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Hi summer, or anybody else with info!

I read on here a while back how you had managed to get one of your twins tongue ties cut! did you ever get the other one done? and how did you manage it so early? were they having trouble feeding?

now that lennon is seven months and starting to copy sounds i can see that it is already causing him a problem. i am sure kids usually copy dada before mama yet he can say mama and forms his mouth correctly to say dada but it then comes out gaga.

my doctor basically thinks i am stupid and that they will certainly not fund it on tne NHS. i even asked him if he would consider refering me privatly but he told me they would not do it privatly (which is a load of b**locks as they will do anything given enough money) as there is no evidence to suggest cutting a tie makes any difference.

I did point out that this was because they have not studied it and that it would be unethical to do so as you would be leaving a child with a tie that was causing a problem, knowing how it could be fixed. but i could not make him budge. i was thinking about moving doctors to see if this helps as i haev some issues with him anyway.

any info would be apreciated! especailly from those who have had a tie cut before one year.

thanks, marie.

Hi

My son was tongue tied and we didn't get it cut until he was 18 months and he is now 10 and he had some minor speech problems but nursed fine.
when my 2 month old was born she also was tongue tied and they offered to snip it that day she was delivered. I would insist to your Dr that this is your child and your right to get this done. Take charge and don't take no for an answer. Now I live in the US so I know it's diffrent here but you know what's best for your child. Don't give up, keep seeing Doctors until you find one that will do it.

Hi dani, thatnks for that.

Do you feel that your son would not have the speech problems if he had had it cut at an earlier age? or did the speech problems improve when he did have it cut?

Hi Marie

My daughter had her tongue tie cut at ten days old and she has just turned two.

About six months ago we were still concerned that it still wasn't right and after looking for information EVERYWHERE and finding nothing! we went to tour gp.

We live in the south east and normally if they think there is a problem they will transfer you to a speech therapist when your child reaches three. As Rosie had already had hers cut he was very understanding and referred us early.

She now she's a lovely lady who specialises with younger children and who luckily for us does a drop in clinic once a week.She has given us exercises and games to play with her to encourage her to stick out and play with her tongue.

We've found that as her vocabulary has improved her speech doesn't actually seem to be that effected. But she does have problems eating and can't lick things as her tongue won't reach that far.

If you think there's a problem i would go and see another gp, they might be more sympathetic.

Down here they are very wary of cutting a tie after 6 months as it involves a general aneasthetic.

One doctor we saw also said that it can improve on it's own(ie stretch) up until the age of seven! and there would need to be a significant problem for them to cut it at that age as you can do such good things with speech therapy!!

Sorry for waffling but my point is if you think there's a problem keep going back and seeing someone else until someone eventually listens to you. The older they get the harder it seems to be able to get anything done.

Good luck

Miffy xx

Thanks for the advice miffy,

i think i shall change doctors as my husband is with a good one and they have said that me and lennon can join with my dh as we are married (they would not let me before that). the only thing that has been stopping me is that my dh often has to wait days to see doc whereas i can get in on the same day. this in itself, however, tells its own story i guess.

hi mosh.. just seen your post.

excuse awful typing as feeding at the mo!

yes... both twins have had their tongues snipped.

if you google tongue tie, i think mervin griffiths name pops up near the top. we were very lucky in that southampton is just down the road from us so we took jake down there in feb and mervin griffiths actually came up to the scbu in winchester a few weeks later specially to do tom's as i felt it was really affecting his feeding.
we were lucky in that most of the drs in scbu were supportive of the referral... with the exception of the the 1st consultant who looked at their tongues for me when i 1st felt there was a problem. he had a look at both boys and said they had it very mildly and no one would do anything about it anyway and that there was a high chance they'd come right on their own in a few years.
after a bit of googling i wasn't happy with that and asked to be referred.
the lactation consultant who snipped jake's said he had complete tongue tie and that she was surprised he was feeding well at all. his breastfeeding improved tremendously after the snip.
as for tom... mervin said the same thing... complete tongue tie. and within hours of tom's being done he managed to breastfeed properly for the 1st time, and within days he was off his tube feeds which he was still having to have as he wouldn't take enough by bottle or breast.

so... as the others have said... push to be referred. where do you live? i'm sure i've got mr griffiths secretary's phone number somewhere. could dig it out for you? the lactation consultant said they have children referred from all over the place. if it came to it maybe he'd do it privately.

now typing onehandedly with my left hand... tom's feed now!

the good thing about our experience is that a consultant in scbu here has now been trained by mervin to cut tongue ties. in southampton any babies born with tongue tie can have it snipped before they leave hospital.

sorry this is so disjointed!

xxxxxxxxx

Summer, thanks for the reply! unfortunatly i bet the trouble feeding helped, lennon has always been a very efficient feeder and yet like for yourself people have said they are surprised he can feed at all. the number, if you can find it, would be fantastic though. i am going on holiday with my parents somewhere on the south coast so if he would do it for me we could go somewhere around there quite easily! it is so frustrating when you know there is a problem but none of the so called 'professionals' are listening to you.

Hello!
Look both hands

I'll have a look for the number now and let you know.

xxxxxxx

Sorry Marie... its not where I thought it was. Will have more of a look tomorrow.
Nighty night xxxx

Hi Marie!
I'm so sorry! Its only taken me a whole month to find it
But found it I have!... Mervyn Griffiths secretary is on 02380 794144

Any luck with the new GP??
xxxxxxxxxxx

Can anybody help!
My baby is almost ten weeks old and is tongue tied. She struggles to breastfeed now as she looses her suction. i have an appointment on tuesday with a consultant to assess whether to snip it or not. I do think it is quite a tight tongue tie and i am all for it but i am concerned as to how traumatic it will be for my baby and will she be able to feed straight away.

Hello!
As you can see from my posts above, both my twins had it done when they were a few months old.
I would say absolutely go for it.
I wasn't present when it was done... they took them out of the room and were back with them in 2 minutes and I fed them straight away.

Heres a little bit of info...
http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/items/item_detail.asp?item=439

Good luck on Tues... I hope if the consultant agrees shes tongue tied that he'll be pro snipping. Some are really not for it at all. If I had listened to the consultant we saw 1st, the boys and I would have struggled on as we were and it would have been totally the wrong decision.

xxxxx

Thank you very much for the advice. If it wasn't for my infant feeding coordinator i wouldn't have got this far, my doctor more or less said if she is having problems breast feeding then put her on the bottle, i'm not one to give in that easy.
Once again thank you. I'll keep you informed.

My daughter had her tongue tie cut on thursday, i was amazed how quickly the procedure was. I think it was more traumatic for me as my daughter didn't seem to realise anything. I have not noticed a difference as yet in breast feeding as i had blisters on both sides before the procedure. I just hope that when they have healed she will feed better.

Sorry, I missed this as I haven't been on here for so long.
So glad you were able to get it sorted quickly.
How is the feeding now?
xxxx