Maria and all,

I arrived at the same *hypothesis* regarding folic acid and tongue/lip-ties independently. I have no strong supporting research, just a suspicion that something(s) in the environment that women are pervasively exposed to is contributing to the incomplete apoptosis of the frenulum tissues. Folic acid has my vote because it is given for a specific purpose that has an opposing action to apoptosis.



In my family we have a history of mild midline defects. I have bifurcated uvula, as does my sister, her son, our mother... I had a lip tie and while I can't touch the roof of my mouth, I have good enough tongue mobility. My two brothers and I all had children at the same time, and there were no breastfeeding problems or other signs of tongue mobility restriction. But my grandbabies, great nephews and my sister's twins (she had children late), the oldest of whom is now 8... four out of five of my grandchildren had problematic posterior tongue restrictions requiring revision to make breastfeeding work; one of my sister's two fraternal twins has a posterior tie that caused pain for most of the first year, is untreated, and now has speech issues, and both of my great nephews had posterior restrictions requiring revision to make breastfeeding comfortable and feeding durations reasonable. 



I know that folic acid supplementation has been around for a while, but does anyone know what the actual "load" is now between fortified foods and maternal vitamins compared to decades past?  I suspect, but find it hard to prove, that today's mothers are ingesting more than my mother's and my generations did. My family already seems to have a genetic predisposition and I suspect that we would be more vulnerable. Is it just coincidence that all but one of my grandchildren, born in the past 10 years, had posterior tongue-ties that caused problems for them? 



My daughter is pregnant with her second baby, due in October. I have paid the big bucks to provide her prenatal vitamins with methylated folate. There was a period of time that she ran out and took the regulars with folic acid, but we'll see if there is any difference at all with this baby.  



~Lisa Marasco



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