Sharon,
Anecdotally, I had two tongue-tied babies (twins) who breastfed without
issue from birth at approx 36 weeks gestation until four years. Looking
back at all we had stacked against us (transport in early labor from
planned home birth for preterm, a two week postpartum stay in intermediate
care nursery for observation, and two late preterm kiddos with very tight
lingual frenulums), it's kind of amazing that they were exclusively
breastfed from the get-go. I think our saving graces included a natural
spontaneous labor/birth, immediate skin-to-skin, accidental laid-back
breastfeeding (the ONLY good thing about birthing on an operating table!),
that not a bottle or pacifier crossed their lips, and the fact that it
never occurred to me I couldn't exclusively breastfeed them. In fact, in a
terribly traumatic hospitalization, I felt that it was the only thing that
made me indispensable as their mother (in the eyes of the staff). They
latched on five minutes after birth, and I refused to set foot outside the
hospital until they were going home with us. All of this is to say that
there are certainly babies whose tongue ties cause small or no problems.
These are the babies whose tight frenulums may go completely unnoticed.  I
didn't realize my girls had ankyloglossia until long after breastfeeding
had been established, and I suspect the wonderful LC who assisted us
didn't notice either. She never mentioned it. But I think what happens
often is that the dyad has many things stacked against them and/or few
saving graces and what might not have been a problem quickly becomes a
problem. I can imagine many sadder ways that our story might have unfolded
(had I not had copious milk production or had they been drugged and drowsy
at birth, for instance).

Looking back, I DO wonder if clipping our twins' ties would have gotten us
out of the hospital sooner. They had a few brief episodes of apnea and
bradychardia, which primarily occurred when they nursed lying down. I now
believe these were caused by a combination of their mild immaturity, my
strong MER and their tongue ties, which made it hard for them to organize
suck/swallow/breathe despite being vigorous nursers and eager latchers.
When I intuitively fed them in upright and laid back positions they had no
A's and B's, but I didn't put two and two together until later. I wish
that I had had information at that point about their tongue ties, how it
might be impacting them then, how it might impact their ability to roll
their r's in Spanish in the future, and what our options were, but mine
was not an informed choice. On the other side, we have two joyfully
breastfed babies who have turned into lovely four year olds that speak
pretty darn well in both Spanish and English. They may decide they want to
get their tongue ties clipped some day and that will be entirely up to
them.

Best,
Brooke Casey, CPM, LM, IBCLC


Date:    Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:35:39 +0430
From:    Sharon Economides <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: I also see tongue tie everywhere, now!

Hello All,

We have been discussing tongue tie clips recently on the list, so it begs
the question-

How often do you see ankyloglossia that causes no problems to mom or baby?
 Do these also go on to have speech difficulties in the future?

Sharon Economides LM, CPM, MMID, IBCLC

On Jul 24, 2012, at 1:01 AM, Rowena Tucker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Jean, I have also been studying tongue tie and lip tie and now see them
everywhere! I now realize that the ten weeks of toe-curling pain I
experienced on
latch was from my baby's lip tie. She had widely spaced teeth as a tween,
then her
dentition "corrected" itself as her mature proportions developed.
> Yet another doctor has refused to clip a tie, even though mom's nipples
faces were
scoured off like a rug burn. He said, "oh, it's not bad." True, but the
look (and
feel, per mom) was bad! She is determined. I issued a nipple shield. (Yes,
we optimized approach, latch and position first.)
> Big sigh......
> Rowena
> RTucker IBCLC
> WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator
> Lactation Consultant
> BVCAA WIC#32
> Bryan, Texas

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