Let’s talk tongues. Actually…let’s talk tongues and oral tissue and periodontal procedures.
WARNING: IF MOUTHS, TONGUES, ORAL PROCEDURES GROSS YOU THE HECK OUT…this is not the post for you. Back away from the laptop.
This post is more for those moms out there that might benefit from a recap of our experience with tongue ties, lip ties and frenectomy options. I FULLY encourage you to remember that every child is different and has different needs and that your DOCTOR, DENTIST, and PERIODONTIST is the educated expert in these fields…not me. I am only an expert in one thing…my kids. I do not make any recommendations for anyone else out there.
Ok, now that the full disclaimer is out there…let me tell ya our story. First of all, Jeremy has a tongue tie. He never had it clipped and as an adult, it does not affect him other than he looks hilarious trying to lick an ice cream cone. But that has never stopped him from pulling into a Bruster’s 🙂 His tongue extends to his lips but other than that, it doesn’t really go much further and even at that extension, it shows the classic ‘heart shaped’ on the end associated with tongue ties. If he talked on the phone or at a meeting for extensive periods of time, he does start to slur certain letter sounds but that is so rare (like maybe three or four times in the last ten years) that I would say that it really doesn’t affect him negatively.
Well, when I had Will, I had a really hard experience with breastfeeding. To say that it was the most challenging year of my life is a complete understatement. It was excruciating and I asked two different doctors (and a couple different lactation consultants) if the pain was from Will being tongue tied. They all checked his mouth and said no…he was not. I, being a first time mom, completely trusted my doctors and lactation consultants and just stuck my breastfeeding flag further in the ground, determined to continue and dead set on the fact that whether or not he was or wasn’t, this was our journey and I was gonna keep on going. I blogged about that experience and how it changed me…my heart…and my thoughts on motherhood here.
Well, over the course of that first year with Will, we continued and I just figured that he would rather put things into his mouth rather than put the tongue all the way out. I labeled it ‘the short tongue’. I didn’t really give it much more thought…because after all, the breastfeeding (although worse pain than tearing my ACL) was our mountain to conquer.
I went through all my photos of Will to show you every single one that he had his tongue out. This is it.
We had weight gain issues with him at one point (which in hindsight was probably due to the fact that it was hard for him to nurse effectively) where he went from being in the 90th percentile to the 27th percentile in six months but our pediatrician was a huge breastfeeding cheerleader and she told us outright…he was a giant swollen baby and he will probably be a slim child genetically speaking (both Jer and I were on the skinny side) and that he didn’t appear unhappy or hungry. When he started solid foods at six months, his weight growth curve did even out and there wasn’t anything else we worried about nutrition wise.
As far as the rest of Will’s mouth, it was perfectly normal other than some slightly protruding front teeth. His front two teeth slightly stuck out due to his paci. OH THE PACI. He loved that thing. It was the same exact one that he got in the hospital and it was the only one that he would use. Both boys have chosen paci’s and stuck with them…much to our chagrin. Jeremy and I learned that the paci was the most important thing in our possession…besides Will. At two years old, we did wean him off it (that’s hopefully what we will do with Weston too) and his teeth became much straighter so there was a sense of no-harm-no-foul with it.
At 17 months, this is Will….with the only shot I have of him fully sticking out his tongue. ever. the only photo ever. And note the open mouth…it’s much shorter otherwise.
And this is him now trying to lift his tongue as high as it can go. This is a stage III tongue tie….which is the most difficult stage to identify because it does allow for some mobility and it appears normal to some physicians (which is why his was not diagnosed until much later).
So the question is…why didn’t we just have it clipped when he was an infant?
Well…because the doctors told us that he wasn’t tongue tied. And because as he grew, the need diminished. Afterall…Jeremy didn’t and he is a perfect example to us that it didn’t affect him, his ability for speech development, etc. Plus, once we realized that he was tongue tied, we were done with breastfeeding. It had become a non-issue.
Here is the other way that this genetic gift can affect someone….in the form of a lip tie. A lip tie is when there is tissue that attaches from the upper lip down to either the gums or the palate. Depending on the thickness of the tissue, it can be a trial in of itself. The location of where it attaches determines what class it is. Will’s lip tie is a class III which means that it attaches just in front of the anterior papilla. As an infant, it did not seem to affect his teeth, the ability to brush them and our dentist said that they look fine.
Of course, this was something we had NOT A CLUE about when we had Will and all his breastfeeding issues…so it wasn’t even on our radar. Jeremy does not have a lip tie but it isn’t uncommon for someone to be both tongue tied and have a lip tie. (as you can see below, Will does have accidents and sometimes gets small cuts on his lip tie but he doesn’t complain about them and they are really really rare).
So now that you kinda know what our experience is with Will and with Jeremy (we didn’t do anything!), let’s move on to Mr. Munchie 🙂
From birth I knew that Weston was very different. Afterall there was a whole lot of this in the first 24 hours of his life…
Breastfeeding FELT different and our breastfeeding relationship (although it only last 10.5 months) was a much easier and happier time. I knew that there was a difference physically and that the hard times that Will and I endured with breastfeeding had to be due to something more than just inexperience. Honestly speaking…if I had Weston first, I probably would known instantly that Will was tongue tied and had it clipped within minutes because I would have known that the pain I was feeling wasn’t just in my head or an exaggeration. With Weston I had true ‘transitional discomfort’. With Will I felt like I had a fire-breathing dragon on my nipples. I’d like to be clear that I do believe I went through that experience with Will for a reason and that he was just as much of a victim as I was in that scenario…if not more. Poor guy. He was just hungry 🙁 So in general, I would love to encourage anyone out there that is dealing with this kinda pain that nobody can make the right decisions for you and your little one like you. Trust your gut mamas and don’t let others shame ya if your journey is different than theirs.
The thing about having one kid with ‘a short tongue’ and a painful nursing journey was that it made me double check Weston’s mouth…all the time. I knew more. I was better educated on the ramifications of a tongue tie and what it could mean. I knew that an oral frenulum also could be lip ties and that it could affect the child later when their teeth came in.
So here’s where it gets emotional for me to talk about….
we knew that Weston had a lip tie since birth but it didn’t ever seem to affect his ability to latch correctly or nurse effectively. In fact, for the first eight months of his life, we didn’t pay much attention to it. But then he started to walk. He was such an early walker and we figured that it was just a blessing in disguise because we found out we were expecting LJ and it would be really quite hard to have a newborn and a new-to-walking-toddler. The hardest part about him walking was that he would fall and when he did, it seemed like he would always be bleeding from his mouth. I started to notice that he was frequently busting the lip tie or the gums very close to it….even though he didn’t have all his teeth. About that time, I started keeping a notepad where I would write down why he was bleeding (from a fall, brushing teeth, from sticking his fingers in his mouth, for no reason at all!, etc.) and realized that it was happening about once a week and becoming more and more frequent.
On top of the bleeding, his front two teeth were becoming increasingly more difficult to brush (especially since I didn’t want to cause him to bleed!) and even though he hadn’t been to a dentist yet, I knew exactly what they would say.
At his one year appointment, we switched pediatricians and the new doctor mentioned that we should definitely have a dentist or periodontist look at his mouth. I started googling around trying to read a little more on lip ties because my limited experience was definitely not enough.
Then at Christmas time, we were visiting Jeremy’s folks and were at church and I was walking behind Weston in a hallway. He turned around and there was just blood all over his face, down his chin and neck and onto his clothes. He didn’t fall, he was just walking along…and it busted open. It was really the last straw for me and I knew that this wasn’t normal…that we needed to talk to an expert about it pronto.
After reading numerous accounts of moms and their little ones, Jeremy and I decided that we should take him to a periodontist and hear what they recommended and that if it meant having a procedure, that we would opt for it to be done as soon as possible, clipped via laser and under no circumstances did we want him to be put under. If they couldn’t do those things…we would find someone who could.
I started doing the homework and found one periodontist in Atlanta that would consider doing this procedure on a one year old. We used Dr. Nancy Mclaurin of Atlanta Periodontics. Most of the time, a lip tie is ‘fixed’ by other methods….a scalpel and sutures, waiting until their permanent teeth are in, or putting the child under general anesthesia. I understand all the reasons behind those methods but I just weighed the benefits and disadvantages and knew what I wanted for my kid.
We made our appointment and on the day of the assessment, the periodontist came into the waiting room…took one look at his mouth and said, this lip tie will absolutely need to be taken care of before the age of 8. I asked her what she recommended…and she said that because it was at least a class III, most likely a class IV (at the time she couldn’t see because he didn’t want to open his mouth), that it would not resolve on it’s own (like Will’s and she applauded us for waiting for him because that is what she did with her own son’s tongue tie). And then she said that if we were to choose to take care of it sooner than later, it would be much less painful now and have a quicker recovery time.
I called Jeremy and he and I both said instantly that we wanted it done as soon as possible.
The procedure itself was about two minutes long. I walked him in to the back room, handed over his lovie, his remote control (don’t ask), his light up Spiderman toy, and his playstation controller (again…don’t ask)….and they told me that it would be painless but he would definitely cry because they would have to hold his head still and his mouth open. They said that it would probably be best if I left the room and on the way out, I snapped this photo. It was very comforting knowing that someone would be holding him…that’s something that nobody mentioned in the other accounts I read and even though I knew they would be restraining him, it seemed like the safest way to do this procedure with a little one.
