Tongue tie - to not snip

[JL642]

Morning. I am very confused about tongue tie. To snip or not to snip?

My EBF baby is nearly 5 months now. Feeding fine and gaining weight ok. Maybe her feeding is slower and more often than other babies but I’m not sure for sure as my first DC.

I asked the GP to check for tongue tie at 8 weeks and she said no tongue tie. My DC’s tongue tie was not then identified until 13 weeks by a lactation consultant. I was told I was too late to get DC’s tongue tie snipped on the NHS at that point. The lactation consultant said DC’s latch was fine (I have to be on the ball and double check each latch in case DC doesn’t open mouth wide enough but generally fine).

Given Dc is feeding ok do I need to pay to get her TT snipped privately?

I have seen other articles saying TT can impact sleep, breathing speech potentially. Does this mean I should snip?

DC doesn’t sleep brilliantly but I expect that’s more because she is so young and BF and maybe it’s just her. She’s generally happy although is a Velcro baby. I assume that’s her temperament and not because of the TT.

Surely plenty of FF babies don’t get their tongue tie even noticed (and consequently not snipped)?

My mother BF two babies in the 90s and hasn’t even heard of TT. We are both fine. Not sure TT was such a thing then?

Interested in anyone who didn’t snip the TT.

You'll get completely different responses here. Personally, if identified before 6 weeks, I'd get it snipped - quick, easy, and nothing to lose. If after 6 weeks AND not currently causing problems, I'd leave it personally, and wait to see if it causes problems. Be on the ball regarding speech etc. After 6 weeks it's an anaesthetic job anyway, so I don't see a major advantage to pre-empt possible problems.
I noticed my DCs TT the day after he was born, but covid meant the NHS wasn't offering it in our area. He was latching fine so we left it, and luckily he seems to have sort of grown into his tongue as he got older 🤷 He is 16 months and he can stick it out miles, and say all the consonant sounds you'd expect at this age.
But equally other people who didn't cut it will have stories where it didn't resolve itself. You can't know what will happen, so you'll have to choose between doing it now or watchful waiting.

Thank you. Yes my gut at the time was to leave it given the lactation consultant seemed comfortable.

However found myself down a rabbit hole of TT articles last night which made me worried - particularly re speech!!

My DC can also stick their tongue out miles.

Helpful to hear your positive story.

I normally discuss various things with my mother but I can’t on this one!!

Mine only had a slight tie and wasn’t identified until after 13w. We didn’t snip as was happy and gaining weight. They’re now nearly 2 and fine!

My other thought process was surely if it was that likely to be detrimental the nhs would check routinely at birth (it seems hit and miss) and / or more routinely offer free snips at all ages. Maybe that’s me being optimistic

Thank you

Both my kids had tongue tie discovered too late to snip without general . We left well alone - no issues now both young teens

I have read so many times that cutting a tongue tie is "nothing" "simple" "not painful" Not quite the same but I had my upper freenum cut, so not the bit under the tongue the bit from upper lip to gum. I was a teenager and it was bloody painful, I felt like I'd been punched in the mouth and it was quite a few days before I felt, and looked, OK. I wanted it done as I couldn't brush my teeth without making the freenum bleed (it was a big one) but if it isn't causing a problem I couldn't do it to a child.

I am not a baby and no medical training but I do have a tongue tie and it has never caused me any problems whatsoever.
It seems to me there is a bit of an over exaggeration nowadays about what problems tongue tie can cause. Why would it stop anyone breathing?
If your baby is feeding well I would think there are no significant issues?
The tongue moves around a lot and the tongue tie looks different in different positions. If your baby’s tongue moves around well I would think there’s no genuine reason to be concerned?

OP I will try and ask them at the weekend and see what they say about it and post again

DD had a tongue tie and lip tie that no one noticed, probably because she was bottle feeding, until she was 2 and first went to the dentist. The dentist wanted to cut the lip tie for cosmetic purposes but it was busted in the school playground reception year so that saved us some money. Presumably she still has the tongue tie but can’t see it myself and it’s never caused a problem. DS had a slight posterior tongue tie noticed by the paediatrician that did his newborn exam but it’s never caused an issue either and as he was bottle fed we did nothing.

If your dC can stick tongue out, I can’t see why you would need to snip anything?
I really fear some of the stuff online about this is wrong

My baby grandson had his tongue tie snipped not long after he was born. My twelve year old grandson who has just got braces on his teeth is having his tongue tie done soon and this is also on the NHS. I think it depends on your practitioner ?

