Tongue Tied..

[Bethany89]

My little girl is tongue tied, it has never been an issue. She nursed, took a bottle, and eats solids just fine. She babbles and says some words.

Now, we have an appointment with her ENT to talk about getting it clipped around her first birthday.
Background - all the ENTs in my area will not clip unless it is causing FTT. They put babies under general for clipping, so they will not do it immediately unless needed. Its so strange because my aunt's IL had a baby 2 weeks before I had Caelyn and he too has tongue tied and they clipped it at his 1 week appointment in the office.
but thats in columbus so IDK different policies

Alright.. so my question is.. has anyone NOT got their baby's tongue clipped? Its not causing issues right now.. I mean, they told me it might caused a lisp, but thats it. Should I wait until she is older to see if it is even causing problems or just go ahead and clip it at her 1st birthday?
If you've had it done, how is the recovery for them?

TIA!

[cacasey1981]

I would get it done - we were finally able to get my son's done at 19 months - we had tried to get it done at 14 months and ins wouldn't approve it (long story short - we know more than the ins co does).

By the time we got it done he had fallen behind on speech and is just now (25 months) caught back up to the other kids his age. He has a bit of a lispy sound to some of his words but the SAME DAY as the surgery he was intelligbly saying 5-6 new words.

I have a lot of mom-guilt for not fighting harder from the beginning (we found out that he was TT at about 8 days old) to get it fixed. We knew it was there and that it could cause issues but we went with what the Drs were telling us. Was this the reason I had such a low supply? Was this why he was slow to talk?

Recovery was cake - he had to have tubes put in (a whole 'nother story...) and that was the more difficult in my opinion. He was eating normal the same day - we stuck with pretty soft foods and I think we only did pain meds at night and that was mostly because he was laying on his ears.

The hardest part was no food or drink after a certain time and just dealing with a hungry toddler while we were waiting in the pre-surgery suite. Afterwards he was super floppy, like he couldn't hold himself in any position but was able to nurse right away.

[Bethany89]

Originally Posted by cacasey1981 I would get it done - we were finally able to get my son's done at 19 months - we had tried to get it done at 14 months and ins wouldn't approve it (long story short - we know more than the ins co does). By the time we got it done he had fallen behind on speech and is just now (25 months) caught back up to the other kids his age. He has a bit of a lispy sound to some of his words but the SAME DAY as the surgery he was intelligbly saying 5-6 new words. I have a lot of mom-guilt for not fighting harder from the beginning (we found out that he was TT at about 8 days old) to get it fixed. We knew it was there and that it could cause issues but we went with what the Drs were telling us. Was this the reason I had such a low supply? Was this why he was slow to talk? Recovery was cake - he had to have tubes put in (a whole 'nother story...) and that was the more difficult in my opinion. He was eating normal the same day - we stuck with pretty soft foods and I think we only did pain meds at night and that was mostly because he was laying on his ears. The hardest part was no food or drink after a certain time and just dealing with a hungry toddler while we were waiting in the pre-surgery suite. Afterwards he was super floppy, like he couldn't hold himself in any position but was able to nurse right away.

We didn't even have the option of doing it earlier, they just won't do it here prior to a year.
I think the biggest thing that is stopping me is the going under general. I have really hard time coming out. I was just put out recently for a biospy and spent 4 hours in recovery throwing up, my BP dropped super low.. it was really bad and I worry about her. Part of me just doesn't want to do it if she has no problems.
My doctor's son is tongue tied and never had any problem talking at all.
It doesn't seem like my DD's is severe.. she can stick her tongue out and everything.
Ugh.. just.. decisions lol.. As far as speech goes.. She is 10 months and says "byebye" "dada" "bubba" "yeah" and a few other things, so I don't know what to think. she definitely isn't behind as far as speech goes..

Thank you for sharing your experience!

[Kiliki]

I would get it done.

Have you gotten a second opinion? Tongue tie surgery is controversial b/c at one time, all babies had the underparts of their tongue snipped. (MW's kept one nail long to sweep under a newborn's tongue and clip it) In an effort to correct that, some medical professionals have gone WAY the other direction, so it's controversial sometimes.

My son had one and we didn't even KNOW until he was 15 mos old and not speaking. He couldn't say ANY consenant sounds. No "d" or "m" or "s" or "l" noises. We finally noticed his tongue was mis-shapen and had it done immediately (it took 2 mos to get the referral and the surgery, so he was 17 mos when it was done) Now, at just over 2 yrs old, he has a HUGE vocabulary, and it's as if it never happened.

He was put under general and I hated that part. It was terribly scary. But, TBH, it was so lightning fast. They wheeled him back, and they came right back to talk to us - I thought they were going to tell us that they were starting, but instead they said he was all done!!! The prep time, waiting, and the waking up period were longer than the surgery itself. He was under maybe all of 10 mins.

If I'd known that he had it at an earlier age, I would have fought really hard to have it corrected. Sadly, we didn't know b/c he nursed like a champ, and gained a ton of weight, and was overall very happy, so we had no reason to think anything was wrong. I feel bad thinking of how frustrated he was trying to communicate but couldn't. But, OTOH, I'm happy we noticed it and had it fixed and didn't wait until there were more serious issues. We were initially expecting him to need some speech therapy after the procedure. He still may, since some of his words aren't quite pronounced right, but we will hold off and just see if those muscles develop over time.

My son's tongue tie was really severe. The ENT said that in his 15 yrs, he'd never seen one so bad. I remember him saying, "On a scale of 1 to 10, your son's tongue tie is an 11 or 12." Yet, he nursed and ate fine, he babbled like babies do, he played and mouthed toys, etc. We never suspected anything.

[myall4him2]

We're actually going to the ent a few days after christmas for my 4 yr old. Her's isn't terrible but it has effected the way she pronounces a lot of words. I'm nervous about them putting her under. No family history of problems with being put under, just nervous about it in general...

[Kiliki]

Have to add - the recovery was nothing. He had some small stitches, which dissolved after so many weeks. He couldn't eat/drink for a while afterwards, so we scheduled the surgery EARLY in the morning, took our time leaving, and on the way home (it was like an hour and a half from our house) we found a place to eat and he ate just fine. He did great. We were more upset than he was!

[NEWBUTWILLING]

We think DD is slightly tongue tied but it hasn't effected her talking or anything so I haven't brought it up to the doctors. DH is slightly tongue tied and he never got his clipped. But if its effecting her speech I would def get it done.

[Bethany89]

Ugh.. so hard for me lol. It really is, Robert is totally against doing it right now. He does not want her put under, especially with the family history of being put under and how badly I and my mother react. Me being the worse.

He wants to wait and see if it is even necessary. The ENT when we first visited said it was not very severe and he would recommend waiting to see even if it needed done at all. I'm just worried lol I'm a worrier.

Hypothetically speaking, say we wait and nothing comes about and her speech develops fine, would you leave it alone?

[kristenb423]

I work with an awesome speech therapist who recommends only having the tongue clipped if it is causing problems because the child's speech can actually become worse and they can lose the ability to produce some sounds. If there are not feeding concerns or significant articulation concerns (that don't respond to speech therapy), then I would not have it done. Good luck with your decision.

[Bethany89]

Originally Posted by NEWBUTWILLING We think DD is slightly tongue tied but it hasn't effected her talking or anything so I haven't brought it up to the doctors. DH is slightly tongue tied and he never got his clipped. But if its effecting her speech I would def get it done.

Its not at all.. she pronounces r, m, p, d, b and a few others correctly. she has a few words in her vocab already. I think it might just be a slight tongue tied, since she can stick it out.