I agree with Katherine, that assuming all is well with the tongue-tie
b/c the baby is feeding well at the time is often an incorrect
assessment. I have seen many, many example of where this might seem to
be the case, but has not turned out to be so. Often, one never sees the
problem, b/c what appears to be a loss of milk supply or gradual
"natural" weaning would not have happened had the tie been clipped. At
the other end, the problem only reveals itself through a secondary
situation that appears to be unrelated.
For example, I had a call from a mom whose baby was 9 weeks old,
feeding very well, gaining very well, but would not take a bottle and
mom had to return to work. When I saw baby, I discovered a posterior
tongue-tie and a baby who fed very passively as mom had a very strong
MER and lots of milk. She had no pain and she and baby were quite
content. She had bf her first child, but only with great difficulty due
to a tongue-tie that the ped refused to clip (obvious anterior tie,
thus she did not recognize this one). Interestingly, during the few
weeks I worked with her to resolve the problem (have the tie clipped
and help the baby release his compensations and learn to use his
muscles differently--primarily though CST), mom's supply began to drop
dramatically and his weight gain completely stopped. We had to use
herbal galactogogues for a bit until he could feed more efficiently and
improve her supply. This baby is also an example of a tie that was not
clipped quite far enough and mom opted to do extra pumping to maintain
her supply rather that have it reclipped (ped was very willing).
My own daughter nursed for 5 years with a posterior tongue-tie. She is
almost 15 and I did not recognize posterior ties then. She developed
clear and excellent language at a very early age and has excellent
teeth, thus one might think that there were no repercussions to her
tie. Not at all true, though. For one thing, I had immense oversupply
and a very painful OAMER with her. She was gassy and had green stools
much of the time and would often refuse to comfort-suckle. I had to be
on the move all the time to get her latch. He latch was never really
deep. She has a high palate and from an early age would snore. She had
croup three times within her first 18 months. Fortunately for her, we
use medicine that has been very healing and with homeopathy her
constitution has become very strong, such that she never has
respiratory illnesses at all. She has had a great deal of CST and other
body work, so her structure has been optimized. When she was Rolfed,
she completely stopped snoring immediately (believe me, it was bad!).
But, she is an acting major at an arts high school and the tie has a
huge impact on her ability to project well and affects her singing as
well as her other work on stage. Granted, we all have areas in our
lives where we may have an impediment in doing things we might like to
do. But, I also know that she might well be struggling with many more
serious problems if she had not had such healing support. The thought
that one might need to do significant dental repair, contend with
chronic sinus infections or adult sleep apnea are no small things. Most
families in the US rely on allopathic medicine and will not receive the
kind of care my daughter has. I would rather see the tie clipped and
avoid those risks altogether. I wish I had known 15 years ago.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC
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