Pat writes:
I have wondered that if it has a hereditary component, do we see more of
it in the U.S. because we have more generations who were bottle-fed and who
survived, avoiding natural selection. Some years ago there was speculation
on environmental toxins that are so common in the U.S as a cause of
increased incidence of tongue tie, having affected the fetuses.
~~ I wonder about this also. I've worked with several families in the past
few years where the infant had a very serious tongue restriction. There
babies were not only unable to latch and feed at breast, they were agitated,
choking babies with very poor flow control who had trouble even moving milk
when supplemented as they needed to be. A few were barely gaining at all no
matter how hard their moms worked to feed them. Their parents were under
extreme stress with lack of sleep, and this baby would, could not ever be
calm and enjoyable, ever. A few things I noticed: one or both parents had a
tongue tie that we identified by talking about how this can be manifest. One
parent had persistent speech issues with articulation and a nasally sound,
sinus issues, and jaw pain when giving presentations for work. One parent
was an opera singer and had jaw fatigue and soreness issues the other
singers never had. Another had persistent sleep apnea and a history on both
sides of sleep apnea and tongue-tie. In two families the parent with the
significant issues decided to have their own frenulums released after the
second baby in each family was born, and was also having feeding issues due to
tongue limitations. Both parents in these two different families said they
felt better, and had more movement and less pain or fatigue. One woman said
her husband could speak more quickly without hesitating and his vocal
quality was less nasal. But back to the babies: in the cases where the babies
were agitated, sleepless, crying babies, after the release these babies could
feed better, even if breastfeeding well took time, their feeding skills
were improved to the extent that the choking, crying, and agitation was gone.
Moms said it was like finally seeing who their baby could be without all
that stress around feeding.
Do I find tongue restrictions that aren't really there? Don't know. Since I
go by function, and we try to rule out everything else, I hope not, but
could be. I do wonder if for some of these little ones, they will go on to
have tone issues, or developmental issues, etc. that were so subtle no one
picked them up, except I noticed these little ones could not feed normally at
breast. I do think feeding skills can be a major marker for the future,and
it bears looking at. Since I live in a country where breastfeeding
normally is still not the cultural norm, it's easy for practitioners to write
these issues off, because baby gains fine on AIM or EMM from a bottle.
Peace,
Judy, who just sat in front of the computer with a pen in her mouth,
saying out loud "Can that really be true?" after Rachel's post, and it seems to
be! Also I am going to work on my German for a song I'm singing in a few
weeks!
Judy LeVan Fram, PT, IBCLC, LLLL
Brooklyn, NY, USA
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