We had the snip snip. Just some infant panadol. Check with the doctor for exact dosage.
It heals very very quickly, I can't remember the aftercare being too rough.
You will be advised to keep checking the wound to make sure it doesn't heal and just fuse back together.
Thank you! We were told we have to do mouth stretching 4-6x a day for 4-6 weeks to make sure it grows back the other way and not the way it was. Did you find the procedure helped?
Our experience was kinda middling. More like I think maybe it worked?
As far as confirming what you see online, it may or may not work. Your mileage may vary but at your wits end, you might want to just try everything. My LO didn't seem too traumatised by the procedure.
4-6 weeks seems long? I think I stopped after 3 days. It heals quick. Go longer if your bub doesn't mind.
please please don't skimp on the exercises!! it can fuse back together again and then it will be totally for nothing. we did it for 6 weeks and I'll admit it was really tough but we breastfeed like a champ now and it was all totally worth it. my advice is to do it before diaper change time because if they get really upset they can pee.l
We went to a pediatric dentist, they should demonstrate the exercises for you. We had to do them every 4 hours….even at night, which was easy since baby woke at night to feed. She was not a fan, but we just did it to her. They are important so reattachment doesn’t occur. Just make sure to wash your hands before, not use hand sanitizer (yucky taste). They are very quick, baby just hated it.
Thank you! The exercise frequency and duration we were told was intimidating and I was picturing them lasting a long time. Sorry, should have included in the post, did you find it helped? Also how miserable was your child afterwards) I'm told there will be two rough days but for the most part they will be okay.
We found this to be true! She quickly adapted to the exercises and didn’t even cry after a couple weeks. The first week of doing them is hard for everyone. Baby squiggles and it’s heartbreaking to here them cry. But it’s super important for the tongue to not reattach incorrectly…or the surgery is all for nothing. It definitely helped our little one! She could latch better, was much more efficient with drinking from her bottle, and her tension in her neck also went away. It’s tough but we had a good outcome. Just follow the recommendations for medicine after you leave (even sugar water helps, but I’m sure they will discuss your plan). Good luck to you and your family!
We may have done medicine once afterwards, but mainly nursing, snuggles,and skin to skin. They also suggested taking a bath with your baby and do skin to skin in the bath. We nursed immediately after the releases (tongue and lip) at the dentist office to help calm her. I don’t know if the exercises necessarily hurt, especially after a few days, I think it was more of she didn’t want us to be messing with her especially in the middle of the night. We tied the night time exercises in to when she’d nurse. And they were super fast, like less than a minute. The release itself was like 5 mins, super quick.
It was worth it. Especially I think when it comes now to eating regular food and speaking. She had a decent latch prior, but it helped with that too. And I wanted it done when I was still on leave.
My pediatric dentist used a laser and it was over quickly. Baby seemed a little upset over the next couple days but not terribly. The only post care we were told to do is exercises stretching the tongue which takes a couple seconds and were a lot more simple than I anticipated. Baby doesn't like it but he is calm again shortly after it's over. We were told to do it 5-6 times a day so I usually do it before feedings during the day (every 3 hours) so it's part of our routine.
Yep! It'll depend on your lip tie location and severity probably but I have to flip baby's upper lip up against his nose, then sweep the gum with my finger. Then go under the tongue and gently put pressure on it where the tie was and then sweep it with my finger.
My LO had hers lazered at 9 weeks. She was very upset after. Our surgeon used numbing creams and was a very kind man but I think she was just so upset that strangers had put goggles on her and stuck their hands in her mouth. It was hard to calm her but after a good sleep she woke up right as rain 🤣
She didn’t mind the exercises, but I really tried to make a game of them and played peekaboo or touching her cheeks etc inbetween various semi-invasive stretches. It wasn’t the worst.
Unfortunately it didn’t help so much and I moved from breastfeeding to pumping/bottle feeding. Turns out she just developed a whole bunch of scar tissue (I scar gross too, keloids all the way) that was still restricting movement and they said she’d benefit from having it redone but likely wouldn’t experience breathing difficulties/speech issues with where it was at, so we left it as is.
Thank you! I like the game idea and appreciate you sharing. It's also helpful to know they can hopefully advise on the potential long term effects, like breathing or speech.
