Tongue Tied

Have you ever had a child that isn't satisfied, whether it was being fed from a breast or a bottle?
Well i did. When i brought the problem up to the midwife at a clinic for baby check ups, i was told i must be doing something wrong. If she had put her finger in his mouth she would have found a small membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of his mouth.

Many people assume that being tongue tied is just an expression, but the truth is it is a problem that can affect a small amount of infants and children.
My son could not lick an ice cream, could not suck on a bottle properly and when he started to talk it sounded like he had a lisp.

When i took my son to my local doctor at fourteen months old and insisted he check my son’s mouth and tongue, he referred me to the hospital to get the problem resolved surgically.
I never made it to the hospital for his appointment due to a previous engagement my mother had with a skin clinic. Inside, moments before we were leaving for our hospital appointment we got talking to a couple whose child had also been tongue tied and like me, had an appointment at the hospital. After chatting with the couple i found out that they would refuse to fix the problem until he reached the age of four, and that by then he would need large amounts of speech therapy to help him catch up with other children his age.

When i looked down to their child i realised that she was licking a lolly pop without any problems. When i asked how old she was i was informed that she was now fifteen months old, and had already had her tongue fixed by a clinic in the city whom specialised in this particular condition and also circumcision.

I made an appointment with the same clinic the couple had used, and two weeks later we went and had the problem fixed. It took two minutes, no surgery. The smallest amount of pain and within ten minutes he was back to his normal self. He is now four has a better speech pattern then most children his age now and will never have any long term effects.
I am very, very thankful that I had that encounter, as all of my children so far have been tongue tied now and I have managed to get the rest of them all fixed up within a week of them being born and have not had any problems with development or feeding outside of the first month(when they need to relearn to suckle due to increased milk flow).

It can all be diagnosed with one check of their mouth, ask your gp or paediatrician if you have any worries that your child might be tongue tied. 

Thank you for reading, I am trying to update a little more often now!

Trins