My little one just went through tongue tie division under GA as is closer to one year old. It's a LONG post partly for myself (to get things out of my system) and partly to share if helpful for anyone, as we went through a long winded process. Please do move away if your time is precious as it is LONG.
All starting from a missed tongue tie during the health check. In fact, I even had feeding specialist coming to check on the nursing whilst I was still in hospital one day after birth, as LO was giving me blisters. She suspected tongue tie but then said it may be 'is not' as LO can somehow drink albeit not optimally. Fast forward to 8 weeks later, I was at my local breastfeeding group, the feeding specialist there confirmed tongue tie but said I needed to come back 2 more times/weeks before they can refer. Then it became 3 weeks due to them saying my holding position was not correct so not meeting their criteria to refer. I was getting upset as the referral cutoff was 12 weeks and tried to reason with them as they'd already diagnosed tongue tie; (and TBH I really did not think my holding position was the issue as even when in hospital, the feeding support commented on how well I was doing it). Lucky me got them replying 'then why didn't you come to us earlier if you are worried about cutoff time'. Because I was FTM and didn't know better and only found out about the feeding group at 8 weeks time? Anyhow some people are too mean to be working in this profession.
We ended up going private while LO was 3 months old. It was a snip by a midwife. Feeding improved somewhat but I always had it at the back of my mind that something wasn't quite right as whenever I swept under LO's tongue, I can still feel a bump there. I also still hadn't seen LO trying to poke tongue out at all at that stage. Finally one day, DH also said to me he felt like LO's tie had grown back. This was around 5 months. I got in touch with another specialist/surgeon this time. Yup confirmed the tie was still there - whether it was reattachment or incomplete release it was there. Unfortunately this specialist, while I fully trusted them, doesn't treat babies above 6 months old and LO was just over 6mo at that time. Their advice was to wait it out - as it was too late to correct how LO breastfeeds, too early to do under GA, too traumatic to do without GA (as it would require open wound massage for weeks and weeks as no stitches given), and too early to tell if it would cause any other issues.
So we decided to wait. Then 2 months into our weaning journey, LO didn't like anything other than puree or super mashed food. Pretty much won't eat any solid textured food other than fruits. And generally not a great eater. Ofc my mind started to think it was because of tongue tie. If it really was or not, I would never know.
But I decided to get it investigated again. This time with an ENT who referred us to a SLT. The assessment confirmed functional impact due to a restricted tongue (that cannot manipulate food properly), albeit it was mixed with other potential sensory and behavioural issues leading to a complex eating pattern. Are all these issues somehow caused by tongue tie? They cannot say for sure. How big an impact is the tie, among other factors? They do not know other than tongue tie is a factor. That is enough for me to decide to get it released. And was enough evidence for the ENT to do the procedure.
DH and I hesitated for a few weeks due to the need of GA, but finally decided to get it over with, after detailed discussion with the ENT and got ourselves comfortable with the potential risks.
So here we are, months and months later, LO's tongue was finally and fully divided, with some stitches in to assist healing. The ENT said the tie was really quite thick and it will take sometime for LO to relearn how to move the tongue. It is early days and we need to see how the healing goes and how LO adjusts to the 'new' tongue. But I am glad we got it done. The worst part so far was when they put LO under with gas while LO was on my knees, my tears flew out like river. My little hero.
I'll update in coming weeks if anything worth noting during recovery. Happy to answer questions where I can. And to all the mamas there who are going through similar things, I feel you.