The laser itself is about the size of a pen…so they get very very close to the tie itself. And our periodontist first put on numbing cream which apparently tastes awful and my little guy hated it. I asked the periodontist to call out what she was doing… “NUMBING CREAM!” and then “REVISING!” and “ALL DONE!”…it was nice to hear that over his cries and it seemed like it was over really fast. About two minutes after I left the room, they carried him back out into the hall where I was waiting and they said that he could have any comfort item or if I was still nursing that he could breastfeed. I gave him his sippy cup of almond milk and noticed just a tiny bit of blood on his lip but it was nothing compared to when he falls and bleeds.
They gave me a list of instructions on how to stretch the lip and rub the ‘wound’ ten times three times a day so that it doesn’t heal back together. That is the worst part about the entire experience. Here’s a photo of me stretching it up…you can see he is not a fan…
Other than that, there were no further instructions. I asked if it would help if he had Orajel put on it and she said that if he looked like he was in a lot of discomfort that it couldn’t hurt. She also said that with her older patients that she recommended swishing their mouths with salt water. I said that I could possibly use saline spray (like the kind you get for their noses) and spray it a little each day and she said that would probably be the best aid in healing. Other than that, he could drink and eat anything immediately and a little bit of infant Tylenol that evening would help with any discomfort from food or the sippy cup on the wound.
The next day I noticed that it was already much easier on him and that some of the rawness was healing.
Here it is after five days…(sorry about the messy breakfast face)…
And here it is after one week. You can see there is barely anything else left to heal near the teeth and we resumed our normal brushing routine…
I asked about the little bit of tissue that is left under his front two teeth and that should stretch out to form a normal gum line in the back as he grows. We just have to watch it and make sure to keep it flossed and clean.
Overall, I am SO SO SO glad we did it. We did have to pay out of pocket for the procedure because it is not considered a health risk or covered under our dental insurance but it was well worth the money not to see my little guy bleed nearly every day. And now it seems as if he is much happier too. He is trying new foods (like crunchy stuff that he would have to bite was always avoided by him before but now it’s like a whole new world), he actually doesn’t cry whenever I brush his teeth, and I am noticing with photos that his two front teeth are coming slightly closer together even in just a weeks time. A lip tie can cause a gap in between those two front teeth so that is just an added perk.
In the end, it is definitely not a one-cure-fits-all type of decision. This absolutely needs to be a decision made by you and your team of physicians…but personally speaking, we have two boys with two very positive outcomes with two very different roads traveled. I think that the hardest part was stepping back and asking ourselves “is this going to get better with time? or worse?” and in the end, our theory in parenting decisions is that we want to choose things to benefit the boys in the future. One just required more patience and the other required more research….but with both boys, as we choose to forego a frenectomy and choose to get one, we feel like we cleared one more parenting hurdle and are very happy with the results.
Wow, what a journey. I didn’t know about any of this. Thanks for sharing the info. Cheers
BRUSTER’S!!!! Do they have those in the South too or is that a nod to Pittsburgh area? Need to get some next time I’m home…
My heart goes out to you as a mama! Totally a different procedure, but I just shared about my 2 year old’s adenoidectomy. I can relate to making decisions like these for your kids and the difficulty of handing them over to someone and leaving them to have a procedure done. I’m so glad that things are going well for little Weston now!
Thanks to this post I just realized I was lip-tied as a kid. Ha! I remember having that piece of tissue removed when I was about 5 or 6. And back then there wasn’t a laser option. Mine would get very infected. They had to cut it out; small incision, lots of pulling. I had gauze stuffed in my top lip for the rest of the day, and wasn’t allowed to eat or drink for hours. I called my mom and asked, and while she remembers the procedure, she doesn’t remember why. But she didn’t speak the language very well, so who knows. =)
Poor little guy. So glad you got that resolved for him. How stressful for you both. I had a lip tie clipped at 13, and was nervous enough. They clipped and then took a skin graft from the roof of my mouth to place over it. That procedure along with 2 years of braces solved my huge front gap.
I had one of these and I had it clipped when I was about 27 – let me tell you that it HURT! Even with the laser, I had to have a couple of tiny stitches. Wish my parents had known to do it when I was 8 months old!! Good work!
Your boys are so lucky to have such great parents. Glad everyone is doing well now.
Wow! Thanks for putting all this information out there. It’s not something I need now, but I know that there have been very few first person accounts of all this, so it’s awesome that you have published it for other people to refer to in the future.
Glad Weston is doing better!
YAY! That’s awesome Katie. And I think you’ve inspired me to finally get our daughter’s suspected lip tie looked at. It doesn’t cause pain when nursing but she turns her top lip under at the breast instead of flaring it out, and it has caused her some weight gain stalls. I’ve given myself a mental block about it, and it’s time to get over it and get er done.
Oh what a little sweetie 🙂 If parenting was like girl scouts you would get a really great badge for this one!
This post couldn’t have come at a better time. I was putting my girls to bed last night and my 4 year old ( tongue tied) was upset because she can’t stick her tongue up her nose like her 8 year old sister (who is lip tied with a small gap and very proud of her tongue to nose ability lol). We haven’t had either corrected due to research and the advise of our pediatrician but it still weighs heavily on me. Just reading about the decisions you have made has put me at ease with ours. I told my little one that not every girl gets a heart shaped tongue!
You guys are great, and your blog always makes me smile. Will and Weston are lucky guys. 🙂
Katie,
Thank you so much for sharing this post! For the past year I’ve been trying to figure out what “extra tissue” I overheard the postpartum nurse talking about after my daughter was born. After reading your story I had an aha! moment and scheduled my daughter’s first pediatric dentist appointment for next week.
I have always thought that my daughter has a lot of tissue between her upper two front teeth and this totally explains her cute gap. She turns 1 yr next week and looking back, a tongue tie like Will which would also explain our complete frustration and inability to breast feed. Poor baby was starving her first four days of life and lost 14% of her birth weight. I began pumping furiously and we supplemented with formula until she reached a healthy weight. I wish that the nursing staff and lactation consultants were better educated in these areas.
Thanks again for sharing, you’re experience as a mom has encouraged me.
Blessings,
Amber
I always wondered what a tongue/lip tie was and you managed to get great pics! I really really liked this post. I think you guys are such great parents and I’m glad to see that you took initiative and did you what you think is best for your child 🙂 Good job momma
Just yesterday, my 18 month old was squirming out of my arms and when I put him in the highchair noticed blood all over my hands and finally tracked it to his mouth. It came from the same lip spot as Weston’s. Although my son’s isn’t extremely noticeable, it’s probably something I’ll ask the doctor about that I most likely wouldn’t have thought about otherwise if it weren’t for this post since this kind of thing doesn’t usually come up in regular conversation. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU, for publishing this story. The more people hear about the struggles caused by ties, the better.
Both of my daughters had ties. My oldest I had such a hard time breastfeeding and had to resort to exclusively pumping for 15 months because of all of the issues (mastitis, yeast, excruciating latch). When I found out I was pregnant with DD2, then I resolved to make breastfeeding work. When it came down to it, it pushed through the pain, the constant feedings, the colic, the mastitis/clogged ducts, the engorgement. I saw several LCs, attended LLL meetings, meet with my midwives and my ped and they all said I just needed to get a better latch. It wasn’t until her 9 month well baby visit where I got concerned. Between 6 and 9 months, she gained nothing. Ped said just to keep an eye on it and do a weight check in a month. It wasn’t good enough for me. I spend the entire day researching causes of slow weight gain.
Then I saw it. The Gap. Her adorable gapped tooth grin was THE BIGGEST SIGN of her lip tie, and then all of the other seemingly unrelated issues were listed as symptoms, including the trademark clicking noise and the gagging/solid food aversions. The weight on my shoulders lightened considerably, but then the guilt started. The colic because of the gas and because she was hungry. She was crying because she was hungry even though she just spend the past 40 minutes nursing. I felt like the medical community failed me, but I was determined to make it work.
I drove 2 hours to the nearest pediatric dentist that did frenectomies by laser, had a consult and was confirmed that she had a class IV lip tie and a posterior tongue tie. The procedure was quick and easy and she nursed immediately. The stretches were hell and recovery for the first day or two made me wonder if I did the right thing.
In 3 weeks, she had gained closed to a pound, and she was back on the growth chart by 10 months. She is a picky eater, but no longer gags when eating solid foods.
Her older sister? I found hers after DD2 had her revision and learned that it is likely genetic. She has either a class III or II lip tie that we have to watch. Its very likely that is the reason we had so many problems getting started with breastfeeding. She has a great vocabulary and speaks well for a 3 year old, she’s not showing any complications from her lip tie, so I have decided not to revise it at this time.
Thank you again for sharing your story. I hope it helps some mother catch a tie before it causes too many problems, or before they decide to give up on breastfeeding prematurely.
Katie – faithful daily reader here!
I am a dental hygienist and dental business consultant – so of course when I saw your post title, I got all tingly inside – couldn’t wait to hear about it!
I LOVE what you wrote – great decisions for both boys, it is so hard for some people to remember that each parent’s journey is unique, and that what may be right for some, may not be for themselves.
