I thought I'd share some good news. I saw a baby with a tongue tie a couple
of weeks ago and lots of trouble staying latched. The pediatrician made a
referral to our dentistry department for clipping. (She breastfed her four
kids). The problem came when the dentist/oral surgeon realized the child was a
newborn. They have been used to clipping older kids for speech problems and
usually use a general anesthetic (gas) and a laser (no bleeding--might be an
idea for a hemophiliac patient) but weren't comfortable giving a general
anesthetic to a newborn and initially refused to perform the frenotomy. I
went in with Mom and baby, explained the breastfeeding issues with pictures of
tongue position and peristalsis during latch (and a copy of the 1990 article
in JHL which cited doing the procedure on newborns without anesthesia) and
they agreed to a simple clipping without gas. I called today and Mom and baby
are now doing great! Rationality and research win one. Yeahhhh!
Cindy N.