Experiences of getting an older baby’s tongue tie snipped?

[Blueyfan1234]

My baby is 11 weeks old and will be getting their tongue tie cut next week at nearly 12 weeks. It’s taken ages to get diagnosed due to NHS midwives/HV saying there was no tie, and eventually we went private.

Im really worried he is going to be in pain after/refuse to latch/not feed properly, does anyone have experiences of getting their baby’s tie snipped when they weren’t a little newborn?

Im doubting myself around getting it done, the practitioner said he had quite a severe tie, but I don’t have pain feeding but he is often v unsettled feeding and feeds every hour or more during the day! She said it would be in his best interest to get it done as may cause problems weaning but I don’t want to put him through a lot of trauma…I don’t know what to do for the best!

It is so worth it. Be brave. It's over in seconds.

I'm stuck with my DD as no one would help her until it was too late. Now we've got to wait until she's older to go under GA to get it sorted. I'm so angry that the paediatrician on the postnatal ward, the midwives HV etc all wouldn't help. The GP referred her to maxfillofacial surgeon but by the time it went through she was too old for it to be snipped without GA.

My son first had it done at 10 days old and then again at 4 months old when it grew back.

He was obviously much more distressed when he was 4 months old compared to how he’d been as a newborn and so it upset me more but generally it was fine. He bled a bit more too at 4 months which worried me at the time but I guess it makes sense seeing as he was older with a more vascular tongue.

In terms of recovery he was quite slow to want to feed again at 4 months old, whereas when he was a newborn he latched on immediately, but I guess they’re just more aware of things at 4 months old and so generally more uncomfortable and reluctant.

By the next day he was fine though and his feeding was back to normal so it was as though it had never happened.

Hello we had to end our BF journey and we were in SCBU and no one detected the issues told me it was my supply. I got it done at 3 months privately as my friend a dentist said baby had a posterior tongue tie. It really improved and I did a little more BF before going fully bottle

We had this exact scenario, except because my son was gaining weight well and breastfeeding didn’t hurt, no one had ever looked into his mouth or checked for tongue tie, despite him having horrendous reflux (sick 15-20 times a day) and as a result feeding 15-20 times a day. HV’s ignored me when I said something seems off with his reflux and just told me some babies are more sicky than others. His inefficient feeding had also given me an oversupply which they said is likely why he gained weight well, as he barely had to try to get milk out.

I went to several breastfeeding drop in groups and luckily an NHS lactation consultant was at one and had a look in his mouth. Did the referral there and then and son had his snipped at 11+5 days. The nurse actually said his tongue was moving in completely the wrong direction to feed and it’s no wonder he was taking so much air in.

I think it was more painful for me than the baby to be honest! The snip was so so quick, bled quite a bit but he fed straight away and slept in the car on the way home. Recovery was brilliant after that, just kept offering breast as much as possible. It took him a while to learn how to feed properly again so symptoms didn’t disappear immediately, but one day at about 4.5/5 months the reflux just stopped. We are still feeding now at 8.5 months. Absolutely the best decision to get it snipped and wasn’t nearly as bad for baby as I expected! Good luck Op

@Angrymum22 my issue with your post is that you state that you are a dentist (presumably to suggest that you know what you’re talking about) but your opinion is highly misinformed and you clearly have not looked at the research evidence base. Having a tongue tie can have implications for children’s feeding (including solids), can cause speech and language difficulties, sleep difficulties (as you need to be able to sleep with your tongue on the roof of your mouth to disengage the vagus nerve (responsible for our flight, fight, freeze response) to go into a deep restful sleep and can change the whole architecture of their mouth. If it were simply a case that bottle feeding was the solution I would have done this in a heartbeat.

For anyone reading this interested in my personal experience, we had two tongue tie releases on the nhs (3days old and 2m). Before finally going private and having a 3rd (finally successful) tongue tie release at 6m. She informed me that the nhs cuts had been in the wrong place. In addition the nhs do not give any guidance on aftercare (oral exercises/bodywork exercises) and therefore scar tissue had built up from the nhs operations making the issue even worse. If I have another baby who has a tongue tie, I will be going straight to the private specialist. I feel very let down by the nhs.

@violetskypurple can I ask where you went and who you saw please? Reassuring to know your 11 month old had it done without a general anaesthetic as from what I read online it said any baby over 6 months would need a general.

Hi! I know this is an older thread but could you let me know the specialist you saw please

Please can I ask who you saw? Struggling to find a private practitioner that does both. Thanks x

Hi, please can you let me know where you went to get tongue & lip tie sorted? Thanks xx
@DoughBallss

It was Dr Levinkind. He has his own website with a lotnof information on. Based in London.

We had it done at the Spire Hospital in Leicester they were fab.

Think the ENT specialist just hired a room there once a week or something and traveled around different hospitals. But he was great - if you’re local I can give you his assistants details

If not, contact Spire Healthcare and they can advise if you have anything local to you xx