Seconding everyone who is writing about how it can take some time for a baby
to get the hang of using the tongue properly, and the time it takes is
generally related to how long the problem existed before being dealt with.
Last summer I worked with a mother whose baby was nearly 2 months old before
his tongue tie was treated by frenotomy.  He had been gaining adequately
according to his PHN but was really lean and, most important, not that
happy.  Mother had had open sores on her nipples from about day 3, and three
bouts of culture-positive bacterial mastitis and feared that a fourth
recurrence was in the making when I saw them.  They were only in our town
for summer holidays, all the care before that was from a hospital far from
mine.  Baby went straight to breast after the clipping and fed well for the
first time, for a few minutes, and then seemed to just get tired, and
started whimpering.  He was given expressed milk, which his mother was
expert at supplying by then.  He fed at the breast at every meal but wasn't
consistently and happily taking all his food there until about a week later.
Mother's soreness was resolved within just a few days, and as far as I know
she hasn't had mastitis since.  He never had anything but her milk for the
first 6 months, but it was a lot more fun when she could give it to him
straight from the source.  
I'm concerned about getting tongue-ties fixed before things get completely
off track.  It's nice when we can avoid the extreme soreness and sluggish
production in mother and excessive weight loss in the baby which are so
boringly common in these cases, all of which are highly distressing to
families and which really threaten the continuation of breastfeeding at a
very vulnerable time.  In the case above, I was told by one ENT doc that I
was welcome to send a written referral and they would TRY to schedule the
baby for a consultation within the next few months, but that he didn't want
to rush in and do anything unnecessary before there was a REAL problem.
This was in my hospital!!  Due to our system I knew that a different doc
would be on call for ENT the next day, and we simply tried again, and the
next doc had a much more breastfeeding-friendly attitude.  The frenotomy was
done within half an hour of the call.   
That same week, we did a frenotomy on a week-old baby whose tongue tie was
missed while they were in hospital, and mother was so sore that she declined
all offers of help to get baby on breast afterwards.  The father was
completely tongue-tied and it had never been treated, so he knew all the
consequences of not having full tongue mobility, and HE brought me roses.  I
left on holiday myself immediately afterwards and I don't know if that baby
ever went back to the breast but at least he will be able to stick out his
tongue at his dad and lick an ice cream cone, neither of which that father
had ever been able to do.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
Where I am getting a rep as the tongue-tie killer

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