Vitamins without folic acid - tongue tie

[Mama981]

My first baby was the only person either my husband or I are related to who has a tongue tie. It has been cut and then he breastfed no problems but I have looked into it and their are studies showing folic acid after 1st trimester increases the chance of tongue tie but there isn't enough evidence yet. We had to go back to hospital to get his tie cut and then he got a cold and got bronchiolitis so we ended up in hospital for several days with him struggling to breath. I spoke to my mum and MIL and the guidance in the 90s when they had children was only take the vitamins for 3 months and between them they had 5 healthy babies with no ties. Does anyone know if there is prenatal vitamins that exclude the folic acid - would obviously take it in 1st trimester though - as we are thinking of another baby and I don't want to do anything that might increase the risk of a tie. I don't want to avoid prenatals entirely after the 1st trimester as I get quite run down in pregnancy and got quite low in iron even with taking them!

Tounge ties have always been fairly common. Midwifes used to keep a small fingernail sharp so they could be cut straight away.

There isn't always a genetic link DS had tounge tie and I'm noy away of anyone else in the family having one.

When I looked this up there isn't any convulsive evidence that there is a link so as it currently stands I wouldn't not take folic acid during the rest of a pregnancy just based on passed experience.

So I'm pretty sure that my mother did not take folic acid in any of her pregnancies. I have a huge tongue tie.
Im sure my siblings probably do too but those days it was just "short tongues" when we all compared at school!

I have taken folic acid throughout pregnancy with both of my children and throughout breastfeeding with them, they show no signs of having a tongue tie or at least one that has impacted their feeding or development in anyway. Might explain the back chat I get most days though.....

Just take the ones you need individually. Ie straight iron.

And focus on a really good balance diet instead.

My understanding is that folic acid is one of the key vitamins included in a prenatal vitamin. So if you want to exclude it, you might be better buying something that isn't designed for pregnancy. You'd just need to review it carefully to check what is included.

Sorry I forgot to put in the original post that there are studies linking folic acid after the 1st trimester to tongue tie and the incidence of tongue tie has gone up a lot in the last 30 years or so. There isn't enough research in the area yet to make recommendations but obviously that's how everything starts out and as my own child was affected and there is no benefit to continuing folic acid after 1st trimester i was hoping there was a product without it. I think the recommendations of taking the individual vitamins I need is probably the best bet thank you.

All that's really recommended is vitamin D and folic acid. If you take them individually you could just stop taking the folic acid after 12 weeks

First child had a tongue tie, I was taking folic acid throughout pregnancy.

Second child had a tongue tie, I stopped taking folic acid at the end of the first trimester.

One other thing to consider is that there is a (significant) portion of maternity, paeds, and dental clinicians who believe tongue ties are currently grossly overdiagnosed. Which skews the data and could exaggerate any link between TT and folic acid.
Which isn't to suggest that your child's diagnosis wasn't legitimate. But I work in the field and definitely think of several TT practitioners who I would never refer a baby to, because they diagnose such a high proportion of babies, I suspect because they can then charge a few hundred pounds to snip them. It's a very lucrative field that has the potential to become exploitative because the client base is desperate, sleep deprived new parents who are willing to try anything.
But if you are convinced of a link, then you can always just take iron and vit D, and concentrate on having a generally healthy diet!

I can’t remember what you can’t have - maybe is it vit A or K? I am not sure. But one of these are high in non pregnancy multi vits and an absolute no go from what I read.

So do be careful with non pregnancy multi vits! I couldn’t actually find one without it so went individual.

I think many women struggle to breastfeed and that “tongue tie” can be an easy excuse. Left untreated they would naturally slightly tear and stretch.

I read some of the same research and it is interesting. DD1 - no diagnosed tongue tie, took standard folic acid as part of a prenatal vitamin. DD2 - 90% very restricted tongue tie, I took standard folic acid as part of a prenatal vitamin until my booking appt at 11w ish when I was told to switch onto 5mg folic acid, which i did until 16w. Then I went back onto a prenatal vitamin for the rest of my pregnancy. I've idly wondered if that could be a contributing factor, but a tongue tie is better to end up with than issues caused by a lack of folic acid so even if it was, I don't know if it would change anything. Probably I would have just got the tt checked earlier than the 8weeks of breastfeeding drop ins, midwives, HVs, IBCLCs etc and DD2 still dropping weight before we finally saw an IBCLC who was also a tongue tie practitioner.

