The ENT who clips frenula for my clients' babies says that in the newborn
the tissue is very thin--transparent-- with few nerve endings and little
blood flow.  The older the baby is when the frenulum is clipped the more
inervated and blood-filled it it.

Most infants whom I work with show no discomfort after the clipping. A few
seem to experience some pain the second day, then nothing. Occasionally the
clipping must be a bit deeper and there will be more blood, though for a
very few minutes. Those babies are uncomfortable the next day.

I had one client whose baby was 3 months old and I could tell that the
tissue was thick and very pink, as opposed to the then, clear ones of the
newborn. She cried a lot afterwards and wouldn't feed at the breast for a
couple of days. There was a lot of bleeding too.

So an older person would experience more pain and bleeding.

Now, I am not one to say that infants don't feel pain so we should do any
painful procedure that we wish. But my experience does show that the main
thing that most infants cry about is the restraint.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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