Didn’t see that you mentioned it, but the frenulectomy that you chose may also be considered interceptive treatment regarding orthodontics when he grows up. Not always the case of course, but possible in Weston’s case.
Your boys are so beautiful!
Love your blog. Keep up the great work, and don’t change a thing!
Andrea
Way to be strong! My parents waited until I was 4, and I had no numbing cream (don’t ask). I can still remember the pain, and it is the main reason I FREAK out at dentist offices. Seriously, I didn’t see a dentist from age 15-30, and it has only been in the last two years I’ve gone regularly. My poor hygienist has to clean my teeth while I am actually crying. 😀
I’m hoping I work up the nerve to get my cavities fixed soon… 🙁 I’m impressed that you pushed through and made sure you had them do what was best for Weston and not just wait.
I had that procedure done when I was in first grade and it was worth it. My two front teeth were far apart due to the gum growing between them. I then had braces to bring my front teeth together and needless to say I have had NO issues sense. I was so thankful my parents took the time to have that procedure done when I was younger.
When you posted the instagram photo of Weston pre-procedure, I realized I had never checked my 18 month old twins for it. I just figured since their pediatrician and lactation consultant had checked for it, that they were fine. I can’t really tell for sure, but I think my son might have an upper lip tie (more similar to Will’s) Even when he’s smiling really big, I can’t fully see his top teeth. And it’s hard to brush them. I’ve made a mental note to ask the pedi and dentist when we visit. Thank you for posting about this!
This is a really great and informative post. I have a very severe tongue tie which was somehow not identified until I was 12 years old. I can’t eat peanut butter or other stick to the top of your mouth foods because I literally can’t reach them with my tongue! I am considering as an adult getting my tongue tie lasered- but I am so scared!
I checked both my little ones as soon as they were born because I was quite paranoid. My first son did have a severe tie and they were able to clip it at the same time they did his circumcision (different knife- I swear!). My second little guy didn’t have one. I have never checked them for a lip tie though- this wasn’t even on my radar!
Thank you, thank you for this post!!
I had a lip tie cut around age 15 (I think?), not long after I had my braces removed because the orthodontist said my teeth would be pushed apart again if we didn’t have it cut.
Oh boy, I’ve been there too, Katie. My son was SEVERELY tongue tied when he was born. It made breastfeeding THE most painful thing I had ever experienced in my entire life. He couldn’t latch on and I could barely resist the urge to throw him off of me each time he fed. It was like getting stuck with a hot poker every two hours… or less. I remembered you saying that with Will it felt like being canned each time he latched on.
When he was three weeks old, we had a frenectomy done after three different doctors said his tongue tie was one of the worst cases they’d ever seen. Unfortunately it didn’t help with feeding, but I know it will help later when he really starts talking. My cousin had speech issues for years before they found out his tongue was tied too. It’s very hard to see happen, but I know it was necessary.
The different knife thing made me laugh out loud 🙂
And it wasn’t on mine either…probably because Jeremy didn’t have one…oral restrictors are not something discussed on a normal basis so I think bringing awareness can help so many people!
xo – kb
Most doctors won’t say anything unless it affects their weight or general health…but the dentist will surely have an opinion one way or another…at least that is what I have found with my experience!
xo – kb
OUCH!
xo – kb
You are right! It wasn’t the main reason we chose it but it’s definitely a bonus to know that if he needs braces later that it won’t be a factor.
xo – kb
Great post- very helpful! Both my kids were born with a tongue tie. When my son (Will’s age) had trouble latching right away the hospital’s lactation expert told me it wasn’t because of his tongue tie. But the lactation expert I saw when we were still having trouble nursing at home said it absolutely was a problem and referred us to an ENT who clipped it at 3 weeks old. When my daughter was born (now 5 months old) we recognized the tongue tie right away and insisted it be clipped while we were still in the hospital. She had a better latch, but nursing was still incredibly painful. Later we were told by the pediatrician about her lip tie. We didn’t nurse long for various reasons, and even now I can see she doesn’t latch a bottle comfortably. I’ve wondered how it will affect her and what will need to be done about it.
It’s funny for you to say that because Will is so proud that his tongue is like his Daddy’s! Ha!
xo – kb
Thank you so much for this post. My little guy, now 8, has always been border line tongue tied. We’ve gone to the pediatrician (several times, and different doctor’s in the same office have seen him), the dentist, and even a speech pathologist who have all said he doesn’t need to be clipped.
He nursed great as an infant, gained weight in the first week of nursing, and kept it up for the next 12.5 months, so it never was a concern to me that there was a problem. It wasn’t until he started pre-school and speaking with other kids his age that it seemed to be an issue….at least for my husband and I.
To this day, he is still in speech. And to this day I always wished I would have had him clipped, even if it was just a little bit. I should have gone with my gut, mama always knows best, but I kept listening to the doctor’s.
Does Will have any speech issues? Do you think you will ever have Will clipped or just leave it like Jeremy?
Wow. It might seem weird, but this post made me proud to be a mom. I can relate to making decisions that other people disagree with (sometimes obnoxiously), but it just being better for your kid. Also, I always wondered what that little piece of skin was between my lip and gums… Now I know. Never a problem for me, just wondered. Thank you for sharing your story. It is so very encouraging.
This was fascinating! Was Will’s speech delayed at all because of these issues? I actually have a Will of my own and we had a horrible time with breastfeeding (after I sailed through it with my first one) and he has a speech delay. I’m going to be peering into his mouth as soon as I get home!
Nope. Not at all. It is something we obviously have to keep watch over (or ‘listen’ over) because we hear that certain sounds are harder with a tongue tie but so far, so good.
xo – kb
I have read about both of these issues and wondered if my son had the lip tie. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Will doesn’t have any speech development issues yet. We did pay for him to get a general speech assessment at school and we told his preschool teachers that we note anything with reoccurring sounds (like if his L’s started sounding slurred) but so far, so good. It’s hard at this age because three year olds tend to not get all words right the first time anyway…but there are many times we ask him to resay words properly just to make sure he can. And of course, in the future we will have to keep listening. If there was an issue, we would definitely have him reassessed but honestly, I don’t think it will become one.
xo – kb
I am so glad that he is doing well!
I have to comment on the remote control and the playstation controller …My 1 yo (born 1 mth after Weston – 12/18/12) loves them both too! I had to bring the remote to the grocery store last time!! Oh, the funny looks!! LOL!
My son had a tongue tie that we had to have fixed when he was a week or two old, and it was the quickest procedure ever… he didn’t even notice it. It had been affecting breastfeeding, so we hoped it would help improve things. As for the lip tie, that’s great that it was such an easy procedure and so much better that you did it now rather than later. I had a lip tie that caused a big gap between my teeth, but it wasn’t fixed until I was a pre-teen and it was a much longer procedure… possibly because this was also more than 15 years ago? :p I just remember it taking at least an hour and was not fun at all.
I did a double take when I saw the title. My periodontist wants to snip my lower frenulum to halt a receding gum down there. I see him next week and he first recommended it two years ago, so I’m sure it’s going to come up again and this time I’ll agree to it. Insurance wouldn’t cover it so I was hesitant before.
So thanks for posting! I didn’t know it was a common problem.
Based on advice from 3 older sisters, I didn’t even try to nurse my daughter. They all had bad experiences. I’m glad I never tried. Making a hungry newborn struggle and adding nipple pain onto an already frazzled mom seems like it’d be unbearable. I wish formula feeding would get more accepted.
I’m so glad you shared this! I’ve been super lucky to have an easy breastfeeding time with my daughter, but a friend had a HORRIBLE first three months of feeding due to a tongue tie. The more women share their stories and talk about these kinds of experiences, the more happy kids and mamas there will be in the world!
I’m also really, really glad that you mentioned Jeremy’s experience as well. My friend’s husband has a speech impediment and I have to wonder if that’s the reason that his son had tongue tie, that it got passed down.
Anyways … more power to the Bowers! 🙂
I, too, am tongue-tied and lip-tied. As far as I know, my tongue-tie didn’t affect my nursing with my mom, so it was never clipped. I can’t really stick out my tongue, and totally get made fun of (but in a nice way, from close family and friends). It’s almost a party trick – “hey Justine, stick out your tongue for us!” My lip tie was fairly minor, if I recall, but because my front teeth had a space between them the dentist wanted to see if removing my frenulum would allow them to go together naturally, so I had a procedure in middle school. I don’t recall the level of pain – I think it was pretty minimal since I don’t (and I think they used a laser). But alas, my teeth didn’t and I still had to get braces. Bravo to you for doing what is best for your kids, and recognizing it!
THANK YOU for writing this Katie!! We were told a couple of months ago that my five year-old daughter has an upper lip tie. She has a gap between her two front teeth because the lip is connected so low on her gums. She’s been going to the dentist since she was 3, and her old dentist never said anything but that the space was a good thing because it leaves room for her adult teeth. We switched dentists in the fall and her new dentist diagnosed the lip tie. She then informed us that it could interfere with her adult teeth coming in in the next year or so. We’re still early in the research phase, and it is SO helpful to hear about your experience and the pictures are so, SO great. Thanks again!!
Thank you for sharing this. My oldest son had a tongue-tie, but the next two do not. I can certainly agree with you that the difference when breastfeeding is HUGE.
