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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Infants
Tongue tie dilemma



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amother
Goldenrod


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 6:10 am
Over Shavuos, my cousin, who is a speech therapist, noticed that my baby has tongue tie. Now, it happens to be, he's nursing just fine. However, he has silent reflux and is the absolute worst sleeper of all my kids (and they were all terrible sleepers as babies and toddlers). My cousin says fixing the tie would probably help. I've tried everything and if this really might help, I want to do it. DH was skeptical and said I should ask the pediatrician for an opinion. The problem is, I know from friends who have dealt with tongue tie, that pediatricians tend to pooh-pooh tongue tie and say it's not a real thing. I asked mine, and sure enough, he said it's nothing, and besides, the baby is nursing well, so why even fuss about it. Now I'm torn. On the one hand, I generally trust the doctor, but I know most doctors just don't "hold" of tongue tie. Also, I feel like if there;s a chance fixing the tie might help resolve other issues, then maybe we should go for it. DH says see, the doctor said not to do anything, it's nothing, and why should we put the baby through a procedure, but I'm thinking it's such a small procedure and could make a big difference. I'm near suicidal from the sleep deprivation. Any advice or experience?
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amother
Lavender


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 6:18 am
Hi,
I clipped two of my kids tongue's. My first had reflux as well and was on nutramigen formula. but the tongue tie does not affect the reflux. It only affects the eating of the solids and speech. When I started solids she would push everything out with her tongue.
The procedure was in and out. She was put out for 1--15 minutes and we were home a few hours later. IF your baby isn't eating well, definitely do it. Go to an ENT for them to check it out. My pediatrician missed the tongue tie and we only realized later and got the procedure done at arnd 8 month. We had to get her speech/feeding therapy because we didn't catch it early enough. But BH she is talking beautifully and eating much better now.
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amother
Goldenrod


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 7:56 am
Baby is nursing well. We haven't started solids yet, he's 4 months. Is there any chance it would help the sleeping situation?
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amother
Lavender


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 8:09 am
I'm not sure abt the sleeping issue. I wouldn't think it's related to sleeping but I'm no expert.
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amother
Babypink


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 8:18 am
Here's my professional advice as a CLC (certified lactation councelor) if your baby is nursing well and you are not feeling any pain while nursing I would not worry about tounge tie. I would reccomend you address your other concerns separately form tounge tie
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amother
Bisque


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 10:17 am
I've clipped my kids' tongue ties at different times since they were different degrees of "tied".

One kid nursed okay and was gaining beautifully but I was in constant pain until I did the snipping.

The other one I had a hard time with solids (didn't nurse exclusively) so did it when he was a toddler. His speech became much clearer right away too.

Now I look out for tongue tie right away (it's hereditary it seems) and get it snipped as soon as I can get an appointment after birth.

The younger the baby is the less of a procedure it will be. The infants were fine minutes later after sucking on the pacifier or nursing.

The child that had it done as a toddler needed it to be done in the hospital.

You should do research on the type of tongue tie as some don't affect speech too much.

Here's a link of different types of tongue ties - I didn't check out the whole site....

http://tonguetie.net/photo-gallery/

Good Luck.
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amother
Linen


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 10:30 am
Go to an ENT>
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mille




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 11:19 am
Go to an ENT or a pediatric dentist who specializes in tongue ties. Our daughter had a lip tie that we took care of and a lot of her issues resolved VERY quickly. Pediatricians tend to poo-poo it because it's a fairly "new" thing to look for in infants. On the other hand, many tongue ties will need to be revised at some point anyway because they can cause speech issues and orthodontic issues. When they are older, it's done under general anesthesia (more risky) and the recovery is a lot harder. Depending on the severity of the tie, it could lead to a palette expander which is very painful. Definitely see someone who is knowledgeable in this area.

Linda Dahl is a leading expert in NYC if you live around here.

As for resolving sleep issues - it's hard to say. I think you should revise it anyway, but it's possible the silent reflux is what is keeping your baby up. Mine has not-so-silent reflux, and she definitely slept a lot worse before we were treating it with zantac. Even if you think your baby is nursing 'well' (because you have no pain and he does eat), it could be that the tongue tie is causing him to suck in air which causes discomfort and leads to crappy sleeping.

But also, infant sleep is just a weird thing. I recommend Jodie Mindell's book Sleeping Through the Night simply to understand the science of infant sleep.
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amother
Goldenrod


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 11:53 am
So I've been doing some Googling and I see that tongue tie is connected with thrush? I'm dealing with a terribly stubborn case of thrush right now too. Does anyone have any suggestions for long Island? My cousin suggested doctor Siegel but he doesn't take insurance (and no, we can't get reimbursed for out of network treatment).
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amother
Amber


 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 11:57 am
My daughter had tongue tie. They debated in the hospital whether to clip it there, but decided it might not be necessary, and maybe we wouldn't have to. But, She wasn't a very efficient nurser though she managed fine but she was very small to begin with so there was more concern, and it was kind of painful for me. I had a lactation consultant and a speech therapist (who is also a lactation consultant) look at the extent of the tongue tie to determine whether it might make a difference later in talking, and whether it might improve her nursing (I highly recommend getting these people to look in your baby's mouth). They both recommended we do it, based on how severe the tongue tie was and her mouth moved while nursing, sucking their finger, etc. So we did it at 6 weeks. We had a pediatric dentist do it, which was great. Truth be told, I didn't notice a huge difference in her nursing ability or weight gain. Also, it was still painful, just less so. But, it helped a little.

Also, I think you should ask your pediatrician anyway, because best case scenario is that he/she has something intelligent or useful to say, and worst case scenario is only that he/she brushes it off.

