had any probs with it)

both my children are tongue tied, Ds is 13 his is quite tight, but hes never had any problems with it at all. i had same response from gp when he was tiny. but it made no difference to eating or talking, he was very quick.
Dd has the same and havent noticed any probs with her either, shes 20 months and saying lots of words now.
The only thing ive ever found is i have to wipe their mouths for them when they cant lick round them with ice cream and things!

Tab, just to clarify, we didn't go private for the testicle op, that was done on the NHS (and very good the whole process was, too). I have done private for other things where we couldn't get an appointment quickly enough, once for a dodgy mole, and once for an eye appointment for dd1 when the optician said we needed to be seen that week and the hospital couldn't offer an appointment for 6 months!

You don't have to belong to BUPA, you just find out which consultant the GP would refer you to, or phone your local hospital and ask who the senior consultant is for your particular problem. You then ask if that person does private work, if so where, and ask them to give you the phone no. Then you phone up the private clinic and make an appointment. You can ask how much it will be at that point, to see what you're getting into. A straightforward consultation shouldn't be more than a couple of hundred pounds. Getting an actual operation done privately is a whole different order of magnitude, but you can switch back to NHS for that.

hth

Both my daughters are tongue tied. dd1 who is 5 cannot stick her tongue out at all, she has had no problems with eating or speech. dd2 who is 2.6 can just stick her tongue out, it is not quite as tight as her sisters, she speaks well though did struggle with lumps until about 10 months. I think it is just the age and if they could they would eat purreid food forever!
On the whole I think most tongue tied children need no intervention and will sort it out themselves. It is a worry until they speak to know if it is a problem or not, but in my experience (and speaking to other mums of tongue tied children) it is very rare for them to need surgery.

Thanks for your messages frogs and albatross. I will definitely consider a private appt if the next GPs visit isnt any more helpful. Thanks Albatross for your message and the mention of the lumps! I suppose thinking ahead I am worried about speech and also playground games and just wanting him to be able to do everything his brother and other friends can do. At the moment, he is babbling but I cant really tell if its more or less than his brother did at the same age.
Albatross did you go through the same worries and didnt you ever feel that you'd like it corrected?

On the subject of missing testicles - DS2 had this at his 8 month check. Turned out that sometimes you need to be quick to "catch" them when the nappy is removed - if it's cold Whoosh! they're gone... GP put his hand on them to stop them disappearing, then removed the nappy completely and voila! a perfect pair.

Obviously you do need to get it checked out but, as others have said, it's not always a cause for concern.

just to let you know, i no longer have to wipe Ds's mouth!

wee monkey, bet he doesn't want to let any good food go to waste!

thanks izzybiz and soupdragon . It was a very cold day when he had his 8mth check and he had just been exposed to the cold after being weighed anyway. Its all so exhausting isnt it (but worth it of course when they smile at you and gurgle!).

best time to try and feel the testicle is in a nice warm bath

poor ds must have got fed up with people fondling his bits in attempts to find his missing testicle! We finally located it when he was around 3. Before that, it seemed to be floating but no HV or GP could ever get their fingers on it until a GP suggested we try ourselves in the bath and we found it!

If you can't find it, the GP will refer you so I would go back again and speak to them (and yes it is an endless process but if you need referring, once you are at the hospital they are normally very good).

Tab, Yes I did worry about dd1, but I thought nothing could be done about it until she was older. My health visitor was very good and kept re assuring me that if it was a problem it would be relatively easy to correct. She can suck and blow fine, as well as talk. The only thing I have found she can't do is blow a raspberry (no great hardship) and it is quite funny when she tries to stick her tonuge out at me! . I didn't worry about dd2 being tongue tied as I had alot of other things to worry about her for (thats another story altogther)and her tongue wasn't as tight as her sisters. Hope this helps

Tab, I just found another thread in the breast and bottle feeding section about a tonuge tied baby, and it brought it all back to me the agony of breast feeding which I gave up at 6 weeks and expressed instead. At this time I did not know dd1 was tongue tied and thought it was me not getting it right. I had to express with dd2 as she was in Nicu for a time and got used to a bottle. The thread suggests that the sooner the tongue is snipped the better - if this is the road you choose to take.

Thanks foxinsocks for the advice about trying in the bath !!! I will do that
and thanks albatros. Albatros, you sound like you've been through a lot. Hope everything is ok now

Everything is great now, thanks