I do believe this also.

I am in a group of mums who has had second babes recently. My god you should see how horrendous this bunch are with their latches generally. Some sucking like a straw with wide open mouth on each side. Literally like a rabbit face. Some shallow. Some gulpy and airy. It’s a shit show tbh and we all laugh about it as confident breast feeders; because as long as babe is putting on weight then it doesn’t really matter.

I took Pregnacare conception vitamins right up until 12 weeks with my first pregnacy and then switched to just vitamin D as suggested by my midwife. Pregnacare conceptuin can be taken during pregnancy as checked with the manufacturer.
My daughter was born with a severe posteruor tingue tie which was missed by all NHS midwives and doctors (had to go private for it to be diagnosed and cut but thats a different story).
My husband has a severe anterior tongue tie which was never picked up as a baby and consequently was never cut. His mum didnt take any vitamins at all as it wasnt really a recommended thing back in the early 80's.

Im pregnant now and just taking Vitamin D from 12 weeks as folic acid is mainly required for NT development.
Midwife didnt recommend a multivitamin. Just a reasonable diet and vitamin D.
I dont think standard vitamins can be used due to the high doses of vitamin A which is bot recommended in pregnancy?

Thats very interesting! Ours was a definite tie though! It was picked up by the person that does the newborn checks and mentioned by every midwife that helped me latch. I had bruises from him chomping as his tongue couldn't cover his bottom gums at all! It was completely stuck to the bottom of his mouth and attached tightly at the very front with very little movement and was a complete heart shape all of the time! He has good movement in it now since it was cut but it is still a bit funny shaped. I don't think he could have eaten or spoken normally if it was left!

There are studies that show a significant increase in IQ of babies born to mothers who take folic acid throughout the pregnancy rather than just first trimester. Tongue ties can be cut, raising a baby's IQ on the other hand, much harder. Always make sure you look at both sides of the argument when making decisions like this

What has increased is the diagnosis of tongue tie, not necessarily its prevalence. Correlation is not causation. Two of mine were tongue tied, it's stretched quite a bit as they've grown. DH didn't want it cut so I used nipple shields.

For me, I suddenly couldn’t stand the sight or smell of green veg throughout pregnancy so I’d be reluctant to stop folic acid early on personally.

Thinking about this again, isn't it also the case that this is linked to the fact that as a population we are getting older and fatter when having babies. High dose folic acid (5mg) is advised for if BMI is over a certain level, or higher risk of neural tube defects, or certain preexisting health conditions. So if more of the population as a whole is on a higher dose folic acid, stands to reason that there may also be increased numbers of tongue ties.

Oh - I wasn't suggesting for a moment that your child's diagnosis wasn't valid. I hope that's not how it came across.
I was more addressing the issue of the sudden explosion in TT diagnoses across the board - there is a correlation with the onset of advice to take folic acid, but there's also a correlation with it becoming quite a lucrative condition to be able to diagnose and treat 😏
TT is definitely a real thing though, as clearly illustrated by your child's case. I've also met adults in their 50s and 60s whose speech tells me that they have a TT.

As a PP mentioned all that's actually recommended is folic acid until 12 weeks, plus vitamin D (which we probably all should be taking anyway).

My first baby - I didn't do prenatal multivits, just took the above as separate tablets. I had horrendous vomiting so stopped taking the folic acid after 12 or 13 weeks as taking it often made me vomit. That baby? Tongue tie and very complicated start to BF including triple feeding for 5 full months.

My second baby - this time I took a prenatal multivit all the way through. So loads more folic acid. That baby? No tongue tie, BF like a champion.

Of course, n=1, but I just wanted to demonstrate that more folic acid doesn't always lead to a tongue tie. It's easy to blame ourselves for these things but it's not always our 'fault'.

I do think, based on what science tells us, that prenatal vitamins are a bit of a con though, preying on women at a vulnerable time.

That's actually a really good point about IQ and after looking that up I don't think I'd want to avoid the vitamins just for a tongue tie!