Posterior tongue tie

[Yumchips]

Just wondering if anyone had a baby with posterior tongue tie? 2 midwives have diagnosed DD with a tongue tie (she is 5 days old). They've said it's upto to me whether I want to get it cut or not - baby only lost 4% body weight at the 5 day check up so they said they're not concerned about it. Did anyone have a tongue tie and not treat it either? Just wondering if it's worth treating now or seeing how we get on.

I'd get it looked at sooner rather than later. Tongue tie can cause speech problems and eating problems depending on the severity.

Some will say it's fine to leave but it's a grey area

So my son had posterior tie and I had to fight to get it cut as it was causing pain feeding and although he lost 8% or so during that window of time after birth and then gained, he had a centile drop at 7 weeks which I'm sure was related to inefficient feeding. It was cut twice and feeding improved massively but was never perfect. I fed him for 2 years. I've noticed it looks to have reattached again a bit and his speech isn't totally clear so I sometimes wonder if that's the cause.

If I was in your shoes with my experience I would definitely get it cut but I know someone who had almost the same level and type of tie who opted not to and she had some issues but was able to combat them with changes of feeding position etc. So it's obviously a personal choice.

The cut at 8 weeks was unpleasant but ok, but 15 weeks was traumatic for me as he was so much more aware and he got very upset.

I am sort of assuming you're breastfeeding based on my own experience but if bottle feeding you may have other considerations of course.

Yes feeding EBM for now. I'm not sure it will be considered a severe one but sounds like it's worth looking into. I can't work out the difference between cluster feeding and frequent feeding caused by poor latch/tongue tie. Very confusing!

I could never work out the difference either! DS would fall asleep on the boob and comfort suck so I had him attached to me pretty much 18 hours a day sometimes!

Good luck with it.

3 DC all with a posterior tongue tie to different extents.

DC1 we were told she had a tongue tie but it wasn’t severe, she was breastfed and lost 12% of body weight by day 5. She had a really bad latch and would fall asleep during feeding. Ended up formula fed and still struggled with bottles (milk dribbling out). Had her assessed at 4 weeks old and were told it was only classed as borderline but was cut as it was obviously affecting her feeding. She was much better afterwards and far less windy.

DC2 had issues with latch when breastfed but fine on bottles and gained weight fine, which was lucky as she was born at the start of lockdown so they wouldn’t cut tongue ties unless necessary. Hasn’t affected her speech at all though,

DC3 is more obvious, you can see his tongue tie when he laughs. He’s been fine on bottles but again his latch when breastfed wasn't great and it was really painful for me. His hasn’t been cut because he was feeding fine.

I also have a tongue tie, a midwife diagnosed me after I had DC1 and DH asked if it was genetic and she said it can be hereditary. It hasn’t affected my speech, the only thing I ever noticed is I do have a really short tongue, I cant stick it out much at all, but never even knew it was a tongue tie until I was an adult.

From what I’ve gathered they seem to say a posterior tongue tie doesn’t always need cutting as they don’t always affect feeding and speech. But obviously on the speech you can’t know until they’re older. If you’re concerned I would have your DC assessed and see what they say. They will grade it and tell you whether it needs cutting or is borderline or below. You’d probably be better off going private though as the wait times can be quite long.

DD had a posterior tie which was missed by every healthcare professional who saw her during the first 3 weeks of her life, and this wad with us asking for her to be checked as DH has a severe tie
It affected her feeding and she lost 8% of her birth weight in 5 days.
She struggled to latch to me but would accept a bottle fine.
We paid for a private midwife/lactation consultant in the end who diagnosed it right away.
She gave us the option to cut it or not.
She said posterior ties dont always cause issues but some will cause speech problems if the tongue cannot move freely to the roof of the mouth.
DD couldnt move her tongue well enough so we had it cut.
Best £200 ive ever spent.

Thanks for all the replies. I've reached out to a couple of private tongue tie/feeding consultants now to get an assessment. Baby is feeding round the clock, doing lots of tiny gassy poos and now I've got mastitis. I think it's time to explore life without the tongue tie.

We had our baby’s posterior tongue tie cut. Best £200 we’ve spent. He is so much more efficient at feeding now, it’s been totally life changing. We also didn’t want to risk speech problems etc later on

I had my son's tongue tie snipped it definitely made feeding more comfortable but he still fed little and often. Same now at 13!

There were 3 babies out of the 6 in our NCT group that had tongue tie treated. I think the others had a more dramatic impact than mine in terms of relief and weight gain. Still glad we did it though as it meant I breast fed for over a year.

Good luck it's not easy with a new born and mastitis is 😣

Hello - looking for an update did you get it cut? Did it help the cluster long feeds? I’m in same position. Was it traumatic?