Tongue-Tied..........

[suzy100]

i think Maisy has a condition called 'tongue-tied'
apparently, it affects about 5% of new-borns
Maisy cant put the end of her tongue past her gum line and when she tries, her tongue forms a heart shape as if it is attached underneath at the front.
i have researched it a little bit and there seems to be a little controversy over ways to treat.
some just snip it without anesthetic before it affects speech, others wait till about 4 because it could stretch on its own.
i really dont want to speak to gp about it in case it gets taken out of my hands.
we have always thought it looked attached from a tiny baby and now i think it defo is.
she is talking quite well and has a lot of sound variations, la, da,mu etc.
just wondered if anyone has any hands on knowledge of this, any advice please

 

[mum2A&L]

i don't have advise, but your child's treatment is in your hands. If you go to your gp, and make it clear that you are just after info, and you will need time to decide, then im sure they will respect that choice.

If you wanted to wait, but didn't want to effect their ability to communicate, you could always try sign language


sorry, not been much help.

 

[suzy100]

thanks but dont need sign language, she is talking perfectly well, pronouncing lots of sounds and words.
just really wondered if anyone had any personal experience with this condition and how it was dealt with.
thanks for your reply though

 

[mary70]

how old is she hun? maybe she just needs some exercises from a speech therapist to help the skin stretch

 

[newmum]

does she have any trouble drinking or feeding? My friend's baby was tongue tied and she had the operation when she was quite small. SHe had trouble feeding and had to bottle feed because of that.
I will ask her about it for you (through facebook so might take a couple of days )

 

[sazzylou]

havent really got any advice, sorry, but i did have an experience with this...


When Izzie was born the MW's noticed she was tongue tied while we were still in hospital. We had to go back and see the breast feeding consultant who recommended we had it snipped. It took about 2 minutes!

I was a bit worried after reading that they cut it with scissors I was thinking, "bloody hell this is gonna hurt" but apparently there were no nerves or anything in it, so she didnt feel a thing. I was bracing myself for her to start screaming when they cut it, but nothing, it was great. She got a little bit grizzly but that was only because the MW was holding her head still The no anesthetic thing was fine, she wouldnt have neded any anyway!

While we were at the hospital we started chatting to another lady whose daughter was tongue toed, but her baby was about 18 months old and was quite happily babbling away, so she had never felt the need to have it done.... We mainly had it done to help with the feeding, the speech thing wasnt really an issue.

Like i said, no advice, sorry, just thought id share what we did with you, sont know if it will be any help though

 

[smile]

http://www.pregnancyforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=78055

 

[suzy100]

Thanks for all your replies, Maisy will be 1 on June 7th.
I chose to bottle-feed so never had any problems there (wasnt a reason why i couldnt breast feed, just didnt want to)
She doesnt have any speech problems as of yet either, babbles away like anything..........has a large variation of words.

 

[Full of hope!]

I was born with a tongue tie! My mam couldn't breast feed me as I couldn't latch on because of it but the doctors said it wasn't bad enough to do anything about when I was little. It didn't effect my speech at all and it was just normal to me. The only thing I couldn't do was sick my tongue out

Anyway when I was 19 I had to have a small operation on my mouth, the consultant noticed I had a tongue tie and asked me if I wanted it cut. After thinking about it I agreed. So it was done and now I can stick my tounge out That's the only difference having it cut made! It was quite sore and uncomfortable after the operation though but it only lasted a few days.

I would maybe see how Maisy goes and if it starts to effect her speech see your GP then. I lived with mine for 19 years and I was fine. Hope that helps

 

[andreag]

My OH is and it has never affected him. He is also a speech therapist so I will check from that point of view and get back to you!

 

[daddychris]

Hi I'm AndreaG's OH. I have a tongue tie and it has never affected me. Yes I can't stick my tongue out much further than my teeth and like your daughter when I do it forms a heart shape. From a professional point of view (Speech and Language Therapist), if a child is able to say "d" and "t" sounds, this is the furthest that you have to move your tongue forward when producing sounds. So if she can say these sounds there is little to worry about. It sounds like she has a really good range of babbling so it doesn't sound like it is causing a problem.
The only time tongue ties cause a problem are with very little children who may have the tie occluding their airway or it may cause a problem with feeding totally, but I am not sure why it would cause a problem with latching on in breastfeeding (will look into that one). JUst be aware that it may be a little harder to reach food that may get stuck between teeth, so look out for those bits of lettuce that get stuck!!!!!
Hope that is ok.

 

[suzy100]

thank you so much for all of your advice and help.........especially daddychris.
it is very reassuring to hear that from a professional point of view.
i will leave things as they are for the time being and stop worrying about it.
Many thanks again

 

[suzy100]

Just to let you know, maisy had her jabs yesterday so popped her in to see GP at same time about her tongue. She confirmed what i already knew and has now referred us to see a peadiatrician.
Will let you know how it turns out..............

 

[EllieG]

I only just saw this post sorry! Freya was tongue tied at birth, it was a profound tongue tie (the paediatrician said 100%) her tongue was a permenant heart shape. We were breastfeeding, and it was going fairly well although she was windy and her weight gain was a little slow. We had her tongue released on recommendation, the doctor even took a photo as he said it was so severe. The 'op' if you can call it that was so fast, she did cry but more because she was restricted so she didnt move during the procedure. They did it in a separate room and brought her back into me (my sister went with her and they told me to prepare to feed her), seconds later, she came back in and fed. Breastfeeding actually went down hill from there, but I think it was only because she needed to re learn how to latch, but I wanted her to have it done for simple things really, like being able to stick her tongue out and lick a lolly etc. Maybe if it hadnt been so severe I might have made a different decision, I was tongue tied but my tongue is fine now, I often wonder if I would have fed her myself for longer if it hadnt been released. You must do what is right for the both of you, the docs cant do anything without your consent. Good luck.

 

[Gem & Leland]

id never even herd of this ! im gonna have to check leland properly tomorrow now because ive always thought his tongue was just small cos he cant 'stick' it out as suck , and the lil bit underneth is really near end , i just laughed and thought he wont get that pierced when his older

could this of been one of the main reason breast feeding failed , ill be gutted if something was causing him to not being able to latch

his the only pic of him with his mouth fully open , what u think ?

 

[maria1976]

Aww bless that weeone what a cutie!! Ruby was slightly tongue tied so the midwife told me when she came to visit after the birth, but it seems to have gone of its own accord, not that i ever noticed it!!
Maybe ask the health visitor to have a look g3m next time she comes to put your mind at rest x

 

[Gem & Leland]

i feel stupid lol i suppose everyone was always worrying about everything else with him , i dont think anyone looked in his mouth

sorry for hijacking ! but thanks for raising the awareness of this for others !

 

[suzy100]

hard to tell from the pic really but going form that and what you have said, it certainly looks likely. have a look if he will let you.
Does the end of his tongue, the centre part, stay in so making it look like a heart shape?

 

[suzy100]

maisy had her appointment, she is doin fine in the 3 key things they look for, speech, teeth growth and feeding.
because of her age, if i wanted it cut, she would have to have a general anesthetic so thats it for now. im not putting her through that just so she can lick a lolly!!
she is going to be reviewed again in 6 months just to check her speech but im going to leave it at that.