Tongue and lip tie

[treekidsandadog]

Hoping some of you ladies may be able to give me some advice...my almost six month old is tongue and upper lip tied.  he is able to nurse okay, but only in the football hold, and has been gaining weight just fine (though he is smaller than my other two), but the kid is constantly gassy and spits up A LOT!!  Part of me feels like it has something to do with the ties...what do you think?

I am contemplating having them laser clipped and have contacted an oral surgeon who is able to do the procedure in his office with local. 

He also has webbed fingers on his left hand...correlation maybe??

[PatioGardener]

My guy had a lip tie, and honestly was much better over-all after it was clipped. Less gas, less spit up. I think it helped his (severe) reflux too.

Good luck!

[SubliminalDarkness]

I wouldn't stress too much about the laser. Even if it's done traditionally, it's still super easy and not invasive(IMO). 

My DS2 was seriously tongue-tied. We had him clipped at 9 days old. And he was STILL tongue-tied(posterior tie as well). He's four now and just last week we had him in to the ENT for outpatient "surgery" to clip the tongue AND his upper lip. His upper lip tie wasn't severe, but it was enough that it could affect his adult teeth. So since the doctor was going to be in his mouth anyway, might as well.

It wasn't even a local anesthetic, they used laughing gas. The whole thing took under four minutes. Easy peasy. He's obviously old enough to tell you if he's hurting or anything, and he never complained. Just ate a lot of popsicles since I was feeling sympathetic. No bleeding, no discomfort, no problems AT ALL. And they cut a LOT under his tongue(about an inch and a half deep into his mouth). 

[treekidsandadog]

Thanks ladies...  I appreciate your help with this...

Patiogardener: how old was your lo when it was done?  I'm partially worried that he may have trouble nursing after it gets done b/c he's had six months to get used to the way he is currently doing it...

[PatioGardener]

My guy was 2 months - so not a newborn. I have never heard of a baby having trouble nursing after (be sure to treat pain appropriately), but I have heard of babies who didn't change how they nursed after.

have you checked out this thread? http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/833815/tongue-and-lip-tie-faq

[treekidsandadog]

Thanks I just gave it a looksey and it has some wondful information in it.

[mommacole]

Hello treekidsandadog,

I am really glad to see awareness about not only tongue tie but also lip tie spreading. As a lactation consultant in private practice I see alot of tongue and lip ties that have often gone missed by other providers. Therefore I will sometimes see babies that are far beyond the newborn stage and I'd say that treating a restricted lip at 6 months will still be very beneficial. Sometimes it does take older babies a little longer to undo their previous nursing patterns. If you are experiencing any issues, it can be helpful to work with someone well versed in post-frenotomy support. It can be very beneficial to stretch the tongue and lip after the release to prevent re-attachment. Here are several tongue/lip tie resources (click and scroll down to tongue tie...hone in on Dr. Kotlow's site for excellent lip tie articles): www.lunalactation.com/Articles.htm

Good luck figuring out the best options for your family!

[treekidsandadog]

mommacole Thanks!!  I do appreciate your input.  I didn't end up nursing my oldest for longer than 6 weeks b/c of lack of support, but my middle child self weaned at 1 year old...I can vividly remember sitting down to nurse him when he was an infant and tensing up b/c of my poor bleeding cracked nipples  it did get better, but was never able to nurse him in any hold other than the football hold. My youngest has a visible tongue tie (heart shaped tip) and until looking on these forums was not aware about lip ties.  Once I learned about them I checked and realized all three of them have an upper lip tie!!!  Which explains the pain and agony of my middle sons first two weeks of our breastfeeding relationship!!  I also realize I had an upper lip tie too (got ripped when I was in an accident at 16 years old) and have a large gap between my teeth!

[treekidsandadog]

So frustrated...went to the dentist on Friday to see if he would clip it and he was completely clueless as to why he would need his lip and/or tongue clipped.  His excuse was some kids just don't have a good latch...I'll be happy to clip it when he's two and a half!!!  What a joke.  I guess I have to keep looking

[SubliminalDarkness]

I'd suggest seeing an ENT. They should be more knowledgeable. Hopefully. A pediatric surgeon is the one who initially clipped my son's tongue tie. 

[Mosaic]

Agreed, go to an ENT. We had DD's posterior tie clipped at 2 weeks, with no anesthesia at all, and she nursed immediately afterwards. Most babies get the hang of nursing right away post-clip, though they told us to give it a couple of weeks to get used to the increased mobility. Unfortunately, in our case the clip alone didn't do the trick, so we followed that up with several weeks of feeding therapy with a speech language pathologist (and are seeing them again due to difficulty introducing solids).

I've never heard of tongue-tie being related to spitting up, but my DD was a spitter as well and we were diagnosed with reflux. Eliminating dairy helped a LOT!