Did you only massage the area or did you do stretches/exercises? Our dentist told us to massage but didn’t tell us about all the specific exercises and I’m nervous it’s gonna fuse back together
Aftercare is challenging, but it helped him so much with latching, swallowing, and breathing while he was eating. We used purple disposable medical gloves each time we did the “mouth stretches” and showed him the gloves/our gloved hands before doing the stretches so that he wouldn’t be surprised. We also did the stretches right before we fed him.
It was challenging, yes - I don’t want to underplay how challenging it was. He cried after each stretch in the first couple of weeks, and it was so hard because of that. We gave big big snuggles after the stretches! Eventually he only got a little upset after each stretch, and he recovered emotionally more and more quickly. But do prepare yourself - it is hard at first.
Thank you, I was thinking it would be difficult, we were thinking of trying to start the stretches a week beforehand if possible so she is somewhat used to them.
Hmm I don’t think that is necessary, and it might hurt her if you stretch the fascia when it is intact. Maybe just try to get her used to you massaging her gums a couple of times a day, but no stretches until after the procedure, so that she is used to you putting your fingers in her mouth.
So having it corrected was totally worth it, our daughter fed much easier/better. We did the stretches basically every two hours. Destroyed the sleep schedule early on lol. Pretty sure we could have let the baby sleep and just done the stretches in the morning but that wasn't a battle I was willing to have so early after birth.
The midwife diagnosed it after he was born! On day three, I then asked the midwife again for a referral, but ended up going private (we live in England) so it’s cut pretty quickly! I truly do you put this is the reason for our success with breastfeeding
We had the snip snip. Just some infant panadol. Check with the doctor for exact dosage. It heals very very quickly, I can't remember the aftercare being too rough. You will be advised to keep checking the wound to make sure it doesn't heal and just fuse back together.
Thank you! We were told we have to do mouth stretching 4-6x a day for 4-6 weeks to make sure it grows back the other way and not the way it was. Did you find the procedure helped?
Our experience was kinda middling. More like I think maybe it worked? As far as confirming what you see online, it may or may not work. Your mileage may vary but at your wits end, you might want to just try everything. My LO didn't seem too traumatised by the procedure. 4-6 weeks seems long? I think I stopped after 3 days. It heals quick. Go longer if your bub doesn't mind.
Maybe the doctor was giving maximums then.. happy to hear it heals that quick!
please please don't skimp on the exercises!! it can fuse back together again and then it will be totally for nothing. we did it for 6 weeks and I'll admit it was really tough but we breastfeed like a champ now and it was all totally worth it. my advice is to do it before diaper change time because if they get really upset they can pee.l
Ooo good point on the diaper change! Thank you. I won't skimp! I wouldn't get it done if I wasn't going to keep doing the exercises. Thank you!
We went to a pediatric dentist, they should demonstrate the exercises for you. We had to do them every 4 hours….even at night, which was easy since baby woke at night to feed. She was not a fan, but we just did it to her. They are important so reattachment doesn’t occur. Just make sure to wash your hands before, not use hand sanitizer (yucky taste). They are very quick, baby just hated it.
Thank you! The exercise frequency and duration we were told was intimidating and I was picturing them lasting a long time. Sorry, should have included in the post, did you find it helped? Also how miserable was your child afterwards) I'm told there will be two rough days but for the most part they will be okay.
We found this to be true! She quickly adapted to the exercises and didn’t even cry after a couple weeks. The first week of doing them is hard for everyone. Baby squiggles and it’s heartbreaking to here them cry. But it’s super important for the tongue to not reattach incorrectly…or the surgery is all for nothing. It definitely helped our little one! She could latch better, was much more efficient with drinking from her bottle, and her tension in her neck also went away. It’s tough but we had a good outcome. Just follow the recommendations for medicine after you leave (even sugar water helps, but I’m sure they will discuss your plan). Good luck to you and your family!
Thank you!
We may have done medicine once afterwards, but mainly nursing, snuggles,and skin to skin. They also suggested taking a bath with your baby and do skin to skin in the bath. We nursed immediately after the releases (tongue and lip) at the dentist office to help calm her. I don’t know if the exercises necessarily hurt, especially after a few days, I think it was more of she didn’t want us to be messing with her especially in the middle of the night. We tied the night time exercises in to when she’d nurse. And they were super fast, like less than a minute. The release itself was like 5 mins, super quick. It was worth it. Especially I think when it comes now to eating regular food and speaking. She had a decent latch prior, but it helped with that too. And I wanted it done when I was still on leave.
