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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