Also, my daughter had reflux - tongue tie does not affect this at all. In fact, it got worse after her tongue was clipped, though it was totally unrelated. We gave her zantac, it helped. Also, tongue tie does not affect sleeping (sorry). The reflux could affect sleeping - ask adoctor what you can do about that. But the sleeping issues could also be totally unrelated to the reflux.

Other sleep books you might want to try:
"The baby whisperer" (some people swear by it, though it didn't work for us because our baby wanted to eat and sleep in a different order than the book said and trying their method made both her eating and sleeping worse, so keep in mind your baby's natural rhythm when trying this method),
or
"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (which I swear by - has a lot of really useful info on baby and child sleep patterns and needs at every age, and I found that his method of teaching my baby how to sleep worked really well for our daughter).
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myym




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 1:25 pm
My baby had tounge tie, difficulty nursing. I got it clipped by a midwife who does this for $50. Sara Devorkes in boro park. He was literally in the office for 1 minute. no bleeding after. nothing. I recommend you do it to prevent speech issues later on.
I dont know who your pediatrician is, but I can tell you that doctors dont know everything. Just bec he said its nothing doesnt mean anything. Tounge tie does exist, it is clearly just not his specialty. You can get a second opinion from a lactation consultant.
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Gitch




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 2:58 pm
What is the downside to clipping tongue even if it isn't recommended? My oldest had it done as an infant, it took maybe 30 seconds.
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rofa




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 5:41 pm
I would definitely have it clipped. Tongue ties can affect a lot more than just latch. As it is, baby is probably overcompensating to be able to nurse "fine."

If the tongue movement is restricted, air and liquids aren't swallowed right and that can lead to:
reflux and ear infections- which can definitely cause baby discomfort while sleeping.

Additionally it can affect speech and language later on. Most tongue ties are usually also accompanied by lip ties which can cause a tooth gap.

My little one had it clipped by an ENT- but as we later found out it was only partially clipped and had a 2nd procedure by Dr. Scott Siegel. Only Tongue Tie specialists or Pediatric dentists are qualified to diagnose and release ties.

Dr. Ghaheri is a renowned specialist in this field and has lots of great information on his blog. http://www.drghaheri.com/blog/
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naomi2




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 5:50 pm
I clipped ds tongue at a few weeks. Totally a non issue and avoids difficulty later on took 2 seconds, in and out. Go to a pediatric ent. There is no reason not to and every reason to do it. After you do it you'll realize how it's not even worth all the time spent researching it it's such a simple thing when they are infants.
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SplitPea




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 14 2016, 6:23 pm
All of my kids had tongue tie.

The first 3 were clipped for nursing reasons
#4 did not nurse and needed to go straight to a bottle. I saw no reason to clip her.


About 1.5 weeks old she started having issues breathing while eating. She would stop breathing and turn blue. I knew she had a tongue tie but I didn't connect it.

We did CPR on her a few times and did a modified heimlich at almost every feeding.

She had swallow studies showing an improper swallow. She also had reflux studies showing silent reflux. We were in and out of the hospital and no dr could figure out what to do.

Out of desperation before we decided to go to a G tube I called me IBCLC and asked her opinion. (Baby was 9 weeks old) she told me every issue we were having could be caused by the tongue tie.

We went to dr Kotlow and had her clipped two days later. IN THE OFFICE she latched onto a bottle and took her first ever feed without chocking. She never stopped breathing again.

My Ped was shocked.
Dr Kotlow now uses her case to talk about tongue tie and breathing/reflux problems.


It's real. If your baby has reflux it might not cute it but it darn sure won't make it worse.
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amother
Slategray


 

Post Wed, Jun 15 2016, 10:28 am
Gitch wrote:
What is the downside to clipping tongue even if it isn't recommended? My oldest had it done as an infant, it took maybe 30 seconds.


I had my two children clipped as newborns as they both had a hard time with nursing. It was a real quick in and out job in a dentists office. No stiches not much bloed .. babys were fine right away.

My husband had to go under anestechia in a hospital at about 6 for speech issues .. it took time to recover with stiches and bloed...

On the other end
I have a neice that had her toungue clipped at birth in hospital and now at age of 3 is not talking much.. their saying that her tounge is too loose....
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amother
Silver


 

Post Wed, Jun 15 2016, 10:58 am
SplitPea wrote:
All of my kids had tongue tie.

The first 3 were clipped for nursing reasons
#4 did not nurse and needed to go straight to a bottle. I saw no reason to clip her.


About 1.5 weeks old she started having issues breathing while eating. She would stop breathing and turn blue. I knew she had a tongue tie but I didn't connect it.

We did CPR on her a few times and did a modified heimlich at almost every feeding.

She had swallow studies showing an improper swallow. She also had reflux studies showing silent reflux. We were in and out of the hospital and no dr could figure out what to do.

Out of desperation before we decided to go to a G tube I called me IBCLC and asked her opinion. (Baby was 9 weeks old) she told me every issue we were having could be caused by the tongue tie.

We went to dr Kotlow and had her clipped two days later. IN THE OFFICE she latched onto a bottle and took her first ever feed without chocking. She never stopped breathing again.

My Ped was shocked.
Dr Kotlow now uses her case to talk about tongue tie and breathing/reflux problems.


It's real. If your baby has reflux it might not cute it but it darn sure won't make it worse.


Thanks for the info, my cousins baby has had very alarming breath holding spells from a very early age (I think 3 months.) she was diagnosed with reflux, swollen throat and inflamed lungs due to reflux, but reflux meds still haven't solved the issue and she stops breathing and faints frequently. Her experience is a little different because she doesn't stop breathing while eating it happens when she cries. Like a typical breath holding spell except instead of just turning purple for a few seconds she goes unconscious for a full minute. I'm definitely going to tell her your experience. Maybe her baby has the same issue.
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