Tongue tie - Exercise after clipped

[nononose]

I'm not sure where to put this.  I have heard that after clipping a tongue tie, there are exercises that should be done to make sure the clip doesn't heal back the way it was.  When I had it clipped, the doctor said nothing was necessary, but I know of people who didn't do the exercises and it grew back.  Unfortunately, they don't know or remember what these exercises are, and I don't know where to find them.  Does anyone have any information on this?  If it matters, DD is 4 weeks old.  TIA.

[Momo123]

I think most of the tongue-tie threads are in breastfeeding challenges so you may get more responses there? My DS had posterior tongue tie and had to be clipped twice. For posterior ties, sometimes it is not necessarily that it grew back but because the first clip reveals more tissue that has to be cut. Anyway, if you are breastfeeding that in itself is using the tongue, but my doctor said to try to get DS to stick his tongue out by having him imitate me but my DS wouldn't do it... Also she said to use a q-tip or a clean finger to sweep underneath the tongue and lift it up towards the roof of the mouth a couple of times a day. I really only did this diligently for about two weeks afterwards. I don't know if these are "standard" exercises and there may be others!

Edited by Momo123 - 6/29/11 at 7:50pm

[nononose]

Thanks!  That should help.  And I'll post under bf challenges too.  I have been sticking my tongue out at her all day - it just felt right!  She hasn't done it back yet, but has been playing with it a lot more than usual.

[Ola_]

We had DD's tongue tie clipped too.  I believe we were to lift it up and also sweep our finger side to side underneath it - both twice a day if I recall correctly.  Oh, and we did it with a finger but they gave us those wooden tongue depressor sticks to use too if we wanted.  This was to be done for 5 or 7 days after, can't quite recall which.  DD moved her tongue around a lot the first few days, like she was enjoying her new range of motion.

[Beauchamp]

DS's tongue was clipped at four days old. I wasn't sure about sweeping beneath the tongue (our doc didn't tell us to do anything) because of the white healing/scab that was under there (it bled a LOT), but I did gently pull his bottom lip down by putting my finger on his chin. This made him open his mouth and lift his tongue himself.

I am praying it doesn't grow back or need to be clipped again. It was scary to see that blood.

[calizacar]

My DS was tongue tied and we had his frenulum cut at 2 days old.  Once he was finally able to latch the nursing seemed to help keep it from reattaching.  Here's a blog I found about tongue ties and exercises that can be done to help.  Although your baby isn't 8 years old like this boy, maybe it will give you some ideas.  My DS is just over a year now and still no signs of reattaching so I think we're good.  It will be interesting to see how it is when he starts talking.  Hopefully, there won't be a problem.

http://blog.nurturedchild.ca/index.php/2011/05/19/my-8-year-olds-tongue-tie/

[nononose]

Thanks for all the replies.  So far so good!

[mishstern]

My 23 week old baby had his posterior tongue tie clipped at 20 weeks but it was still so painful to nurse after 4 days  , particularly on one (left) breast, that I called the ENT consultant and she said there may be more to do. We had a 2nd clip the next week but 2 weeks later I'm in agony again. We weren't given any exercises so I'm tempted to try something if I can before putting him through yet another clipping as I think there is more to cut but I believe you can stretch it in some cases...

---

mother to Elli 2years 2months BF for 1 year (probably has tongue tie)  and Benji 23 weeks still BF painfully 

[PatioGardener]

Here is a good info sheet from a breastfeeding clinic in Canada.