At least twice a week I diagnose a tongue tie which is causing complications with feeding, digestion and then of course this has a knock on effect on routine and sleep. Often these babies have been checked and misdiagnosed or even had a tongue tie release but have missed the posterior tie, sometimes the first release has grown over and reattached.
So what is tongue-tie?
Tongue-tie is where the connecting tissue from baby’s tongue to the bottom of the mouth is shorter than it should be or has not separated, this then restricts the movement of the tongue which can cause feeding issues.
( feature image is an anterior tie, the above two images are posterior )
Tongue-tie is sometimes diagnosed during a baby’s newborn physical examination, but it’s not always easy to spot by many healthcare professionals, it may not be obvious until your baby has problems feeding.
Tongue-tie can cause digestive issues due to an ineffective suck, chomping instead of a circular sucking action, the tongue is unable to stay forward to hold a strong suck so it retracts back while feeding making the suck and latch shallow, resulting in erratic feeding, gulping or comfort sucking.
A baby with tongue-tie will typically suck well on latching but only for a few minutes, the tongue then retracts back, and your newborn loses energy to hold the tongue forward and falls into comfort sucking mode. A tongue tie doesn’t always mean the tongue is unable to move forward but also the movement from side to side.
If you are having feeding and latch issue during the first couple of months do book in for a phone appointment or home visit to help investigate or seek out your local infant tongue tie clinic or specialist tongue tie release midwife.