Hi everyone:
I have been meaning to do this for awhile. We had a very dramatic experience with tongue tie and I hope our story can help other mamas dealing with this problem.
My baby Beatrice had a tongue tie and we got it clipped. It was in the 4th position, all the way back & not very visible. We didn't even run into trouble until week 3, when things got bad--she couldn't eat & started to lose weight.
Here's what happened. From birth, her latch was strong but somewhat painful. I thought it was just sensitive nipples and I was going through Lansinoh like crazy.
Around 3 weeks, she had a very fussy day. We chalked it up to a growth spurt. However, the next morning I woke up with severe engorgement. Of course, I was obsessively reading Kellymom, and thought that I had an oversupply problem. My husband called about 7 LCs, all of whom said it sounded like oversupply. We began block feeding and pumping off the top. Things got worse.
That day and night were a nightmare. Beatrice could not latch on and began to fuss at the breast to the point where she was becoming furious with me. I was despondent because I could not feed her. She was also becoming lethargic, and she had been such an alert baby from birth. She stopped having poo diapers and her pee became dark and concentrated. I was as low as I have ever been in my life.
The next day we got into see a lactation consultant. We spent 2 1/2 hours there. She said it was tongue tie, not oversupply. After a few rounds of feeding and weighing showed that she was getting nothing from me, I pumped and my husband bottlefed Beatrice, which brought her back from lethargy. I was able to breastfeed her for the next five days, when we had our appointment to get the tongue tie clipped.
The LC (Cathy Watson-Genna) who diagnosed the tongue tie and the doctor who clipped her (Dr. Elizabeth Coryllos) are experts on tongue tie. They told us that a tongue tie can prevent the baby's tongue from properly shaping the upper palate--which is one of the secondary purposes of nursing.
Talking with both of them led me to realize that my brother & I both have a type 4 tongue tie that went unclipped, and we both had problems beyond infancy. I nursed for 9 months but still have a very high palate. I have swallowing issues--my throat won't close all the way and a drop of saliva or whatever will go down the wrong pipe and I'll have a coughing fit. I always thought I was just a dork, but Dr. Coryllos has the same thing & says that I should go to an oral surgeon and get mine clipped because it will get worse as I age.
My brother nursed for only 3 months before my mom gave up. Before he could get braces, he had to have his upper palate spread. Basically the orthodontist put a bar across the roof of his mouth, and twice a day my mom would turn a key to widen the bar. It was very painful for him, and he had to endure it for quite some time.
Dr. Coryllos told us that because tongue tie is only a problem for breastfeeding, in the mid-20th century tongue tie was removed from pediatrics textbooks! This is remarkable because tongue tie is the first recorded surgical procedure in history, mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings. So even pro-breastfeeding pediatricians might not know about tongue tie, or be aware of the ramifications down the road for untreated tongue tie.
The procedure itself was simple, but it was not painless. A Type 4 is all the way in the back of the mouth so it is hard to get to, and the tissue is a bit thicker. Bea needed to be held down, and there was some blood. She was on infant Tylenol for 24 hours. However, her latch was immediately different, and she began sticking out her tongue--we had not seen her do that before. We are so thankful that we got her tongue tie clipped. I believe we would have abandoned breastfeeding otherwise. It is now so easy and painless that sometimes I don't even know that she's popped off and fallen asleep.
I have been meaning to do this for awhile. We had a very dramatic experience with tongue tie and I hope our story can help other mamas dealing with this problem.
My baby Beatrice had a tongue tie and we got it clipped. It was in the 4th position, all the way back & not very visible. We didn't even run into trouble until week 3, when things got bad--she couldn't eat & started to lose weight.
Here's what happened. From birth, her latch was strong but somewhat painful. I thought it was just sensitive nipples and I was going through Lansinoh like crazy.
Around 3 weeks, she had a very fussy day. We chalked it up to a growth spurt. However, the next morning I woke up with severe engorgement. Of course, I was obsessively reading Kellymom, and thought that I had an oversupply problem. My husband called about 7 LCs, all of whom said it sounded like oversupply. We began block feeding and pumping off the top. Things got worse.
That day and night were a nightmare. Beatrice could not latch on and began to fuss at the breast to the point where she was becoming furious with me. I was despondent because I could not feed her. She was also becoming lethargic, and she had been such an alert baby from birth. She stopped having poo diapers and her pee became dark and concentrated. I was as low as I have ever been in my life.
The next day we got into see a lactation consultant. We spent 2 1/2 hours there. She said it was tongue tie, not oversupply. After a few rounds of feeding and weighing showed that she was getting nothing from me, I pumped and my husband bottlefed Beatrice, which brought her back from lethargy. I was able to breastfeed her for the next five days, when we had our appointment to get the tongue tie clipped.
The LC (Cathy Watson-Genna) who diagnosed the tongue tie and the doctor who clipped her (Dr. Elizabeth Coryllos) are experts on tongue tie. They told us that a tongue tie can prevent the baby's tongue from properly shaping the upper palate--which is one of the secondary purposes of nursing.
Talking with both of them led me to realize that my brother & I both have a type 4 tongue tie that went unclipped, and we both had problems beyond infancy. I nursed for 9 months but still have a very high palate. I have swallowing issues--my throat won't close all the way and a drop of saliva or whatever will go down the wrong pipe and I'll have a coughing fit. I always thought I was just a dork, but Dr. Coryllos has the same thing & says that I should go to an oral surgeon and get mine clipped because it will get worse as I age.
My brother nursed for only 3 months before my mom gave up. Before he could get braces, he had to have his upper palate spread. Basically the orthodontist put a bar across the roof of his mouth, and twice a day my mom would turn a key to widen the bar. It was very painful for him, and he had to endure it for quite some time.
Dr. Coryllos told us that because tongue tie is only a problem for breastfeeding, in the mid-20th century tongue tie was removed from pediatrics textbooks! This is remarkable because tongue tie is the first recorded surgical procedure in history, mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings. So even pro-breastfeeding pediatricians might not know about tongue tie, or be aware of the ramifications down the road for untreated tongue tie.
The procedure itself was simple, but it was not painless. A Type 4 is all the way in the back of the mouth so it is hard to get to, and the tissue is a bit thicker. Bea needed to be held down, and there was some blood. She was on infant Tylenol for 24 hours. However, her latch was immediately different, and she began sticking out her tongue--we had not seen her do that before. We are so thankful that we got her tongue tie clipped. I believe we would have abandoned breastfeeding otherwise. It is now so easy and painless that sometimes I don't even know that she's popped off and fallen asleep.
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) but I just saw this sticky and wanted to add our care providers to the list. These are for the D.C. area:
