How do you tell if tongue tied?

[emmabizo]

How do you tell if your baby is tongue tied?

I don't think either me or my husband is.

[turtlewomyn]

I don't believe either my DH or I were tongue tied either (neither one of us was nursed as babies ) but my mom remembers getting something clipped when she got her dentures (at an early age) so she might have been tongue tied (but was breastfed I believe). We figured out that my DD was tongue tied because 1. nursing was horrifically painful and my nipples became damaged very quickly, 2. Her tongue was heart shaped when she cried. 3. My supply was in trouble, she had low weight gain, and the ped wanted me to supplement (but told me tongue tied did not affect bfing, yeah right).
Dr. Sears kind of outlines the tell tale signs in the baby book. I had a hard time finding someone who would just clip it though without wanting to put her under GA in the hospital. Then i found this doctor: http://twofloridadocs.com She has an article on tongue tie on her website that you might find informative.

[emmabizo]

Hmmm...

Well, if he is tongue tied I don't think it is very tight. The end of his tongue is heart-shaped when he sticks it out -but just barely. A little cleft at the end. Neither of my other children has it. I don't really have sore nipples now too much unless he's nursing a long time. BUT, he does tend to crease them even if he's latched well. -And lately I've been noticing he makes clicking sounds occasionally and I have to try and re latch him. -like he's loosing suction. His tongue can move past his gumline -at least a little -it's hard to tell in an infant.

Hmmm...did it make a big difference for you?

[Nan'sMom]

Anterior is easy because there's a heart-shaped tip and they can't extend their tongues out. Posterior is harder and is often misdiagnosed, especially by peds. Do you know an LC who's familiar with it? What issues are you having?

[Sheal]

tongue tie

also called a frenelum tightness.

I am a "specialist" at this as 4 out of the 5 kidlets are tongue tied. The classic tongue tie (that little bit of skin under the tongue, looks white and like a piece of fatty ligament like on what you see on pork meat or chicken) is about half to 3\4 up the bottom of the tongue. The baby may not be able to lift the tongue to the roof of the mouth and it will appear "tightened" as baby tries to lift their tongue.

The rare occurance of heart shape tongue tie (my youngest daughter has this) is literally heart shaped and hold the tongue down in place, tongue clearance is minimal (ability to lift the tongue to roof of mouth) and it's even difficult to bottle feed a baby with this type of tongue tie.

Best way to deal with tongue tied babies is to clip the frenelum (ask for a ped or doc that has experience, if they don't they refuse to do it). There is minimal to no bleeding and doesn't hurt at all.

Sheal