I have seen one case of a child who tore own frenulum.  I assessed infant at
birth.  Mother presented with very sore nipples, but decided for a number of
reasons not to seek frenotomy.  I saw second child for same reasons 4 years
later.  Baby #2 had tongue-tie and mother again had very chewed up nipples.
I asked 4 yr if I could see his tongue, and the frenulum was no longer
attached at the tongue tip.  The frenulum didn't look ragged or injured, and
the child had normal speech and teeth were in normally spaced.  Mother
couldn't recall when it happened, but we speculate child fell down and prob.
bit through it with the bottom teeth or a toy in the mouth.

Alison is right when she says you can't count on this happening, but it does
sometimes occur and doesn't seem to be any more of a big deal to the normal
kid than having a doc. clip it.  In fact, for a hemopheliac, there may be
more justification to clip in a controlled environment that to risk the
child do this in a fall.

I have seen kids with thin, stretchy frenulae who seemed to struggle early
on, didn't get clipped, and later seemed to feed ok.  I don't know how this
type of not-so-severe limitation of range of motion affects other things
such as dental health, speech, but I have seen several kids clipped at 4 and
5 due to speech problems.

Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas
http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html