@JussathoB thank you. I think you’re right to question whether the TT articles online these days are too one sided. I have definitely also read articles on the flip side saying that TT is over diagnosed. It is really useful to hear other peoples experiences of leaving it though.

@Daffodilfrog that would be amazing. Thank you

My mother decided not to have my tongue tie snipped. I'm in my late 50s and the only time it was an issue was when I realised, at primary school, I couldn't stick my tongue out like the other children. I was so jealous! Other than that, no problems here.

Personally I wouldn't get it done. It's an invasive procedure done to correct something that isn't causing an issue... Imo there is too much of a drive to "correct" things that are actually just part of natural variation.

For what it's worth my DH has an extremely severe tongue tie - can't stick his tongue out at all - and it's caused him zero issues.

As a poster says upthread you will get a lot of different opinions on this thread. But I will say that I had my first child’s tongue tie snipped at 7 days as it was right to the top of the tongue meaning when crying, the tongue made a v shape and could not be poked out further than the bottom lip. It made a huge different and breastfed very well.

I have quite a bad tongue tie, no issues never had it snipped.

My little boy has tongue tie, noticed by midwife right after birth. She told me not to do anything to it unless I have problems with feeding/speaking. He's had no problem this far, still quite young so only a few words so can't comment to much on the speaking part.

I think the advice must differ from area to area, do whichever you think is best.

It has always been a thing and the reason why many mums switch to formula so often on the advice of well meaning GPs and relatives when the mum says she doesn't feel she can satisfy a hungry baby or breastfeeding is painful etc. In your shoes (ie it isn't painful to feed, baby is gaining weight etc and no obvious symptoms or functional issues) I would leave it.

The fact that the NHS doesn't have a consistent pathway for assessment and treatment across all Trusts doesn't mean it's not a big deal. It means, like many issues such as poor treatments for pelvic girdle pain and scar tissue therapy, it predominantly impacts women (who are breastfeeding or having difficulty with bottles) so is under researched and under funded.

All 4 of my kids are tongue-tied and were ebf. I've not had any of them snipped. The only issue we've had is that 2 of them had a lisp which was corrected by speech therapy at school

DC1’s tongue tie wasn’t identified until I took her to the dentist at 1! I had had a lot of pain at the beginning but ebf to 13 months. We left it and she is now 5 and no problems of any kind.

With DC2 we were on the ball about checking and did get it snipped at few days old and feeding was a lot easier.

In your shoes I’d absolutely leave it.

I may be wrong but I would assume problems with speech etc would be from a severe tt. Where maybe baby was bottle fed and not reliant on breast. So it wasn’t an issue when small. My baby had a tt but he didn’t gain weight and we did have it cut. Things improved for us and I fed him to 15 months. The first 3 were very tough though before the cut. No one noticed his tt except a lactation expert, drs midwife’s, health visitor etc said he didn’t have one. In your case if baby is putting on weight I wouldn’t worry about getting it done.

We had a late diagnosis TT snipped at 7 months - but loads of issues with colic, reflux, weight gain and weaning (couldn’t swallow solids properly) so we had a reason to. It made a big and immediate difference but we wouldn’t have had it done if we weren’t having any problems.

The consensus generally is to only snip if there’s an indication to and the potential for speech issues later on isn’t considered an indication, particularly as the frenulum can often partially reattach anyway.

Its impossible to say whether it’s going to cause problems in the long term.

We got my youngest tongue tie snipped at 6 weeks.

Now at 9, she has a stammer and lisp and is a messy eater. There’s a posterior tongue tie that seems to be contributing to all that.

We’re doing Oromyofunctional speech therapy and there’s a possibility it may end up with getting the posterior tie snipped. I’m hoping to avoid that if we can.

My eldest was a nightmare feeding. She was one of those rare babies that were breast fed and had colic, and that must have been because of the tongue tie that no one bothered to diagnose. Her speech is fine, but she doesn’t sleep brilliantly. When her sister has progressed with the therapy, we’ll get he assessed to see if we can help her with exercises etc, or even get it snipped.

If you do get it snipped, make sure you do the stretches etc afterwards.

I wouldn’t rely on speech therapy being available through school. School weren’t interested. Teachers didn’t raise it, even when we asked if there was a problem and we’ve ended up going private

My youngest has a tongue tie, struggled for the first month or so, then no issues after that. Doctors weren't concerned when we mentioned it