Tongue-tie - 2 week old

[TataMamma]

Found out this morning DD2 has tongue tie. I am breast feeding, not exclusively, but about 90%.
Mostly she latches fine, but sometimes it does take several attempts, and she does come on and off a bit. I also worry she's not getting enough milk because she's constantly wanting to be at my breast. Midwife says she is fine, but I'm concerned, particularly about speech and language development in the future.
I've looked into getting it separated privately which is around £300, but I know the prevailing medical consensus is most children don't need this and it's better not to. Being honest, I would strongly prefer to get it sorted and avoid any potential problems in the future even if the chances are small.
Does anyone have experience of this? Did you get it operated or not? And when operated on, how often does the tie grow back?

My dd was tongue tied at birth and it was picked up by the midwife but the hospital didn’t have the services to cut it.

She referred us to another hospital but somewhere along the line, it got lost.

She never ended up having it snipped.

We got seen by a paediatrician when she was 1 because I was concerned it would affect her speech but he said that as long as she weaned ok, she should be fine with speech. He would keep us on his books until she was 2 in case we needed to go back but we didn’t.

She’s nearly 9 now and still tongue tied. You can see it when she sticks her tongue out (at least what part she can) but she has no issues with speech or eating.

@Soubriquet
Thanks for that. Does it bother her at all? I mean if she tries to stick her tongue out at friends is she aware of it? Are they?

I'm not sure how helpful this is but I'm 29 and I have tongue tie!

Mine is quite severely tied (can't stick my tongue out past my lip). It wasn't noticed until I was about 4 or 5 and the consensus was I'd made it this far so let's leave it.

In all honesty, I really don't notice it at all and if anything it is just a party trick. My speech is absolutely fine and no lisp, I can eat an ice cream and my teeth are fine.

This might not be the case for everyone but by the time mine was discovered the cons outweighed the pros and it may be different with a baby.

I'm a Speech Therapist. The advice I give is that if there is adequate movement for feeding, there is adequate movement for speech. You don't actually need a huge amount of tongue movement for speech. The most is being able to push your tongue forward for a th sound.

In 15 years working, I have only met one child where there was some concern over whether his tongue tie was affecting speech. In his case, I don't think it was necessarily and his pronunciation issues were likely to be coincidence, but his mum chose to have it snipped later. I have met many other parents worried about tongue tie, but in reality most speech issues are to do with brain development, not physical issues.

I would say you don't need to do it for speech, only do it if you feel feeding is impacted. But I do understand your anxiety.

No. She’s not bothered by it at all.

She doesn’t notice any different and I don’t think her friends do either because she’s never mentioned it.

She rarely sticks her tongue out anyway. Apparently tongues freak her out

When she’s being really annoying, I roll my tongue at her and runs away

Oh and just to add, the child I mentioned in my previous post had had lots of feeding issued and was bottle fed, which is generally easier with tongue tie, so quite severe.

My son had a tongue tie, right at the front. Tried to breast feed for a month and despite hours at the breast he wasn't thriving. Switched to formula and he was fine. His tongue rolled under instead of poking out of his month and I was concerned about speech and just never being able to stick his tongue out. Had it cut at 10 months, NHS and a general anaesthetic and his tongue is completely normal now.
I wish I'd had more information at birth as it can be done quickly and painlessly without anaesthetic at that stage and he may have been able to breast feed.

DS had tongue tie and the midwife spotted it early as he was struggling to latch. Within a week he was referred to the childrens hospital in Bristol and it was sniped by a doctor there. Took seconds to do it and that was it, sorted for life.

Honestly, just get it done and stop prevaricating about it.

My ds had lip tie that was picked up when he was born. (Seriously both kids had some form of tie).

I accidentally ripped it apart when he was toddler trying to take off a too tight jumper. Felt awful because he cried and it bled but it healed beautifully and no more lip tie

I had both my DC TT divided, one by NHS and the other privately. DS2's was particularly bad and he couldn't breastfeed because of it.

