Tongue Tie

[sparklestar4]

Hello,

My 11wo has tongue tie, it's been checked by my health visitor and doctor but they won't do anything about it as he's bottle fed. I've been dismissed 3 times now...

I keep reading about tongue tie affecting speech delay and lisps. He has reflux which I'm sure his tongue tie is contributing too.

Is there any other avenues to get his tongue tie sorted?

Private is your only option. DS was born with the most tightest form of tongue tie but because he was able to latch and feed no bother, we were told there’s no need to get it cut. I raised similar concerns and was referred to private.

We weighed up the pros and cons and decided against it as thought well as long as he’s feeding then it’s fine as didn’t want to do it and risk it growing back.

He’s now 3 and has never slept through. Apparently, as well as speech (which fortunately he has no issues with) it can affect sleep as the tongue isn’t in the natural resting place. If I had known that at the time, I might have reconsidered getting it cut when he was younger!

The NHS focuses only on feeding but as you point out, tongue tie can cause other issues which doesn’t trigger management under the NHS, so you’ll need to go down the private route.

My 12 week old has just had hers cut privately and we bottle feed. The NHS wait list was over 3 months and I was told if she goes over 6 months we'd have to put her under anesthetic!

We went private for ours. Her sleep GREATLY improved. Not a miracle but definitely helped with sleep and reflux. We do the tongue exercises now still to support her.

Two breastfed children and both tongue tied. DC1 cut at 8 weeks after he destroyed my nipples. DC2 at 8 months. I suspected she had a tongue tie from birth but no feeding issues like DC1. Issues were sleep and gagging on solids. These improved but still not the best sleeper at 27 months or eater. Do wonder if related to later tongue tie cut. Despite being 8 months DC2 was awake for her tongue tie cut.

I would go private assuming you can afford to do so.

I was unable to breastfeed due to an undiagnosed tongue tie in DD. She then struggled to bottle feed and my gut told me something was wrong so we paid to have it checked privately and sure enough she had a very bad TT. We had it cut at 6 weeks and thank god we did - she became much more settled