I am conflicted about these cases of tongue-tie that appear NOT to be a
problem:  mom may have buckets of milk ... or the baby's compensatory
behaviors allow him to breastfeed and gain well without traumatizing mom's
nipples.  It ain't broke, so we don't fix it, right?  Just how much
"anticipation" goes into "anticipatory guidance?"

Dr. Brain Palmer DDS's  informative and accessible website talks about the
tongue's hugely important role in mouth cavity formation, subsequent hard-
and soft-palatal development, with teeth and speech and even gastric
consequences.  Sp -=- is tongue-tie ever "benign?"

My No. 3 had some sort of tongue thing going on ... you could see the
quasi-heart-shaped tongue when she stuck it out.  But she she nursed
fabulously, for years, and without a minute's difficulty (or pain for me).
But by the time the speech pathologist entered the picture in Grade 2 (those
adowable pwonunciations awen't so adowable as they age beyond toddlerhood
...),  the first two YEARS of weekly therapy were spent un-teaching her
tongue from making the compensatory movements it was accustomed to!  The
tongue is a muscle.  Build it up by doing repetitive movements
day-in-and-day-out for several years running .... and you are gonna have a
heap of un-learning to do.  And tongues that have short frenula are
compensating.

When I have a mom whose baby with a tongue-tie that doesn't seem to be
impacting breastfeeding, I usually give her my tongue-tie handout anyway --
because I have links there to helpful websites about ankyloglossia and
tongue development (like Brain Palmer's).  I say something like "The tongue
is more important than we realize for everyday life.  You and I clean our
teeth without even realizing it [I pause and run my tongue over my front
teeth], and learning to speak starts with learning how to make sounds [I do
exaggerated da-da-da sounds and la-la-la sounds].  Your baby's tongue seems
to be able to do the job of breastfeeding right now, which is great.  If
things seem to go downhill later on -- his weight gain slows up, or you do
start to get sore, you can start with this hand-out."   Thist just plants a
seed in mom's mind for later on, if need be, without overwhelming her with a
lot of "what ifs."

-- 
Liz Brooks JD IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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