What a scary thing to have happen, Allison. I want to offer you my best wishes.

Just want to let Allison (the Queen of tongue-tie) and the rest of the list
know that the Heart of Texas LCs (the HOT LCs  :) )had a neat meeting last
night.  We viewed Dr. Palmer's wonderful video from last summer's ILCA conf.
with our invited guest, a local ENT who is collecting observational data on
clipping tongue-tied breastfeeding infants.  We were all really excited by
his comments.  He remarked that for years he, along with most of the local
pediatric community, scoffed at the LCs for referring tt babies.  Then, when
some parents insisted, he began clipping some newborns in-office.  The
proceedure was relatively easy with few side effects and risks if done
carefully, and when he followed up, he was struck with the reports of fewer
feeding problems and less pain for mothers.

 He describes himself as interested and committed to the idea of
breastfeeding due to the otitis media connection, so was surprised to see
what a diff. clipping made with breastfeeding.  He has followed about 20 of
these infants so far.  I am always delighted to encounter people whose minds
are open to new ideas, or ideas which are different from what they always
believed.  It takes a lot of humility to be teachable.  This lovely man is
even being brave enough to risk discussing his observations with the pedis
-- which really flies in the face of the community standards. He's now
talking about trying to get more info on breastfeeding and mechanics of suck
into local pedi residency programs!

 So just when you think nothing ever will change, along comes someone who
helps you see that of course change comes -- esp. when people continue to
facilitate it.  I was really proud of all the LCs in the room and the years
of patient education and willingness to risk the disapproval and ridicule of
the med. community to bring this issue to the fore.  We assured this doctor
that we dont know whether all babies with tt should be clipped or not, and
urged him to cont. to do research and to publish it.

BTW, there were lots of Lactnetters present including Julie Moy, Donna and
Sharon Coe, and Mary-Ann Todd Thompson.



Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html