From what I've seen in practice dealing with moms and newborns/infants is a reoccurring pattern, and I mean at least one case a day of this, of domino-effect type actions that begins the moment the baby is born.
The scenario:
- Mom tries to breastfeed while in hospital and at home
- Baby has difficulty latching or will not latch, and/or the latch is painful for the mom.
- Mom does not seek out and/or does not receive proper support and follow-up to address problem as to WHY there's a problem.
- Mom mentions to doc that someone told her that the baby may have a "tongue-tie", and that may be the cause of the not-latching, the pain, the spit up, etc, but doc (who more than likely isn't trained to know how to properly assess for a "tongue-tie" until much older when they would need surgery to correct, much less the lacking lactation training that DOES NOT HAPPEN IN MED SCHOOL) tells mom baby is fine or its not severe enough to cause problems
- Mom switches to formula
- Baby gets horrible gas and runny stools because no one told mom how to properly prepare/sterilize formula, and formula is loaded in bacteria. Read more on bottle prep here.
- Mom runs to the baby's pediatrician, who tells her to change formula
- Repeat this last step x 2 or 3
- Baby acts hungry frequently, and number of ounces increases because nobody told mom to feed on demand instead of scheduling, or someone actually told her to schedule feedings, and therefore the feedings need to last longer, because heaven forbid that baby be hungry or thirsty again in less than 3 hours... here's a pacifier.
- Baby spits up, more than the "norm" ... a lot and frequently, due to the increased amount and sucking more air in if there's a problem with the tongue that got missed.
- Mom runs to the baby's pediatrician, who then tells her that the baby has "reflux" **insert my eye roll here**, and "add a little cereal to keep it down".
- When that no longer works, baby gets a popular reflux Rx and gets the dosage increased as the baby gains weight, which costs $$
- Two-three years later, mom wonders why words aren't pronounced well for his/her age and teeth are coming in with problems...more $$$
This bothers me. A lot.
What is a tongue-tie? The actual medical term is called an "Ankyloglossia", and its the membrane under the tongue not receding enough to allow the tongue to move properly in a wave-like motion. It causes baby to use more suction, whether breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, which can cause more air to be swallowed, leading to more "severe" spit-up, weight gaining issues, painful latching, and more. It can affect speech later on and dental issues, too. Therefore, its NOT something to ignore, even if its a "minor" one.
Signs/Symptoms:
- Clicking sounds while eating
- Painful latch
- Fussy at breast/bottle
- Milk dribbling out of mouth
- Gas
- Excessive spit-up
- "Scoop" appearance in middle of tongue while crying
- Weight loss greater than 10% or trouble gaining
I'm so tired of these babies slipping through the cracks, getting prescribed left and right with REFLUX AKA HEARTBURN medication before TWO MONTHS of age, getting infant cereal and other foods WAY TOO EARLY, and moms not getting the correct information because the pediatrician or whoever fails to dig enough around to find the CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM, instead of MASKING THE SYMPTOM.
This is the tip of the iceberg, and not all of the above always happens, and not all babies with issues breastfeeding have tongue-ties. Not all babies have issues later in life. However, it would serve the large population of infants well who get this scenario to have someone fight for their behalf and play detective to give them their best chance possible.
MOMS: PLEASE ASK FOR HELP AND SECOND OPINIONS IF YOU ARE GOING THROUGH ANY OF THIS from people trained in these areas. Pediatricians and other medical professionals have to seek this training out, as it is not part of the curriculum in school. Knowledge is POWER.
More than 50% of the babies that just come through my office that are bottle-fed are getting cereal as a "remedy", reflux medication, or both. You can't tell me this is the norm. Its ridiculous.
Rant over.
For now...
Pass this on to three people you know. It could really help someone.
Update 12/13/15:
On December 10th, after seeing the article's link on Facebook, Sharon, a dental hygenist of Hardin Valley, responded:
"Amen Sister. Fool
me once on my 1st baby being undiagnosed for her ptt [posterior tongue tie] and bullied into
formula...created a momma bear who fought through the failure to thrive
for answers and got 2 revisions on her own with no help from the pediatricians,
only navigating thru the hardest battle
of her life via Facebook support groups. Tongue tie babies support group led
me to a preferred provider after a botched revision, helped me learn to
supplement and nurse, sought IBCLC help, and I found a provider for CST [Cranio Sacral Therapy]
on "knox breastfriends". My biggest regret and saddest thing in my life
was stopping nursing my 2 week old 1st baby because my pediatrician told me my milk
was bad and I'd kill her if I didn't switch to formula. I'm so grateful
for real support on FB because I was so lost and determined to make it work.
My 2nd baby was failure to thrive for 5 weeks but I never took him from
the breast despite the pain and found my own providers to make it
possible to have him exclusively breastfeed without supplement at 3 months old. Knowledge
is power. We just have to keep opening our mouths and share our
experiences to help each other when pediatricians just bully and send
you home crying feeling hopeless because they are uneducated on lactation
and tongue-tie."
She agreed to allowing me to share her story. She emphasized that despite her education and profession, even she did not know about ankyloglossia until she experienced it and sought out help.
She said it, and I will say it again: Knowledge is power.
http://rhoknoxville.blogspot.com/2014/08/feeding-baby.html
http://rhoknoxville.blogspot.com/2015/11/food-safety-baby-bottles.html
http://feedthebabyllc.com/tongue-and-lip-tie/
http://www.entcolumbia.org/frenul.html
http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/bfhelp-tonguetie/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tongue-tie/multimedia/tongue-tie/img-20006633
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