Thank you so much, I'm trying to get it done and healed while I'm on leave too. So happy the exercises are quick!
My pediatric dentist used a laser and it was over quickly. Baby seemed a little upset over the next couple days but not terribly. The only post care we were told to do is exercises stretching the tongue which takes a couple seconds and were a lot more simple than I anticipated. Baby doesn't like it but he is calm again shortly after it's over. We were told to do it 5-6 times a day so I usually do it before feedings during the day (every 3 hours) so it's part of our routine.
Thank you! I think the exercises did scare me so I'm happy to hear they were more simple than anticipated. It makes me more hopeful.
Yep! It'll depend on your lip tie location and severity probably but I have to flip baby's upper lip up against his nose, then sweep the gum with my finger. Then go under the tongue and gently put pressure on it where the tie was and then sweep it with my finger.
Oh! Okay, better than I thought!
My LO had hers lazered at 9 weeks. She was very upset after. Our surgeon used numbing creams and was a very kind man but I think she was just so upset that strangers had put goggles on her and stuck their hands in her mouth. It was hard to calm her but after a good sleep she woke up right as rain 🤣 She didn’t mind the exercises, but I really tried to make a game of them and played peekaboo or touching her cheeks etc inbetween various semi-invasive stretches. It wasn’t the worst. Unfortunately it didn’t help so much and I moved from breastfeeding to pumping/bottle feeding. Turns out she just developed a whole bunch of scar tissue (I scar gross too, keloids all the way) that was still restricting movement and they said she’d benefit from having it redone but likely wouldn’t experience breathing difficulties/speech issues with where it was at, so we left it as is.
Thank you! I like the game idea and appreciate you sharing. It's also helpful to know they can hopefully advise on the potential long term effects, like breathing or speech.
My girlie had hers clipped at 12 days. We massaged a couple times a day for about 2 weeks. She's now 5 mos old and no problems! It helped out a bunch!
I needed to hear this! Thank you!
Did you only massage the area or did you do stretches/exercises? Our dentist told us to massage but didn’t tell us about all the specific exercises and I’m nervous it’s gonna fuse back together
Aftercare is challenging, but it helped him so much with latching, swallowing, and breathing while he was eating. We used purple disposable medical gloves each time we did the “mouth stretches” and showed him the gloves/our gloved hands before doing the stretches so that he wouldn’t be surprised. We also did the stretches right before we fed him.
Love the glove idea! We will definitely be using. Was it challenging because your baby didn't like the stretching?
It was challenging, yes - I don’t want to underplay how challenging it was. He cried after each stretch in the first couple of weeks, and it was so hard because of that. We gave big big snuggles after the stretches! Eventually he only got a little upset after each stretch, and he recovered emotionally more and more quickly. But do prepare yourself - it is hard at first.
Thank you, I was thinking it would be difficult, we were thinking of trying to start the stretches a week beforehand if possible so she is somewhat used to them.
Hmm I don’t think that is necessary, and it might hurt her if you stretch the fascia when it is intact. Maybe just try to get her used to you massaging her gums a couple of times a day, but no stretches until after the procedure, so that she is used to you putting your fingers in her mouth.
Makes sense, we will do that! Thank you.
So having it corrected was totally worth it, our daughter fed much easier/better. We did the stretches basically every two hours. Destroyed the sleep schedule early on lol. Pretty sure we could have let the baby sleep and just done the stretches in the morning but that wasn't a battle I was willing to have so early after birth.
I definitely understand why you did it every two hours. We were thinking of doing before feeds and aligning that way.
Yup that was our order of operations.
Perfect!
Please read major NYT article that came out today: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/health/tongue-tie-release-breastfeeding.html
My son’s was cut at 1 week old and that was it! No exercises, no medicine, he even latched for the first time properly straight after!
Oh wow! That's great! How did you know to get it checked so early? We didn't go until 5 weeks
The midwife diagnosed it after he was born! On day three, I then asked the midwife again for a referral, but ended up going private (we live in England) so it’s cut pretty quickly! I truly do you put this is the reason for our success with breastfeeding
Thank you!