After reading the other posts in this thread, I have to comment.

One post referred to a statement by Dr Kotlow that half the population
(which population?) has 'some degree' of tongue tie. Surely we aren't
expecting most of these to affect breastfeeding?

Folic acid suplementation will only have a chance to prevent neural tube
defects if it is taken in the period when the neural tube is forming, in
the early, almost pre-embryonic phase of pregnancy, a time when many women
are unaware that they are pregnant. At the time of this discovery, the US
diet contained almost no natural sources of folate, so finding a food to
fortify with it was an attempt to deliver folate to everyone. I don't know
when oral anatomical features, especially soft tissue structures, are
formed, but once they are formed, all the folate in the world of whatever
type will hardly matter, unless my understanding of embryology is as
outdated as the rest of my education in the previous millennium.

In prehistoric times, babies with tongue tie probably had markedly lower
survival rates and the trait would not be passed on. Nowadays we don't rely
so much on natural selection to keep possibly inheritable traits at low
levels; we find other ways of feeding babies who might have starved in
ancient times and so of course we are seeing more tongue tie since the
babies with it are surviving and reproducing.

Another possible reason for the apparent increase in tongue tie could be
that more mothers are initiating breastfeeding and perhaps persisting for
longer, so their babies' anatomical obstacles are turning up in our
practices rather than just being an invisible, uncharted part of the
tragically high proportion of children who are breastfed for short times
with lots of trouble. There were many decades in which tongue tie was a
non-issue in infancy: in places where all visible frenulae were divided
routinely on day two or three, and in places where breastfeeding was close
to nonexistent. Division of a tongue tie will not affect the individual's
ova or sperm.

Of course it is possible that there is an explosion of oral anatomical
defects in humans and we are the first to notice it, but we don't have
epidemiological evidence to support such a theory, yet. We don't even know
how to agree about diagnosing tongue tie, let alone determine its
prevalence nor its incidence. All these topics are begging for research.
For my money I would put in place good support services to new mothers, to
deal effectively with ALL the problems they may encounter early on, and
start really keeping track of what causes early cessation of breastfeeding.
Then we can start talking about prevalence and incidence of tongue tie, and
look for causes in a meaningful way.

Rachel Myr
Mother-to-mother counselor, Midwife, IBCLC, and MPH
Kristiansand, Norway

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome