[BubbaMama]

My 9 month old DS saw a pediatric dentist and he has a moderate lip tie and a class II posterior tongue tie. Dentist said the lip tie can wait till his adult teeth come in to reevaluate and that the tongue tie isn't severe enough to cut. I'm not sure I agree, here are the issues/concerns I am facing:

DS is breastfed, latch is okay but could stand to some improvement now that teeth are coming in - likely will be nursing for many more years. Weight gain has been excessive, now leveling off since he's crawling. He's about 22 lbs. All in all his latch is currently better than my DD's ever was and she was able to nurse till two (pregnancy wean).

DS seems to gag a lot on solids (we do BLW), he'll push food around a lot and has trouble getting out of the back of his throat, will also hold on to a piece and chew it like gum.

DS had or has now all the gut issues associated with TT (reflux, wheezing, snoring, milk protein sensitive, gluten sensitive, possibly eggs too. Getting rid of the sensitive foods help the reflux and wheezing, snot dried up too). I'm concerned about healing his gut.

DS has a lower palette, not high as expected, there is a ridge down the middle too.

I worry about speech issues in the future, dentist said to have him evaluated for speech at three.

I am hesitant to push to have my child cut but it just seems with everything I read it would do nothing but benefit him. I realize it won't be an immediate fix as he's 9 months and we'd need to do some CST with him (chiro already keeps up with this as is). What do you mommies think, would you snip him? Any experience out there of those that had a class II tie, did you doc jump to say snip right away or is it standard that class II are left alone?

Thanks in advance.

 

[katec67]

My DD had a class 4 TT, so not the same situation. I would probably do the clipping because of the other things you mentioned. TT is relevant to so many other situations than just proper latch.

Can you get a second opinion? Where are you? Does your chiropractor do any TT work?

 

[BubbaMama]

I'm in upper IL. DS has his 9 month physical in a couple of weeks so I was going to have the ped look at it too. I also have a name of an ENT that I could use. So, not necessarily a shortage of docs, just not sure if I should do it at all.

DS hasn't been to the chiro in a bit and I haven't inquired about TT work, didn't know she could do that, actually. I've always known about the lip tie (DD had it too) but the TT is a new thing to us, I only thought to check on it due to reading more on the subject and a light bulb went off as he's so stereotypical for it. Sure enough, he's tied. What kind of work would the chiro do with the TT? She has worked with his palette before, not tongue though.

 

[ewe+lamb]

Certainly with a type 2 tt I would clip, in fact I would for all tts, but then that's me, speech and dental problems can be avoided if it's done sooner than later, if it's done later on in life then the muscle has had longer to get into a habit that then is difficult to break and speech therapy may still be required.

 

[homemademom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewe+lamb

Certainly with a type 2 tt I would clip, in fact I would for all tts, but then that's me, speech and dental problems can be avoided if it's done sooner than later, if it's done later on in life then the muscle has had longer to get into a habit that then is difficult to break and speech therapy may still be required.

I agree. In fact, with the gastro, respiratory and reflux problems, I would definitely snip because they can be caused and/or exacerbated by tongue tie. This presentation (click on link "breastfeeding and frenulums) talks about tongue ties and the problems they cause. Not being able to swallow properly and move food properly can lead to a whole lot of seemingly unrelated issues. The whole presentation is really interesting, but be warned that he shows a picture of a cadaver baby to show the structures of the mouth. If you don't want to see it, just scroll through quickly to the end where the case studies are.

ETA: Edited to fix link.

 

[ewe+lamb]

homemademom your link didn't work

can you post it again? thanks

- ewe+lamb

 

[BubbaMama]

Thanks for the replies. Homemademom, my LLL leader sent me that presentation over the weekend, very interesting. I think I am going to ask to get it clipped. What are your thoughts on the lip tie, not a problem since latch is okay?

 

[homemademom]

I just posted about this, funny enough. Here's a link to the thread: http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1314655/upper-lip-tie-to-snip-or-not I would snip it, too (well, we had our ds's treated by laser, so no bleeding and clean healing).