Hello Lactnetters,

I have permission from this family to post their story.  I was blown away, though with your wealth of knowledge and experience, there is a good chance many of you won't be surprised!

A few weeks ago, a couple came to a breastfeeding workshop I run at a local business with their 1 week old baby.  She had no pain, but he could not sustain a breastfeed.  They came into the store looking for a bottle to begin supplementing with her EBM.  They did not know I was there that day, but they had great timing.  I checked out mom's latching technique, it was pretty good though we made a few minor adjustments to get him on as deep as possible and I showed her how to do compressions to help him along.  This was helpful in terms of intake, but still did not help him sustain a feed on his own.  When he came off the breast, the issue (which I had suspected from symptoms alone) became glaringly apparent:  Tongue-tie!  I did not need to examine him to figure this one out, it was quite obvious.

So as I began to explain the issues that can be caused by tongue-tie, I could see that dad was thinking hard about something.  He stopped me mid-sentence and asked me to look at his tongue.  Sure enough, he too had a tongue-tie, quite similar to his son's, though not quite as severe.  As I explained our local options for frenectomy for babies, dad began asking if they would do adults.  He told me about some issues he struggles with:  major orthodontic work, speech therapy that never really fixed his speech issues, he still begins to stutter as his tongue and jaw fatigues after a while.  So his son's frenectomy is performed a few days later and he booked an appointment for himself a few days after that.

When I followed up with the baby, who was doing much better and now nursing like a champ, I also asked dad, how it went, as he had had his frenectomy just a few days earlier.  I was expecting he'd notice a change, but not to this degree:  He told me that all his life he'd suffered from TMJ syndrome.  He'd had chiropractic and osteopathic care for years to try to relieve his constant jaw and ear pain, frequent ear infections.  After each treatment, he would get some relief, but it was temporary.  After the frenectomy however he noticed a dramatic change.  After a short worsening in his TMJ symptoms for 1-2 days, suddenly, his jaw began to drop and relax.  His pain went away.  He also has more stamina when speaking and stutters much less.  Even I noticed his speech was much clearer.

So it just goes to show how pervasive tongue-tie issues can be.  I am learning all the time how big an effect it can have, but I was really surprised to hear this man's experience.

And never in a million years, when I decided to help breastfeeding dyads did I think I would have an impact on a grown man's health!

This whole experience certainly put me on a high for a little while!

Jennifer Welch, IBCLC, LLLCL, Montreal, QC, Canada

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