Well this is so very interesting - I just had to comment.  I have been in 
practice for about a year and a half now though the woman I work with has 
been in private practice since certifying in 1985.  She says she does see more 
TT these days.  There are weeks when I think that I must be seeing things or 
inventing posterior ties - there are just so many babies with tongue ties (and 
non-latchers too).  We can usually deal easily with type 1 &2 TT here.  A few 
babies will make it out of hospital with classic ties but not many.  We don't 
have many options for evaluation and clippling of posterior ties though so we 
educate when we can, send people to other cities sometimes and make do 
otherwise.......

Esther asks about incidence of TT among our group.  My collegue wonders 
when I am going to get my TT clipped - though I can't see why I would now - 
I don't snore, have no speech issues (other than a slight softening of 
my "s"s), my teeth are perfectly straight with all my "wisdom teeth" in place, 
no reflux issues, etc...I was not breastfed but that was not related to a TT - 
my mother just didn't "do that". I have just become more aware of the fact 
that I swallow "funny" - I choked at the dinner table nightly while drinking 
water as a kid - my parents went from exasperated to amused - they thought 
that I just was in to much of a hurry!

At a recent gathering of LLLleaders a group of us were standing chatting as 
we were readying to leave and of the four of us, I have the above TT; one 
woman remembered having her tongue released by a dentist at about the age 
of 10 - she was shocked at the difference it made; another woman (an 
aspiring ICBLC - hi! I know you are out there) recently self-diagnosed her own 
TT after learning so much here on Lactnet and through her studies.  She took 
a good look at her kids' tongues after looking back at her breastfeeding history 
and they are both TT - she went to the mirror to see what a "normal" 
frenulum looked like and was surprised to see her own tied tongue looking back 
at her!  The 4th woman has a husband who is TT and her son was clipped as 
a baby due to problems with BF.  So.. this may be a somewhat self-selected 
group - how many of us get into helping BF moms after overcoming challenges 
ourselves? it sure was interesting to see.

Whenever I see a mom/baby with breastfeeding challenges and we investigate 
further into what is happening regarding baby's use of tongue I always ask 
about parent's history - who wore braces, who went to speech therapy, any 
incidence of TT in the family, who was breastfed - why and why not, etc.... 
though I know now that had my LC asked me I would never been able to 
connect the dots to my own BF challenges with my son.  My son is the one 
who gave me difficulties with BF (has a slight TT) and he at 10 has beautiful 
straight teeth while my daughter, 8yrs tomorrow, (also TT) was a breeze to 
BF from the beginning but is going to need extensive orthodontic work - they 
both BF for ~3yrs, at least 1 yr tandem with no noticeable difference in 
the "feel" of the attachment.

So there is my contribution to Esther's survey and I will add my agreement to 
the "canary in the coal mine theory" as well - there is something going on 
when we see this much of something.  I am willing to bet the incidence is 
greater in those industrialized countries with both the means otherwise feed 
babies who would not have lived and pollution to cause the expression of the 
defect in the1st place.  

I saw that documentary Ingrid mentions - it is terrifying.  

Sorry for the length of this post - there have been so many great threads 
lately and have really been wanting to chime in - guess it all poured out here

beth in Ottawa
IBCLC and LLLL

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