Anyone had their toddler's tongue tie cut?

[MarmaladeCrumpets]

At birth my sons tongue tied was noticed but they told me that it would take 6 months to wait to get it cut so I didn't bother. I couldn't breast feed because of it.

Anyway now I think it's affecting his speech, he's 2.5 years old and has been referred for speech therapy which will take upto 40 weeks! They ruled out hearing problems with a hearing test.

But no-one is taking me seriously about the tongue tie. Health visitor didn't check it when I raised my concerns. GP said I should speak to HV about it. HV said I need GP to make a referral.

My concern with going private is that they will just do it without properly checking he actually needs it.

Anyway has anyone had their toddler's tongue tied cut due to speech? How did you go about it? Thank you

Had my sons tongue tie cut in October when he had just turned 2. I was worried it was affecting his speech and he also could barely stick his tongue out.

Luckily we had no push back from our GP and he referred us to the hospital (NHS). Had one appointment to check him out and they said he had a very obvious tongue tie. Then was booked in for his op just over a month later.

I feel it was worth it as now at 2.4 months (3 months on from op) his ability to try out words is increasing and his communication is getting better by the day.

I would keep on at your GP, I don't think there would be a lot the HV can do.

What are your concerns about his speech? Is it pronunciation or not using many words? I'm a SALT and tongue tie isn't really an issue for speech, as you don't actually need to be able to stick your tongue out that far. /Th/ is the sound that needs the most tongue movement, and the tongue is only just out.

If he doesn't have many words, this is a language issue based on brain development and unrelated to his tongue. If he is unclear, this is fairly normal at 2.5. I tell parents I see not to worry about tongue tie. I did have a 2yo who had it cut and it took him a while to adjust.

Tongue tie doesn't usually affect speech.

Anecdotally, DH has a severe tongue tie (literally can't stick his tuck more than just visible beyond his lips) and his speech is normal. MIL says he learnt to talk early.

@BendingSpoons he makes so many sounds that seem to mean something to him but I don't know what he's trying to say. He definitely can't say "th" for birthday he says birbay.

Sorry I wasn't clear. /th/ is the sound that needs the most tongue movement, but not expected in a 2yo. At 2, they should be able to say sounds like m, b, d. You can look up charts on typical speech sound acquisition. Birbay sounds appropriate for a 2yo, as the longer fricative sounds come later. Frictatives are f, s, sh, th etc.

Saying sounds that you don't recognise could either be he doesn't know the words, so is using jargon instead, or he does know the words but had unclear sounds. Either way I always recommend repeating back clearly what you think he was trying to say. I still think it's extremely unlikely that his tongue is the cause of things, and it's likely to be coincidence. A tongue tie so restrictive to make speech impossible is likely to impact eating e.g. being unable to clear food from his mouth.

Saying all this, I know parents sometimes prefer to get it snipped just in case. I don't think it's needed for speech reasons but I can see the rationale that it is fairly minor.

My little girl has just turned 2. She was diagnosed with a tongue tie by NHS paediatric surgeon last week. Waiting list to have it cut is 12 months. Wondering where you live as your little boy's was done so quickly.

@AshlingR Obviously I don't know the circumstances that have led to you seeking a TT diagnosis but please be mindful that if it's not absolutely necessary, 2y is not an ideal time to have it revised. Post-operatively, TT revisions are painful and require significant effort and dedication to the exercises/stretches to be effective that likely, a 2yo would not be able to manage. As I say, unless unquestionably necessary, it'd likely be better to wait until she is older and can be much more compliant else you could find she goes through the trauma of the surgery and recovery for very little benefit.

@Ankerdam
Post-operatively, TT revisions are painful and require significant effort and dedication to the exercises/stretches to be effective that likely, a 2yo would not be able to manage.

That wasn't my experience at all. My now 3 year old finally got his TT a few months ago on the NHS. He recovered very easily he wanted to go to nursery the following day. After about 4 weeks he was making lots of sounds he couldn't say before the procedure.

As I say, unless unquestionably necessary, it'd likely be better to wait until she is older and can be much more compliant else you could find she goes through the trauma of the surgery and recovery for very little bene

The specialist who made the procedure go ahead didn't do any testing of his speech to check if he needed it he just went of what I said. Tbh it didn't seem very thorough but he could see very clearly that his tougue ties was tight.

What compliance do they need for the surgery? It was under general anesthetic.

It's not compliance for surgery, it's compliance for the post operative stretches and exercises (myofunctional therapy) to ensure it doesn't heal with a similar restriction.

We weren't given any stretches or exercises to do. Nothing like that was mentioned at all. Infact there was no check up following it either because it's such a minor low risk op. We still got the results we hoped for.

Are we taking about the same procedure? Are you based in the UK?

I found the follow up/exercises just as important as the actual op. We went privately and were told how important the stretches and exercises were to make sure it healed properly.

My baby's was cut at 2 weeks old and we were given stretches and exercises to do with him!