I struggled to get started with breastfeeding him, which was partly due to the tongue-tie, inexperience on my part, & also that my milk not come in for almost a week. Luckily, the lactation consultant at the hospital quickly identified the tongue-tie, & my doctor was also on board. He had a trusted colleague, an ear/nose/throat specialist, who had a lot of experience doing quick frenectomies in-office. Unfortunately, that doctor was out of town, so in the meantime, we visited another specialist in the same office. He announced that he would do the procedure, but we would have to put our five-day-old baby under general anesthesia in the hospital. That was not acceptable to us, so we waited another ten days for the specialist that our doctor trusted to return from vacation. It was such a struggle to get through breastfeeding during that time, but I was determined & I trusted that it would get better after the procedure. I really applaud you for sticking it out for as long as you did. The few weeks I did it was HELLISH PAIN. I cried when feeding time rolled around, which was often, because the tongue-tie made him a very inefficient nurser! Anyway, the specialist returned, & performed the procedure in the office. My two-week-old stayed buckled in his car seat, & I held his head still. The doctor applied numbing cream, held the tongue with tweezers, & clipped the frenulum with sharp scissors. It was done in less than one minute. There was a little bit of bleeding, & of course my baby was upset for a few minutes, but he calmed down quickly. That procedure changed EVERYTHING for us. Within a week, I had healed from the damage & our feeding routine settled at every four hours. He nursed for a year! He is now ten years old & has no problems whatsoever with eating, drinking, or speaking.
Of course, I immediately checked my next two babes for the tongue-tie, & luckily they do not have it. They each breastfed for about a year, with no problems whatsoever. I have never heard of the lip-tie though! I’ll be checking all three today!
When my son was born, his pediatrician visited us in the hospital and the first thing she noticed was that he was tongue-tied and recommended letting her snip it right there. I remember thinking, “This is the first decision we will be making as parents” & we decided to take her advice. I hated telling people that we did this (we got more then a few of those “you didn’t even research it?” And “hmmm, unnecessary pain for the baby, huh?” looks but after reading your experience, I’m so glad we did it. So sorry for all the pain you guys had to go through! Thanks for writing posts like this!!
So glad you shared this story. We had this same thing happen with our son, Jackson, now 2 1/2.
I had a terrible time breast feeding and Jackson wasn’t gaining weight, in fact, he was losing it. We thought it was a supply issue. Luckily, our lactation consultant and doctor recognized his tongue tie at 3 weeks and we had the procedure.
From there, breastfeeding got SO much easier and Jackson came up to a normal weight quickly.
I think your writing about this will help a lot of moms know what to look for and ask the right questions and hopefully get some relief if they’re experiencing this.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing! This hits close to home for me, as my one-year-old daughter has a lip tie that not a single medical professional noticed. Despite my numerous visits to lactation consultants (none of whom checked for a lip tie), I eventually gave up nursing because I couldn’t handle hating feeding my baby any longer. Months later, I learned about lip ties and discovered that I have one. I even talked to my mom about it and, sure enough, she had to quit nursing me before she wanted to for that same fire-breathing dragon pain. At this point, my daughter’s hasn’t seemed to bother her at all, but we’ve been keeping a close eye on it. I’m grateful to you for sharing your experience with your boys, because I hope it will help spread the awareness of something that I know has caused many mamas and babies a terrible amount of pain and trouble.
Thank you for the information! My youngest has a ULT ( similar to Will’s), I noticed it but I had no idea regarding the options. This post is very helpful and encouraging to check out my options.
So glad Weston is doing better and I hope you will give another update on him in due time!
Katie, this was a good call!! I had one on my bottom lip that really wasn’t that bad, but it ended up causing my gums to recede by the age of 21 because it was always pulling on my gums (outward, if that makes sense). I finally went to a periodontist a couple years ago and he gave me a gum graft + cut that thing! It was a little painful (the frenulum hurt more to heal than the gum graft, actually), but the difference was noticeable immediately. Apparently, I had this on top as well at some point, and my parents were going to have it taken care of at some point….but one of my falls as a toddler (I believe into a concrete step) took care of that without need for (formal) surgery. lol. Well now I can definitely laugh about it!
Oh my goodness, how many mothers are going to be peering into their kids’ mouths today because of this post! Haha. I know I am!
Just going to check my daughter’s mouth now – I had no idea about this issue. Thanks for sharing this information so that other parents can check and make decisions about our own children’s needs.
Thank you for this post! My son and I struggeled with breastfeeding. My LC said it was a toungue tie. She said a lot of pediatricians think children will outgrow it but that is not always the case. At 8 weeks he had surgery (hate using that word because it was so routine) by an Ear Nose and Throat Dr to clip his upper and lower frenulum. The closest pediatric dentist who uses a laser was 3 hours away so we went the ENT route. The surgery made a huge difference and as a result I was able to nurse for a year.
Thanks again for sharing your story!
I think you have moms everywhere waiting to peer in their children’s mouths!
My son had his tonsils and adenoids out last Spring at 3.5 and they also did a frenulectomy. The ENT said it was one of the most severe they’d seen! Now I understand why I had problems breastfeeding him! My daughter also had her frenulum clipped at 1.5 to potentially help with her speech (it didn’t speed her progress…but that’s another story!). I also had problems breastfeeding her. Like you, everyone said their short tongues weren’t the problem – even though my husband and I both had ours clipped as babies. When we had our third in November I insisted that our newborn get her tongue clipped after a quick look at her short tongue. Unfortunately they couldn’t approve it in the hospital because the lactation consultant doesn’t work on Sundays so we had to wait a few days and go to our ENT. He agreed that it needed to be clipped and said that in the future just ask the hospital to get the on-call ENT. They can approve a frenulectomy in the hospital as well (at least our hospital). It may not be common practice anymore, but if it helps and doesn’t really hurt, then I don’t see the problem. We won’t be having anymore kids, but I wanted to pass on the info!
Thank you so much for this post! My 10-month-old girl has an upper lip tie that looks just like this. She hasn’t started walking yet so hasn’t had a chance to bump it and it hasn’t affected breastfeeding. So we hadn’t thought much of it. But just the other day while we were flying somewhere, the sweet lady in the seat next to us commented on it. She’s a dental hygienist so immediately notices teeth. She told us we should have it looked at but probably won’t need anything done for a few years. I was really grateful for her pointing it out, we really hadn’t given it much thought. But if we find out we should clip it, it’s just so great to read your story and your very positive outcome! Thank you, seriously!
My son (about a month younger than Weston) dropped from the 60th to the 4th percentile in weight by his 2 month appointment. Just thinking about it makes me tear up…thinking that all his crying in the first few weeks was probably just because he was so dang hungry 🙁 We battled with “breast feeding” for 7 months…I say “breast feeding” because I was almost exclusively pumping and giving it to him in a bottle after his 2 month appointment (which sucked big ass balls). Both the lactation ladies and pediatrician said he wasn’t tongue tied….but now I’m wondering and searching through pictures to find some with his tongue out to no avail. My long winded point….thanks for sharing hopefully you’ll help some other struggling Mommy find an answer!!!
Great post, Katie. Can I just say your babies have the cutest teeth! So adorable!!
I’m so glad you wrote this!!
I’m due next week with my first and I just added this to my list of hospital questions to ask. I’m determined to breastfeed and now know what to look for. Thank you so much! Especially all the pictures!
I definitely had gum space between my 2 front teeth and is probably why my mom had such a hard time nursing me. I had oral surgery when I was in 3rd grade to have it removed (and 2 additional baby teeth).
Very helpful! Thanks for sharing!! My sweetie has an upper lip tie (I think…waiting to have it checked out)…and I have a question —
When Weston’s would bust open and/or get small cuts, what did you do to help it heal? Did those little injuries affect his eating? My sweetie is still very little so I can imagine that that sort of pain would majorly set her back in terms of eating and wanting to accept the bottle.
Advice? Thanks!
My son had both a tongue and lip tie. We did the same procedure on his severe TT (all doctors were shocked he was nursing and gaining weight. It was pretty bad) and will be doing his lip tie in the near future. I’m so glad you shared this because it is something that not even our pediatrician had ever heard of and it is the best thing we have done for our son. I love getting the word out there!
Thank you so much for posting this. Recently I discovered my young daughter has a lip tie that is definitely causing a gap in her front teeth. She has her two year well visit next week and I was going to bring it up to the doctor, now I know some of the things we can expect.
Thanks so much for this post. My 2nd childs issue was different, he had a very narrow upper palate. His pediatrician never said a word, and it wasn’t till we started taking him to a pediatric dentist that we discovered it. The poor kid was having trouble chewing his food, and we didn’t even know it. 🙁 I am so glad we took the steps necessary to correct the problem when he was a little guy. It involved a device that we needed to adjust everyday to stretch his palate, and while it was not easy to go through (for him or me) it corrected a problem that would have been more difficult to treat in his later years, and he was able to chew properly with less effort after treatment. The whole point of me saying this, is that it is easier and quicker on little ones to heal, and if treated early, you can prevent so many problems!
