My Experience With A Tongue-Tied Baby (Guest Post)
Prior to 2021, I was only vaguely aware of tongue ties. I knew people could have them and get them revised, but I didn’t know what kind of problems they caused other than maybe speech issues. Fast forward to summer 2021, and I was learning so much about tongue ties from Instagram. I decided I had better take notes just in case the baby in my belly had a tongue tie. I wanted to be prepared, but I honestly believe the Lord was putting that info in front of me because my baby was indeed severely tongue tied when he was born!
Thanks to all of the information I had seen on Instagram, the night my son was born I was looking in his mouth to check to see if he was tongue tied and could see he certainly was! No doctor or lactation consultant from the hospital came to my room to check. It’s not routine, something the hospital systems are failing at and failing new mothers. I’m convinced more babies would be breastfed if routine care post birth included frequent lactation consultant visits and checks for oral ties by a pediatric dentist were performed.
My breastfeeding experience with my first child was beautiful. We had no issues. She took to breastfeeding like a fish to water, something I’m so grateful for because it allowed me to be more aware of issues I was having when nursing my son.
Here’s what I noticed when nursing him:
Pain when nursing - it was like someone was holding a lighter to my nipples
Oddly shaped nipples - like lipstick
Shallow latch
Lethargy when nursing - he seemed to get tired so fast when nursing and it was so difficult to keep him awake to nurse
His lips were two-toned, something I learned were actually lip blisters from not having a good latch
Fussiness and more than normal gas for a baby
Once my pediatrician confirmed my suspicions at our first visit a week after birth, I scheduled an appointment with The Tongue Tie Laser Center of Atlanta. I decided on a laser frenectomy because the wound is immediately cauterized and it heals faster than a scissor frenectomy. We had a consultation with them and they said my son had two buccal ties (upper cheek area that connects to the gum line), a lip tie, and a very clear tongue tie. That’s four oral ties! No wonder we were having difficulty with nursing!
After the consultation, I was instructed to do oral exercises to get both me and baby used to my fingers being in his mouth and to practice the exercises that I’d have to do every four hours after the frenectomy. Life was hectic and I was tired, but I managed to do the exercises without dying of exhaustion. The day of the frenectomy I was instructed to give infant Tylenol to help with the swelling. I’m typically against using Tylenol unless necessary for super high fevers, but since he was so little (one month) I wanted to make this process easier for him so we’d have a higher chance of success with keeping his ties from fusing together again and with nursing.
The whole frenectomy took 10 minutes. They brought him back in and we immediately started nursing, both for comfort and to start practicing a good suckling motion with his now freed tongue. His suck was immediately better, but the road was still long ahead of us! (We are still working issues out now at four months old.)
Just a word of warning: this is a very emotional process. Seeing your kid whimpering because their mouth hurts is not easy. At his one week follow up they had to reopen his tongue tie a small bit and that about killed me. Just know that staying calm is the best thing while you’re doing this because baby can sense your mood and energy and you want them to be calm! I allowed myself tears once baby was sleeping soundly on the drive home.
Here are some things we’ve seen improve since his revision:
Significantly increased weight gain
Staying awake to nurse
Longer stretches of sleep - less falling asleep at the breast means he can sleep when he’s supposed to longer!
Improved ability to get milk
Let me say this as well: Make sure you see an IBCLC in addition to and concurrently with your frenectomy appointments.
Some of the exercises to work on sucking with baby just were not working for us. He was gagging and I couldn’t figure out how to do it without him gagging. At three months, I finally scheduled a lactation consultation because my son is still chomping at the breast instead of sucking, and even though he gets plenty of milk, my nipple could use a break from chomping. From this appointment, I learned that I have a very fast letdown response. He doesn’t need to suck because my milk is so fast. He’s actually chomping because he’s basically trying to not drown in my milk. The IBCLC was able to give me tips for overcoming this that the Occupational Therapist and Dentist were unable to help me with.
This is still a journey for us. I may never be able to get my son to have a better suckling motion with his mouth, but the revision was still worth it because tongue ties can cause a ton of issues as children and adults like:
ADHD
Snoring
Sleep Apnea
Migraines
Behavioral issues
Even more!
My hope is to make it one year nursing my son, but whatever happens, I know that he is on the path to a better life because we had his oral ties revised!
Some of the exercises to work on sucking with baby just were not working for us. He was gagging and I couldn’t figure out how to do it without him gagging. At three months, I finally scheduled a lactation consultation because my son is still chomping at the breast instead of sucking, and even though he gets plenty of milk, my nipple could use a break from chomping. From this appointment, I learned that I have a very fast letdown response. He doesn’t need to suck because my milk is so fast. He’s actually chomping because he’s basically trying to not drown in my milk. The IBCLC was able to give me tips for overcoming this that the Occupational Therapist and Dentist were unable to help me with.
*As a side note: I personally have to also bottle feed at times because one of my nipples was injured by his bad nursing and I need it to heal properly. The bottles that were recommending to me by the dentist and lactation consultants are:
My personal favorite and the one we have seen the most success with are the Lansinoh bottles. They widen his mouth like a breastfeeding baby with no issues, but it’s not so large like the Evenflo nipple. The Avent bottles are okay but they aren’t shaped like breasts, and don’t widen the mouth like it should be to encourage a deeper latch.
Pacifiers are discouraged for all babies, but especially tongue tie babies. HOWEVER, when speaking with the lactation consultant, she wanted to see him with a pacifier to see if he could keep it in his mouth without issue. From that we discovered that my son does have a good suck, but my milk is just too fast so he doesn’t have to. She allows him to have a pacifier when he’s upset and when he’s calming down to fall asleep so that he can have some extra sucking practice. This is why I say make sure to see an IBCLC in addition to a pediatric dentist that does frenectomies.
I hope this gives you hope and helps you in your tongue tie journey!