I am mad. I am hurt. Lip tie....

[FernHollow]

OMG. I didn't know what this was until now. My 3rd had a tongue tie that had to be surgically corrected at age 3 because of speech issues, so I knew to look for that but not a lip tie. My 18mo has the most severe form of lip tie according to the pics I just looked up on Google!!! I nursed all my other kids until about 18 months but he weaned around 10 months after months of not gaining weight and being so irritable. I tried to increase my supply with no luck. When we started supplementing with a bottle (which just killed me emotionally, felt like such a failure) he literally flat out refused to nurse and guzzled down the formula. I felt like I had been starving him and we noticed a huge change in his behavior. He went from screaming at night to sleeping through the night in a week. It was such a sad ending to nursing. We never had any problems like this with our others and I just thought there was something wrong with my supply!

I am so shocked. I cannot tell you how many tears were involved with weaning him and now knowing this was the reason. Wow. I always wondered about the big gap between his top teeth and bump behind them on his palate. It is adorable of course, but I am really angry no one caught this for us either. At least I know now and can learn about it and I have you OP to thank for that.

[me_just_me]

My DD also has what looks to be a severe lip tie. She is still nursing, but unlike my other two kids, it hurts to nurse her. Her latch has never been that great, and since her teeth came in, her latch has just gotten worse.

But she bumped her mouth the other day and ripped her frenulum. It is no longer attached all the way to her palate. She now has a loose piece of skin dangling a little bit above her front teeth. I'm hoping this is enough to keep her teeth from having a gap, but it still seems to inhibit her latch. I'm going to ask her doctor about it at her 9 month appointment.

I'm so sorry that it was never noticed and your nursing relationship was ruined by it. I have no idea why doctors don't seem to check for these right from the beginning.

[Docs Wife]

A little different perspective for you. I had a lip tie. Mine was not correct.until I was a teen and had braces. From the looks of photos I also have a posterior tongue tie. It has never been mentioned or given me issues.

[JustSomeChickVee]

Originally Posted by Docs Wife A little different perspective for you. I had a lip tie. Mine was not correct.until I was a teen and had braces. From the looks of photos I also have a posterior tongue tie. It has never been mentioned or given me issues.

I was also lip tied and so was my sister. You can see the gap in my teeth when I was little but at some point it must have torn because my permanent teeth have no gap and are straight. I didn't have speech issues. My sister did have a slight gap and needed braces for 2 years, but even without the gap she would've needed braces.

[qsefthuko]

My youngest had a tongue tie. Fortunately the hospital lc caught it and pushed to find a dr who would take care of it before we left hospital. She told us if she couldn't find a dr in hospital to take care of it to take our son to a European dr. They were typically,according to her, more likely to do something than American drs. She said most American drs don't see it as an issue as most studies on it were done after formula was being given to most babies from birth. Since it didn't seem to be an issue for formula babies the assumption was it shouldn't affect breastfed babies. This she said was when the wait and see recommendation started. Again according to the lc we saw in hospital. I never did do any research so cannot say absolutely. It just made sense to me though.

[TeachinAuntie]

It will probably be an out-patient surgery. It took my boys 2 days to recover & they IMMEDIATELY saw benefits. I say get to an ENT ASAP.

[Brayjjanna]

My situation sounds exactly to yours but we kept on nursing. She hated to nurse. She screamed all day and it was a mess. At 7 months I discovered her lip and posterior tongue tie. 2 weeks later I drove to albany New York (which was a 16 hr round trip) to see a dr. Kotlow. His website is kids teeth and he's awesome at corresponding via email. He uses a laser and it literally took 1 minute. Took her away and brought her right back. Very tiny amount of blood. She was fine. The worst part was doing the stretches for the week after. But the procedure itself was painless using the laser.

[Docs Wife]

I had a very thick one between my lip and gum along with a noticeable gap. Like I said I was older when mine was delt with but it was done at an oral surgeon's office. I have never had any issues with the tongue tie, but I would say it is a pretty minor one.

[songbird516]

Originally Posted by JustSomeChickVee In our case, the LT was the issue. my DS had full tongue movement and a well formed palate despite the minor posterior TT.

I don't understand why you wouldn't be open to fixing the LT? We just had micah's revised which was also quite severe and it was not really a big deal. I would much rather have it fixed by someone who knows what they're doing than tear on it's own. Also, having it fixed early on MAY help to prevent problems with teeth spacing later. Also tooth decay in the front teeth can be a huge problem for some babes with LT. For those reasons we chose to revise even though breastfeeding was going well.

[JustSomeChickVee]

Originally Posted by songbird516 I don't understand why you wouldn't be open to fixing the LT? We just had micah's revised which was also quite severe and it was not really a big deal. I would much rather have it fixed by someone who knows what they're doing than tear on it's own. Also, having it fixed early on MAY help to prevent problems with teeth spacing later. Also tooth decay in the front teeth can be a huge problem for some babes with LT. For those reasons we chose to revise even though breastfeeding was going well.

There is nobody in my area who will fix it. Except for one doctor and I have not heard good things about her.
ETA: The tearing on its own is no big deal.