My siblings and I were all tongue tied. My sister was snipped as a baby. I didn’t get it done until I was older (I’m guessing 6ish but I could be completely off here). I also had a frenectomy done to my upper lip tie just two years ago (when I was 26). My teeth had started shifting and after having braces to correct an overbite (another wonderful genetic condition) in high school, there was no way I was putting up with shifting teeth. My dentist suggested the pressure from the lip tie might be affecting the teeth movement. So, snip, snip and a few stitches later… all gone. My recovery was much worse as an adult. My upper lip was swollen for about 2 weeks after. I’m glad little Western had a quicker recovery.
So important! My second was “colicy” according to docs, but when we realized his “minor” tounge tie and had it clipped we realized he was hungry- the mama guilt is still pretty strong at this point- but i am so mad at our ped for telling is it was too minor to worry.
Great recap, thanks for posting!
We just got back from our “second opinion” consult that we scheduled last month after your Facebook post of Weston’s procedure. Our son Eli does indeed have a moderate UPT but since he also has tooth crowding , the best course of action for him is to leave it as the gap will actually create room for his teeth to move into position later on. SO glad we checked it out and wouldn’t have even known there were more options if you hadn’t posted your original picture.
My favorite part: “Trust your gut mamas and don’t let others shame ya if your journey is different than theirs.” So true on so many levels.
Great post! Thanks for sharing.
There is a special kind of pain nursing a baby with a tight mouth. I knew with my second something was wrong with her nursing and she has a lip tie. We went to the doctor at 8 or 10 weeks but because the lip was too thick they couldn’t just snip they’d want to put her under and I just couldn’t do that. Her nursing did eventually get tolerable but was never comfortable. She also stopped nursing at 10.5 months just no interest, I wonder if nursing just got too hard for her.
Thank you for sharing all aspects of motherhood, I so loved my ECFE group for encouraging us to each trust our instincts. Without a network I would have missed milestones like my son’s speech delay and early intervention. He’s 16 now, an awesome swimmer,on the A honoral, speaks well but is still a young man of very few words.
My daughter was both tongue tied and lip tied. We had the laser surgery done when she was 3 weeks old and it was the best decision! Reading this post brought back all of my painful memories of breast feeding before the procedure as well as the dreaded stretching of the lip and tongue every day! I felt like the worst mom ever when she would CRY SO HARD while stretching!
I had never heard of either of these issues before reading this, so thanks for the lesson! I am pregnant with my first (due in August), so I will definitely log this info in the mom-to-be section of my brain. There’s so much to learn!
I kept poking my own teeth and tongue while reading that post. I have the opposite to will, my tongue tie is very minimal so I can touch my nose with my tongue.
This gave me a brain spark. my Sister in law had very simular troubles with trying to breast feed, I think I might raise this with her to see if it’s a factor.
I want to say thanks so much for this! I’m a first time mom and my (now 16 month old) WOULD NOT LATCH when we was born! I had more than one lactation consultant give up on him. We had his tongue tie clipped at 4 days old but it didn’t help. Now that I brush his teeth, I have noticed something up with his lip. I have no clue what baby lips look like so I thought it was normal. But thanks to this post I know that he has a lip tie. It’s too late for breastfeeding (lol) but I’m going to get this looked at so we can hopefully avoid and future troubles. Thanks again!
thank you Kate for sharing this. after reading this and realizing that I had gone though the same breastfeeding issues with my little one (even though I was only able to breastfeed until 3 months due to anemia) I decided to check and see if or Button had a tongue tie or lip tie. It turns out, he does not have a tongue tie but DOES have a lip tie that I had no idea about. I knew that he didn’t like me touching or feeling for his teeth while he was teething and he has bleed at the gums three times while learning to walk (which he is still mastering at 11 months now) but other than that, could it be harmful in the future one he is walking better? he’s eating like a pro but really wont let me bush his teeth much or anything. It is hard for me to find photos of the stages with children who already have teeth so its hard for me to tell which stage he has but I would say he’s in class II. I know that I do not have a lip tie or tongue tie nor have I ever had one but its nothing I have ever talk to the hubby about so I really don’t know if he has it our not. any advice?
I had no idea about any of this. How many of us checked how far out we could stick our tongues and if we had some kind of lip tie?
I seem to have a lip tie but a little further up my gum so I never knew it wasn’t something everyone had.
Also, the messy breakfast face was my favorite picture because of his silly grin! 😉
Katie, it’s amazing that you posted this. I read your blog all the time but feeling extremely compelled to post today. We just had our four month old’s tongue tie cut this week after months of no answers to why I was having such a hard time nursing. I was in tears at least three times a day and he was biting me, hitting me and screaming at every feed, while that hasn’t changed at all yet, his tongue tie was a major cause and we are now waiting for it to heal. But I do now understand what you went through with Will. I now have to retrain my baby how to feed with his newly movable tongue after weeks and weeks of doctors telling me he was fine because he was gaining weight and a looking like a little Buddha. I finally broke down in a Westfield of all places last week after about seven women were able to come in to the feeding room and feed their babies and leave in the time it took me to get my son to ca down enough to fall asleep so I could dream feed him, which is what I’ve been doing for the past 15 weeks. I asked my doctor for a referral even though she disagreed and even though I had had him checked by three other doctors and lactation consultants, finally someone agreed that something needed to be done. I am feeding him as I type this now and it has taken me two hours to get him to latch, but it no longer hurts. I can’t tell you how mad I am that the doctors and nurses didn’t listen to my pleads and how mad, disappointed and upset I am that I feel like the special nursing experience I always wanted has been taken away from me. Thank you for sharing your story. It helps me to see I’m not alone.
Thanks so much for sharing! We are in the process of making a decision about my son’s lip tie.
Thank you for posting this! I am tongue and lip tied and it didn’t affect my life greatly besides a weird lisp as a child that I’ve mostly outgrown. My mom never mentioned it affecting nursing me, i should ask her. I would never have thought about it being passed down to my children and this was a great reminder to keep that in mind when i start breastfeeding my first baby that’s making an appearance in a couple months. I am surprised more pediatricians and dentists don’t pay more attention to potential tongue ties…I only found out I had one because one hygienist mentioned something in passing when I was a teenager and I googled the words. It might have explained the embarrassing lisp and gotten me some grace from well meaning adults trying to teach me how to say my ‘r’s correctly!
Even though I don’t have kids and can’t really relate to this post (yet), I really appreciate it. It’s very well written and thorough and I learned something new.
Thanks Katie
2 of my 9 month old son’s favorite “toys” are an old DVD remote and wii controller, totally gotta go with what works!
My son has a large gap but I had never pulled his lip up until reading this post – I had heard about tongue-ties but not lip ties – and there was his upper frenulum, looking just like Weston’s. We did have some issues breastfeeding so I wonder if it was related. Thank you for this post; we were going to schedule his first dental visit soon but now I know to ask about this when we go.
Katie, it’s amazing that you posted this. I read your blog all the time but feeling extremely compelled to post today. We just had our four month old’s tongue tie cut this week after months of no answers to why I was having such a hard time nursing. I was in tears at least three times a day and he was biting me, hitting me and screaming at every feed, while that hasn’t changed at all yet, his tongue tie was a major cause and we are now waiting for it to heal. But I do now understand what you went through with Will. I now have to retrain my baby how to feed with his newly movable tongue after weeks and weeks of doctors telling me he was fine because he was gaining weight and a looking like a little Buddha. I finally broke down in a Westfield of all places last week after about seven women were able to come in to the feeding room and feed their babies and leave in the time it took me to get my son to ca down enough to fall asleep so I could dream feed him, which is what I’ve been doing for the past 15 weeks. I asked my doctor for a referral even though she disagreed and even though I had had him checked by three other doctors and lactation consultants, finally someone agreed that something needed to be done. I am feeding him as I type this now and it has taken me two hours to get him to latch, but it no longer hurts. I can’t tell you how mad I am that the doctors and nurses didn’t listen to my pleads and how mad, disappointed and upset I am that I feel like the special nursing experience I always wanted has been taken away from me. Thank you for sharing your story. It helps me to see I’m not alone.
Ps. Today for the very first time I feel what breast feeding should feel like. The first time it hasn’t hurt to feed my bub.
Oh my gosh! How terrifying it must have been for you and your husband and especially your son! Thank you for sharing this. Now other parents will benefit from your experience.
Great post. Very informative and helpful. I didn’t manage to bf my baby and even though I insisted there was something up, 2 different GPs, several nurses, several ‘specialist’ nurses, osteopath and world-renowned pediatrician all told me that it was just my baby’s personality >:( Even now when I look back on photos through that infancy stage, my heart hurts because I feel guilty and angry and frustrated. We all think he had silent reflux – the moment he started on solids he could suddenly drink so much more milk and he still hates reclining back – but no one even suggested that that might be what was causing him discomfort. I’m still mad at all the ‘professionals’ that offered me no help at all and insisted he was just a grumpy baby.
I agree: if you think something is up, trust your gut. As mama, you know your baby best.