Personally, if you're having trouble with BF Ann want to persevere, I'd be tempted to get the tie divided asap.Constant feeding is a common problem with a TT as it's v tiring for the baby to feed at the breast with restricted tongue movement so they feed, get tired before they're full, stop for a rest, still hungry so feed again etc, etc and round and round you go.

My DS2 went from losing 12% of his weight by day 3, being readmitted to hospital on a feeding plan and even then struggling to gain weight to putting on a pound a week once the tie was divided. It made a huge, pretty much immediate, difference for us. I was very close to giving up BF because he couldn't latch and I was having to pump to try and get milk into him and keep my supply going. Didn't pump again from the day it was divided!

My DS latched easily, but kept slipping off. He seemed to be constantly feeding, but never satisfied, and I was sure he had a TT.
I lucked out with my midwife - she agreed and made a referral. So, it was diagnosed at 9 days old and snipped at 11. The procedure took seconds. He cried a little and I offered him the breast straight away. He fed and fed - for 15 minutes solid. Then slept, for longer than he'd ever slept before.

So, I would get it done asap.

That's all useful thanks. I'm going to take it further with health visitor. My strong instinct is better safe than sorry and get it done Andover with. It may be unlikely to cause problems, but why take the risk?

What is her weight like?
DS1 fed 15 hrs a day (yes, I recorded it once), screamed quite a bit, slept not a lot and shredded my nipples. At 3 weeks he hadn't regained birth weight when a LLL advisor spotted the tie and referred us. NHS didn't spot it on several occasions.

DS2 I asked at birth, and we got referred immediately. He still didn't regain birth weight until after the division, but fed much better than his brother, and also slept!

If feeding isn't painful after the first 5 seconds or so, and she has regained birth weight, and is gaining properly, I'd think about it. If you have issues with any of the above, I'd get it divided.

My DS2 had a tongue tie - he did not have any trouble feeding. I think if you are, perhaps that you are topping up with formula rather than it having anything to do with the tongue tie.

We saw an ENT privately who said that nothing needed to be done. The tongue will grow from the tip and the tongue tie will disappear.

DS2 did not really speak until he was 3, but then spoke in full sentences. In the days before social media, we did not worry about this. He did enough babbling to know that he was fine with hearing.

He is now 28 and quite a silver tongue.

Hmm she mostly latches okay, but doesn't stay long and often falls asleep very quickly even though I know she's hungry and she shouldn't be tired.
I've only got one breast due to cancer years ago, so that's an added difficulty. There are times though where she can't open her mouth wide enough and sometimes she just gives up and goes to sleep then.
Ultimately, I'm left thinking, what's the disadvantage of having it done? The worst seems to be that it might not be necessary and might have no consequences for her if left, but as it takes a minute and doesn't even involve local anaesthetic I'm tempted to get it done.
This has all been helpful though. I knew nothing at all this morning, and it came as a shock.

We were concerned about a tongue tie with DD at birth as DH has one and within the first 12 hours, I really struggled trying to get her to latch.
Every midwife said she had a perfect latch but sadly by her 5 day check she had lost alot of weight and over the next few weeks, struggled to gain it. This was with us introducing bottle top ups as well.
We spoke to several midwives, all wouldnt commit to saying if there was a tongue tie or not.
We checked online for reliable sources and could tick off about 80% of the symptoms.

We went down the private midwife/lactation consultant route.
Cost about £200 for a home visit.
Unsurprusingly a severe, posterior tie was found. We were advised that it may not cause speech problems but she wouldnt be able to raise her tongue to the roof of her mouth/upper teeth or stick her tongue out fully.
We had it snipped there and then.
Took 2 seconds.
A few drops of blood.
Bit of a cry (more me than DD).
She fed immediately and we havent looked back.
We had her weighed a week later and she had gained over 300gms in weight which goes to show how little she could feed with the tie.

Best money we have ever spent.