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Parenting

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Original poster

What is tongue-tie??

9 replies

ManyMonkeys · 23/02/2010 11:03

What does it look like?? Not sure if my baby has it, have no exp of it at all, but the little bit of skin that is under the tongue reaches right to the front of her tongue, it looks a liitle 'wrong'. She is 3 weeks old and breastfed, and we have had a few issues with feeds/latch etc but we seem to have sorted it now, but im wondering if she has this tongue-tie thing??

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Rhubarb · 23/02/2010 11:09

Hi ManyMonkeys, it sounds as though she could have. My ds also had this and we worried about his speech development and so on, but his tongue just seemed to grow and now he doesn't have it at all.

If your dd is feeding fine then I wouldn't worry. A lot of babies simply grow out of theirs. If it was an issue then she really would have problems feeding.

Congratulations on your little one and enjoy every single moment, because it all passes far too quickly!

UniS · 23/02/2010 11:14

sound like it could be tongue tie. If feeding is going well you may get away with it. but keep an eye on it. Maybe have a chat with a HV or midwife who is good on breast feeding.

tis reckoned to be simpler to sort in an infant than a child or adult as infants heal fast. Can cause the tongue to appear split ( snake like) as they grow up. also can inhibit licking and snogging. I'm told its very painful to correct in a teenager ( by friend who had it done )

Original poster

ManyMonkeys · 23/02/2010 11:54

Thankyou, think our hv is coming at some point today so im going to see if she will have a look. Dd is feeding fine now, but i dont want her to have any trouble with it. If some babies grow out of it are they likely to just leave her and wait and see?? Thanks for the congrats Rhubarb i LOVE her lol

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NotQuiteCockney · 23/02/2010 12:01

It can be a big cause of feeding problems. If she's feeding well, now, and you're not having any nipple problems, then maybe that's ok. But they can cause speech problems later. And sorting a tongue tie out is meant to be v easy, no blood.

releasethehounds · 23/02/2010 12:02

Both my DDs (now 11 and 6) had tongue-tie when they were newborns! HV told me it was hereditary and it was unlikely to cause any problems, but if it affected their speech a doctor can 'nick' the tie.

Fortunately, there were no speech problems in either of them - in fact, they are both a couple of real rattlers! I think that's hereditary too

You're right to ask the HV, but I don't think you need to worry.

Rhubarb · 23/02/2010 12:05

NQC - ds's tongue-tie was quite noticeable. Our HV told us that they used to have a sharpened finger nail for that purpose...

But we sought the advice of dh's cousin, a speech therapist, who advised us to leave it. If it was going to interfere with his speech, she said, then it would be interfering with his ability to feed, which it clearly wasn't.

He's now 6, no sign of any tongue tie at all, no problems with his speech. It just sort of disappeared. I don't think anything broke it, it either shrunk back or his tongue merely grew.

hairtwiddler · 23/02/2010 12:13

DS has one... it's a shortening of the cord underneath the tongue called the frenulum so the tongue is tethered. It can be more tethered than at the tip, but tight white cord under tongue is obvious sign.
DS has one, and had it cut at 7 weeks. We thought feeding was going fine, but either he'd got into bad habits or wasn't feeding efficiently as he dropped 4 centiles. Am still feeding but combined with bottles...
Degree of tongue tie isn't related to whether feeding will be problematic as other factors at work, e.g. shape of mother's breast.
In most cases surgery helpful if feeding problems (see the nice guidelines) just seems ds was one of the ones it didn't help.

hairtwiddler · 23/02/2010 12:15

Rhubarb I'm a SALT and sought advice on it from expert colleagues... the evidence just isn't out there yet on speech problems and whether they occur with/without feeding issues. My colleague and the surgeon who cut ds are doing a study on it at the moment...

loves2walk · 23/02/2010 20:32

My DS2 had a tongue tie when he was born 4yrs ago, and struggled with breastfeeding. We were recommended to have it snipped when he was 4 weeks old - mainly because of the feeding problems - my nipple was shaped like a new lipstick after a feed which is symptomatic apparently - sounds funny but it meant he was only getting fore milk not hind milk so was very colicky.

But the snip was so easy. A paediatrician did it but could be a trained midwife - and this guy asked me to get all ready to feed before he took DS2 away, so he brought me a footstool, a pillow and asked me to get my breast out ready! Then he took DS2 away for a few minutes, brought him back to me, handed him over crying and DS2 latched on and fed happily without any subsequent problems. I was very pleased we had it done as he has a long tongue now and amongst other things can enjoy licking icecream as he grows up - something a friend told me her now 25yr old son with undiagnosed tongue-tie, could never do!
It is so simple a procedure that if you are recommended to have it done, I wuldn't think twice. If it were painful we would have known about it.

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