And now, once my baby wakes, I’m gonna check his mouth!!! This post is so informative with all the pictures – thanks heaps. Having a second baby will come with different hurdles but I feel I’m better informed and prepared. xoxoxoxo
katie, have you considered having will’s tongue tie clipped? my soon jack has a tongue tie. within minutes of his birth, the nurses said “oh he has a heart tongue.” to which i replied “huh?” amazingly, we have had a wonderful breast-feeding relationship which i know is rare with heart shaped tongues. that boy is boob obsessed!! they handed him to me with his mouth open and ready to nurse. i am very thankful for that, but i’m now concerned that it may be affecting his speech. we haven’t had is tie clipped yet because it hasn’t interfered with his growth at all. he’ll be 2 in april and still really doesn’t have much in the way of words. i remember my daughter wasn’t a big talker and then all of a sudden about 2 months before her brother was born, she just started talking in full on sentences like she had been doing it all along. i do know though that she was saying more at his age than he is. did you notice any speech issues with will in relation to the tongue tie. also, does jeremy know if he was a late talker or had any speech issues related to his tongue tie? we’re debating having it done, because i don’t want to put him through anything if it is not necessary.
I have a lip tie and thought I would mention it seems to get burned easily and rough flossing can cause days of pain. I had a gap but it was closed with braces. I would have had braces for other reasons so it was no big deal.
I had never heard of a lip tie before. I bet Weston is much happier now. I have heard of tongue tie before because my cousin had that problem as a child. No one really noticed much about it until I commented that she couldn’t stick her tongue out all the way and she had a hard time pronouncing things. That’s when they realized there was a problem.
Thanks for the informative post!
So crazy you wrote about this. I wish you had written about it 2 months ago. I just took my 2 month old baby to have his ties clipped after weeks of struggling with breastfeeding. I saw two lactation consultants (LC) in the hospital after he was born and one saw the damage to my nipples, heard the clicking, but made some comment about “that’s not that kind of a click”. I didn’t think much of it as ties were not even on my radar. Like you, I was determined to breastfeed so we marched on. When he was a few days old I saw another LC at the pediatricians office and she didn’t say anything except to use a nipple shield…not helpful. My baby would nurse ALL the time. He would nurse for about an hour, be OK for 15 minutes and then want to nurse again. Wash, rinse, repeat. One week he only gained 3 oz, the next week only 2 oz. At this point he was 1 month old and still not back to his birth weight. I went to see another LC and she said he was definitely tongue and lip tied. She was shocked the other LC’s didn’t catch it. He had a posterior tongue tie and could stick out his tongue, but was limited in other movements with it. This story could drag on, so I’ll try to wrap up. Having to decide to clip his ties was such a hard decision. He is so little he couldn’t take much for pain and of course didn’t understand why it was happening. He was in a lot of pain for week and it was so hard. It’s too early for me to declare whether it was the right decision but I’m really hoping in another week or two I can say it was.
Poor little cutie pie! Glad it’s something that could be somewhat easily fixed. Wish you would’ve known that’s what the pain was with will 🙁
Great post, Katie! I’m so glad you had such a positive experience! As a soon-to-be pediatric dentist, I would also encourage you and your readers to seek out a board-certified pediatric dentist to evaluate things like lip and tongue ties, plus their dental needs. Pediatric dentists are especially trained to identify issues like the ones your boys were having and will see children at much younger ages than most general/family dentists will. Just wanted to share! AAPD.org is a great place to start 🙂
Thank you for posting this!
Know that I have two boys, one is 3.5 and I nursed him for 26 months. It was the blissful nursing experience that you describe with Weston, and my second who is now 13 months old has had a tongue tie and probably also a lip tie. It isn’t painful on a daily basis but if his latch is even a little bit ‘off’ from a stuffy nose or a new tooth coming in, I get blisters, bleeding cracks, vasospasms, you name it.
I DID take him to our pediatric dentist at 6 months who told me that it was within normal, and I am so angry with him so frequently because he was little enough to clip in office. I know there is another local breastfeeding-friendly dentist that does laser revisions on a lot of babies in my La Leche League group so I am going to reach out to her and see if she can still revise them without anesthesia. I fully intend to nurse him for another year and I am hopeful that this can still be corrected.
Those cheeks.
Question: how do your boys do with the almond milk? My son has been on it for 3 months and loves the taste, but he poops at least 5 times per day and I think it’s the almond milk. He also has diaper rash from it. I’ve tried all the dairy alternatives and almond is the only one that he likes that is available around here. I am now forced to try dairy milk despite an intense dairy allergy that runs in my family. I hate to give it to him but am out of options. I’ve googled around and it sounds like many moms have this problem with almond milk. Do you feel like they are getting enough fat? Each dairy alternative has pros and cons, and none of them seem to offer the fat and protein that dairy does, but I am aware most Americans get too much protein and fat anyway.
Thank you!
Well, Will was on it for a while but at his two year old appointment (I think it was that age? I can’t remember!) the doc told us that if possible, try to give him more water and less milk. So we switched him to drinking water all day except meal times when he got his milk. He rarely drinks it now. If he does drink milk, he likes whatever Daddy has (which is usually chocolate milk as a recovery workout drink)…Weston has no real problems with it as long as I make sure he gets his regular balanced diet. I’m sorry to hear that your little guy has issues with it.
xo – kb
Great advice.
xo – kb
Like I said in the post…the need for Will’s to be revised has diminished with age. His lip tie and tongue tie don’t appear like it will cause dental issues or problems with speech development and that is what is on the radar at three. According to Jeremy’s baby books, he was average in terms of speech development too. From what I have read, the tongue tie can change the way they talk…not necessarily when or if they talk…does that make sense? But if you have any questions about your sons development…you should definitely ask your doctor!
xo – kb
They do here in GA! We love Brusters and love that we can still get our Double Chocolate Chunk even when we visit family up north 🙂
xo – kb
There wasn’t much we could do! We would let him eat a Pedialyte freezer pop if it swelled (that worked until his upper teeth came in) but for the most part, we couldn’t do anything.
xo – kb
I don’t think it’s ever wrong to ask your pediatrician or dentist about anything you may be concerned about with your little one. My only piece of advice would be to bring it up the next time you go to a checkup!
xo – kb
I’ve been worried that my son had the same issue. Most of his teeth came in pretty late and it seemed like the front teeth were spread so far apart b/c of the frenulum. Mentioned it to the pediatrician and dentist and both said to wait until more teeth came in. He’s 20 months now and just getting his k9 teeth. I’ve noticed in the last few weeks that his front teeth are much closer together and the frenulum has decreased/stretched and looks normal. Thanks for posting this…it’s great info! Glad you didn’t have to DIY! 🙂
Such an informative post, Katie! So good of you to enlighten everyone through your experience!
Thanks for posting this. My nephew was tongue tied, but I never heard of lip tied before. I had a chuckle over Weston’s “don’t ask” toys. I have a two year old and her “don’t ask” accessories are a bag of rubber elastics, latex gloves and a sheet of stickers. Weston looks great though!
Thanks for sharing your story! We are in the midst of ULT and Posterior TT drama with my 3 month old and will be getting the frenectomy procedures done in a few days. If you are willing, there is a facebook group called Tongue Tie Babies Support Group that you should consider joining and sharing your blog. There are SO many families out there desperate for information and that group is incredibly supportive and willing to help others in any way possible! And- there is a huge lack of awareness by many of the providers and lactation consultants who we bring our symptoms to, which exaggerates the frustration…there are many parents out there havging to self-diagnose their children (myself included), which is sad. Thank you again.
Katie,
Glad you shared this as mothers are unaware of the issues that arise with tongue tie. Both of my daughters had a tongue tie and our second had hers clipped at two days old. My mother is a lactation consultant and many consultants are not completely educated in this area. This is something you should ask your lactation consultant. If you choose not to breastfeed then your pediatrician should look as well. Be sure to ask them to look as some may not. Many parents are also so overwhelmed with just being a a new mom that the idea of having this cut terrifies them. As you showed in your post, there is a great need to deal with this issue and I encourage any mother who has a tongue tied child to have it clipped as it can be done in your pediatricians office right away and it can help resolve breastfeeding issues as well as possible speech issues down the road. Great post. It is crucial for mothers to pass along this type of info since we go into motherhood blind to many of its’ wonders!
So glad you posted this! My boyfriend has a tongue tie and due to this post I did a little more research and found out that it could be the cause of his frequent headaches.
I also realized that I have a lip tie (I thought it was normal) and that it caused the large gap in my front teeth.
You did a great thing by sharing this.
Katie – wow, God was really working through you to post this message. It never crossed my mind – but I have noticed that my youngest son has a gap in between his front teeth and, sure enough, his mouth looked similar to Weston’s frenulum. I NEVER would have ever thought to look at his mouth this way because he too was a great breastfeeder.
Thank you so much – I am going to bring this up at my son’s next doctor’s appointment. Moms helping moms – it’s so important in this season of life. Thank you.
My Brother and Sister-In Law recently discovered that my nephew was tongue tied. They had taken him to a speech therapist because he was struggling with a lot of words. The speech therapist said that he was tongue tied and to have it looked at by a doctor. A week later they had a laser surgery appointment set. I spoke with him on the phone that morning (could barely understand him per usual) and when I spoke to him that night, his words were clear as day. I actually thought I was talking to his sister! He said, “No Aunt Caitlin, it is Conner silly!!!” I am so happy they caught it so early! He is 4 and talks non stop now!
I just have to say that I found this oddly fascinating. Maybe it’s the medical side of me (um, I work in commercial real estate just to be clear… but I wanted to be a doctor most of my life so I guess I just have always absorbed medical stuff and been interested in it… don’t ask how I ended up in commercial real estate… ha!). I have a VERY long tongue, so it’s not something I ever thought much about (as far as the repercussions of being tongue or lip tied). And I didn’t even know you could be lip tied.
bean, most Americans get too much bad fat. I don’t think many get too much protein! Despite what a lot of folks would have you believe, fat does not necessarily make you fat. Your body needs three things to thrive: fat (from healthy (i.e., animals who are allowed to eat the diet they are meant to eat and raised humanely) animal sources and plant sources such as olive, avocado, coconut, nuts/seeds), protein, and carbohydrates (preferably from veggies, fruits, and limited whole grains). The obesity in this country can likely be attributed to a diet high in processed foods and sugars, not actually fat. But, anywho… my two cents on that subject. 🙂
I would recommend the following as milk alternatives: goat (has a different protein structure so some folks that don’t tolerate cows milk can tolerate goat), coconut, almond, and hemp. Also, the two main reasons for giving kids milk is that ancestrally, we breastfed for A LOT longer than most modern folks do so there was no need for milk. The major things that kids who are also eating food get from breastmilk (or other milk sources) are fat and protein needed for brain development and calcium for bone development. So, if you can find some good sources of healthy, saturated fats (again a myth that these are bad for you… yes, they can be if they come from a McDonalds cheeseburger but not from healthy animal or plant sources) and calcium (greens! + lots of others), then he will be fine without any milk at all. I know that goes totally against the grain, but I have done a lot of research on the subject. If he can handle yogurt (some folks that can’t tolerate milk can tolerate yogurt), maybe green smoothies would be a good idea. Or even w/o anything milk based in the smoothie. Good luck!!! I know it can be such a hard thing to wade through all the conflicting opinions and recommendations out there. I recommend the Weston A. Price Foundation for some good information if you’re interested, and I bet they have a few posts on the subject!
Just wanted to thank you for posting this. My son is almost 9 months and we had his class 4 lip tie revised via laser about a month ago. He is doing great and still breastfeeding. I got it clipped not only because of breastfeeding (he took 2 months to latch correctly and had trouble staying latched, and I had some pain although it was bearable). I was concerned about dental, orthodontic, and speech ramifications of the lip tie. Before we got it revised though, we had my pediatrician and 3 LCs claim lip ties don’t affect breastfeeding and aren’t a concern, which I am still bitter about. (Sigh.)
I remember reading your bf story a while ago, before my son was born, and I have reread it too. It is one of my favorite posts of yours and I went back to it week 3 when he wasn’t latching and my nipples were bleeding. I am so glad we stuck with it and that you did too. Thanks for writing your story and also thanks for getting the word out.
Hmmm, very interesting! I had some early breastfeeding issues with my little one (who just turned a year) who (probably TMI, but you know) was able to get out a ton of milk but at a great sacrifice to me. My lactation consultant said the damage to me was odd since the baby was getting milk so easily and checked for a tongue tie but didn’t see one, but did comment that it was very hard for us to get my little one to position her upper lip in the flanged out position it’s supposed to be in. Breastfeeding did get a lot easier as soon as her mouth grew a little bit, but I’ve noticed that her upper lip still is very difficult to position the right way. Also, her upper teeth have had quite a gap in between them ever since they first came in; it seems like there’s just extra skin between them.
I checked her upper lip last night and did notice that the inside of her lip pretty much looks just like Will’s! I’d never heard of a lip tie before, so it’s definitely informative. I’m not going to bother getting it checked out unless it starts to cause issues, but it’s definitely something I’ll keep an eye on. Very interesting!
My 17 month old fell today and his mouth started bleeding, and because I had read this I pulled back his top lip and for the first time I noticed he has a lip tie. I would never have even noticed. I can’t thank you enough for this post. We are going to go have him checked out and look for a laser-only dr who is in our area.
Hi! My daughter has Down syndrome so I completely get the stretching and moving exercises relating to the mouth! When she was first born our O.T. and P.T. teachers were on us to always be doing the mouth exercises so that later in life, she’d be able to control her tongue more and not have it stick out. Needless to say, we are 2 years in and she’s got full control over her mouth and tongue. So keep at it! Plus I’d make myself laugh by making faces with her cheeks and lips. I’m 33 years old and still make faces at myself in the mirror. Best of luck!
I just want to say a big, weird, online thank-you to YOU for sharing this post and for sharing both of your breastfeeding stories thus far. I have an almost 15-month old who didn’t nurse. We tried. We tried at a very pro-breastfeeding hospital with plenty of trained nurses and lactation consultants. I went to lactation clinic several times. I tried. Oh how I tried. I had excruciating pain (like you mentioned having with Will) and a baby who sort of appeared to be latching correctly but clearly was not.
One of the lactation nurses mentioned the possibility of a tongue-tie. Determined to breastfeed, we high-tailed our 5-day old boy to an ENT specialist who clipped the frenulum under his tongue. It didn’t really make much of a difference. I continued to try for a few weeks before deciding to pump exclusively – which I did for 6-months. As I’ve learned more, I’ve been suspicious of a lip tie but I thought surely the specialist would have noticed it. I read this post a couple days ago on my way to my baby’s first dentist appt (at the request of our family doctor because of some concerns that ended up just being that our boy has 16 teeth and is already teething his 2-3 year molars… Lord help us). Anyway, I had the dentist check and sure enough. Lip tie. Looks almost exactly like Will’s. To give the specialist some credit, it seems to have become more pronounced as he’s gotten older. While it was frustrating to learn this was likely the cause of all our nursing problems, it’s also SO comforting to know next time might just be a whole new ball game. =) Thanks again for sharing!!
This is absolutely fascinating to me! I am 59 now, and when I was about 5 or 6, I visited our family dentist who cut off that tissue from my lip to the gum between my front teeth — I have NEVER heard the term “lip tie” until today! I’m glad you got it done early. Mine didn’t bleed or other me in any way, but I could put a spoon between my front teeth. And because I had my permanent teeth when the procedure was done, I had a huge gap between my teeth — even bigger than David Letterman’s! I wore bands around my front teeth from first to fourth grade to close up the gap. The things you learn ….
Thank you so much for sharing this and for all the details. My fourth child is the first that we’ve ever had this type of issue with. We didn’t even think of it and unfortunately her front two teeth grew in rotten because her lip tie had created a pocket that was trapping food. I asked her pediatric dentist what to do but he said there was nothing to be done until she is 8. He said that if we didn’t make her mouth bleed every night while brushing that we weren’t doing a good enough job. She is 2 and tooth brushing is a heart breaking time. Now I will look for a periodontist. Thank you!!!!
Hugs, Sarah. I hope it gets better for you.
Thanks for sharing. I myself have a tongue tie (Gave up on Spanish because I couldn’t roll my “r’s”) but haven’t had any other issues. I was formula fed. My son Wilder is 3 months old and beast feeding the first 6 weeks was by far the most painful thing of my life. Those first two weeks I cried thinking about nursing sometimes. He was diagnosed an hour after he was born with tongue and lip ties by a doula, but the pediatrician insisted it was just a minor tongue tie and said she clipped it. Two weeks later I was about to give up and a midwife friend told me he still had his ties. Thanks to a good dentist, we were able to have them laser removed (like your son I believe). We had to do the stretches… his ties reattached so we had to repeat the procedure… but now at 12 weeks, nursing is finally easy and I’m healed too. It was so so so hard, but it’s worth it now. He was getting enough milk and that’s the main reason I kept going, but breast-feeding was by far the hardest thing about being a new mom. I wrote about it on my own blog here: http://downtonblabby.blogspot.com/2014/01/nine-things-ive-learned-hard-way-about.html
Thank you for sharing this. It was so weird that you posted this, because I thought my daughter’s teeth looked a little funny as they came in (she just got her two upper front teeth.) I never even thought to look for a lip tie. Lo and behold, she sure does have one! Now it makes sense as to why she was never really a good nurser. She should have her 12 month checkup soon, and this is something that I’ll be mentioning to her doctor. THANK YOU.
My son Liam was born with the upper lip frenulum too! It was one of the first things I noticed about him in the hospital when I had him and asked about it right away. When Liam was 14 months on THANKSGIVING morning, while I was getting ready, my husband was on baby duty and I heard Liam crying so I came out to find his mouth full of blood! It wasn’t until we were changing his diaper to head out that I noticed the blood was coming from his frenulum thing. Of course none of the nurses answer since it’s Thanksgiving but urgent care basically told us that we saved a hefty bill from having the procedure done. The next appointment with his ped, we had them check and she said it looked as if a surgeon had done it. It turned out less traumatizing for both of us this way (not my white sweater though, the blood never came out)!So glad it worked out in the end for Liam and our wallets.
There are so many folks that I have heard the same thing…they did their own procedure by accident!
xo – kb
I don’t think I’ve ever posted a comment even though I’ve been a long time reader. Thank you so, so much for writing this post and sharing your experience. We now realize our daughter has an upper lip tie and its like everything finally make sense. Her front teeth a big gap (which is pretty cute) and breastfeeding was just plain awful – so bad. I had to have my frenulum cut in high school, but didn’t think to check my daughters mouth to see if it was a hereditary thing. Again, thank you for this post. It has helped us to better understand our daughter and give us the knowledge of what to look for with our next. Thank you. You are awesome.
