Tongue-Tie

I had never heard of 'tongue-tie' til we had Pierce. Day two of Pierce's life, the Hospital Pediatrician came to check him out in the hospital and tells me my baby is tongue-tied. Come again? What? She points out that the stretchy part of skin that attaches the bottom of Pierce's tongue to the floor of his mouth was so far forward and didn't allow a lot of stretch...tongue tie. She goes on to say that it is not uncommon and that nowadays they usually just leave it alone. Back in the day they clipped most tongue ties but don't anymore cause it's usually not a big deal and will stretch on it's own the bigger they get. But problems arise in breastfeeding (not allowing a proper suck motion with the tongue) and speech (not allowing the tongue to get to the top of the mouth for the 't' sounds). Luckily, Pierce has some stretch to his and has had zero problem feeding.

Of course, when you're told anything is wrong with your child you immediately research it on the web. If you're going to be told anything is wrong with your baby, tongue tie is a pretty great one to have. After a week old I took Pierce into our Pediatrician and asked her about tongue-tie. She checks out his tongue and says 'i would for sure get this clipped'. Come to find out, her son had tongue-tie and had speech problems so he didn't get his clipped til he was about 2 years old. At that point they have to get put under and have the procedure done in the OR. But if you do it before a year old, it's a simple procedure...in and out, no medicine. So at about a month old, I take Pierce into a Specialist to see if we should clip it. The Specialist checks him out and says 'this is not tongue tie!' (total rude voice). I was like 'what! both the Hospital ped and my ped told me he is tongue-tied'. She says 'look at all that stretch, he can stick his tongue outside of his mouth. