Hi All,



I saw the worst tongue tie I have ever seen in 14 yrs today.  4 day old baby
has a high bubble palate and extremely disorganized suck.  Her tongue has
almost no ability to lateralize or elevate, it notches and bunches in that
squared off shape and moves frantically back and forth and then in reverse
motion in an effort to sustain some sort of sucking to get milk.  Frenulum
is deeper than I have felt - you have to really sweep under that tongue to
find it submucosally (if that is a word) and when you do it is one tight
frenulum.



Forget the breastfeeding for now - she isn't capable at this point.  She
tried to latch, and just chomped on the breast and got so frustrated she
came off screaming.  If parents don't catch her at the earliest of feeding
cues she becomes frantic with the bottle (or finger feeding for that matter)
and opens her mouth moderately wide (also has tight muscle issues) but
cannot recognize that the bottle nipple is there and close her mouth and
suck.



Baby will be sent first to my Bowen therapist to work out the very tight
muscles she is dealing with - asymmetry with the body and very tight muscles
in the neck and jaw.  I am hoping that working out the tight muscles will
help her find some ability to use her tongue in the near future to be able
to breastfeed.



Then we will try to find someone in our area (HA!) who might clip it or
perhaps send her to another town to a Doc I just found out about today who
does clip - hopefully he does this type also.   (thanks Molly!)  If we can't
find anyone to clip it we will work on the breastfeeding anyway in hopes
that she will be able to breastfeed.  Thankfully mom has nice soft squishy,
moldable breasts - that should help.



Wow - when it rains tongue ties - it POURS tongue ties!



J



Jaye Simpson, IBCLC, CIIM

Breastfeeding Network

Sacramento, CA

www.breastfeedingnetwork.net




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