I’m glad I read this! I now see our daughter has a lip tie – class 3 or 4. That may explain why we had trouble with her latch at first. Thanks for posting – will ask about this at her 12 month appointment.
thanks for posting about this. I just discovered this with my son yesterday and then remembered that you just wrote about this. So good to read it again with a different perspective now. We have an appt next month to talk to his dr. Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
Does your son have any speech issues with his tongue tie? We’ve gotten our baby’s tie lasered and I think it reattached, so we might just wait to see if any speech problems arise. But I also know it’s better to fix the younger they are.
Not yet. We have had him assessed at school by a professional and we also have a friend that is a speech therapist (worked in the public school system for years) and both have said that they have not heard any indicators that would mean he needs therapy or a procedure yet. Of course, we still need to watch him to see if it develops over time but so far, he doesn’t have a problem with elevation.
xo – kb
I’m chiming in with the other mommies to say thank you- after reading this, I just happened to check my 6 mo old daughter (who has never had a nursing issue) and lo and behold- lip tie! I mentioned it to her pedi at yesterday’s appointment, and she said we’ll deal with it around age 2 if she doesnt take care of it herself with a fall. Thank you for helping so many of us with this little bit of knowledge!
Can I ask how much it was out of pocket?
It was $800 for the procedure and the appointment (which the consult will be covered later by insurance). I know that most dental procedures are pricey so I wasn’t surprised.
xo – kb
My 8 month old has a lip tie and posterior tongue tie. We are going through our 4th revision soon as it keeps re-attaching. I was so touched to read your story and the determination to continue the breastfeeding with Will. It is so tough as we are still breastfeeding (and pumping for bottles at times). It is the toughest thing I have ever went through. (well he also has food intolerances through my milk and now with his solids too) I just wanted to say so mothers on here are aware that I was told by a very reputable lactation consultant and dentist that most babies with the lip tie have a tongue tie also. Like you said the posterior ones are difficult for professionals to identify. Mine was not able to elevate his tongue well for transferring milk from the tatas. Thanks for helpgin with this awareness!! Oh and I am a Speech Therapist too. Go figure! 😉
Oh no! I hate that your little one’s keep reattaching! What a pain! Hopefully this fourth time will be the last 🙂
xo – kb
I had never heard of this or seen it before but follow your blog regularly. I had a baby last June and just noticed as his front teeth have fully come in that he has a lip tie. Thank you so much for posting! I recognized it right away and came back to this post as my jumping off point to do research. Medical advice is so not why I follow your blog but this random post has helped me so much! Thanks!
Thank you for the artical.
I had my daughter at the dentist last week and he told she has a lip frenulum, who knew!
She also has a fair size gap in her two front teeth but we figured it was just how her teeth were growing.
After much reading we decided that we will have the procedure done. Out daughter will thank us when she is older and doesn’t need braces.
Thank you so much for posting this! I found it while looking for information on the doctor you used. My third child is one month old and was just diagnosed with a tongue tie. Our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric ENT, but they use scissors to clip it and it just didn’t seem like the “right” way to fix it. We found Dr. McLaurin and I have an appointment scheduled for him in a couple of days. I was so happy to read about your (very positive!) experience and am hopeful that we will have the same.
Just as an update…my nine month old had a severe tongue tie and his was clipped at one day old. We had the ENT at Emory do it and it was with glorified scissors and it was very successful. Just wanted to let you know.
xo – kb
Thanks for the update! We’re going to stick with the laser though I will admit to being insanely nervous! I just hate to think of something happening to him. I’m ready for this to be over.
I totally understand. It’s definitely a difficult thing. I hope your consult with the Dr goes well!
xo – kb
Thank you so much for posting this! When my second son was born, I remembered looking at his mouth, curious as to whether he may have a tie. I questioned the lactation consultant, and later PED about a possible lip tie. They blew me off and said that unless there was difficulty nursing, they wouldn’t correct it.
Fast forward 7 months and my little boys front two teeth came in last week, right before Thanksgiving. I checked his lip and immediately noticed a significant tie. I googled your blog post (because I remembered it) and did a bunch of online research. Certain he had a Class 4 Upper Lip Tie, we scheduled a consultation and laser frenectomy with Dr. Wessels of Allied Pediatrics in Chattanooga.
We went this morning and she said it was one of the worst lip ties she had seen and we had it corrected right there in the office. I would have never had a clue about this had it not been for this blog post and I really appreciate you sharing this part of your life. I will be sharing my story on my blog in a week or two once I can get more photos of his mouth post recovery. Again, thank you for sharing your personal stories along with the DIY ones.
So glad it was helpful! I hope your next week is tolerable…the rubbing was my least favorite part but all for the greater good, right?
xo – kb
My boy definitely hates the rubbing part! Dr. Wessels said days 3-5 could be the worst because the nerves start growing back. And he was definitely more fussy on those days, but a little Orajel Naturals goes a long way. We have a follow up next Tues., so hopefully all is well.
Again, I really appreciate you sharing. I have very healthy babies (my 7 month old is 23 lbs) so nursing was exactly a problem, but he was super gassy all of the time from not getting a good latch. The PED was shocked that I had been nursing him all of this time with such a severe lip tie!
Yes! We used Orajel too and lots of juice-sicles 🙂
Glad that he is on the mend!
xo – kb
My best friend reminded me of your post about tongue/lips ties. Our newborn is scheduled to have both of his corrected by laser tomorrow. I’m going to be a mess but I know in the long run it’s better to do it now. We are having serious nursing issues just as I did with our first. Except with our first no one mentioned a tie.
Thanks for your post!
Krista
Good luck with the aftermath. That was the hardest part with the lip tie especially…but so important! I think you are so smart to do it now. Comparing LJ (tongue tie we had fixed at day 2) to Weston (lip tie fixed after many months), it was such a good thing to do it early!
xo – kb
I remember reading this when you first published it and we’ve just had our one year old’s lip and tongue lasered 2 days ago. We’ve had a terrible bfing journey with low weight gains and extended feeding sessions in the beginning and now really quick and frequent feeds. For us, It had to be done. We’ve already noticed he isn’t choking on his water from the sippy cup anymore. Bfing is still quick and frequent but mostly during the night as he has solids during the day too. 3 weeks of not nice stretching, a huge bill, but hopefully a happier baby! X
You are in the thick of it then right now! Good luck with the rubbing of the lip! Weston loved his little ice pops! And yes…hopefully your little one will be happier than ever 🙂
xo – kb
Katie,
As a brand new mommy, I wanted to drop a quick note here and say THANK YOU from the very bottom of my heart. I started reading this blog years ago, way back before a husband and baby were in the picture. When my baby boy was born 2.5 weeks ago and breastfeeding started off on an extremely rocky start, this blog post came back to mind as I searched for answers.
I would not have known to check for lip/tongue ties if not for your chronicling your journey, and I would not have known to question my lactation consultant’s diagnosis of no tongue tie, nor to trust my “mama gut” and seek a second opinion from a frenectomy specialist.
I am so glad I did, because after two weeks of sobbing and “breastfeeding” a fussy baby non-stop (who was clearly not getting enough to eat) we just had his tongue tie and lip tie released this morning. Turns out he also has two buccal ties that needed to be released as well. ]
I know we have some rocky roads ahead to get the latch re-trained and in a good place, but I would never have gotten this addressed as early as I did if not for you, and may have given up or spent many more countless nights sobbing into my husband’s shoulder, mourning the breastfeeding relationship I could have had.
And after just 2.5 weeks of struggling, I am absolutely floored that you soldiered through for an entire 12 months. I barely made it through the week to get to our appt with the dentist. I have such a profound respect for your sacrifice for your baby! Thank you for sharing your story, it has truly helped shape our lives and our story.
On behalf of me and my son, thank you.
You are so sweet. I am so glad to hear that you were able to get answers and that you were able to trust your gut! It’s already hard enough to just feed on demand when you are so tired – but lasting physical pain and a baby struggling to gain makes it unbearable! Hope that little one has a swift recovery and you too!
xo – kb
Hi Katie,
I also wanted to pop in and say because of your blog, years ago back when we were no kids status, I read about tongue ties here first. It stuck with me. As we had our one and only in Oct 17, I was planning on BF, but knew there could be hiccups. I got a pump and bottles as back up. And it was a good thing. First night home, screaming hungry 4 day old baby. Finally pumped and fed at something like 5 am. He had lost weight, but the hospital chalked it up to normal for BF baby, I knew his latch was shallow and painful, but the Lactation Consult was not helpful. He had posterial and lip ties that prevented deep latch. We got through newborn fog with exclusively pumping. Got revised by Dr Jaju at 4 months.. That revision changed the way he ate. No more choking, gagging on his bottles. We continued to exclusively pumping, but it was the perfect journey for us. Thank you for planting the seeds so early. No one was knowledgeable enough about them. I had to advocate and do all the research. But we are very happy that we did.
-Abbey
I’m so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for this sweet comment! And I’m super proud of you for being your baby’s advocate! It is a rarely checked thing or checked well….and it sounds like you did a wonderful job going with your gut and being a rock star mama! You go girl!
xo – kb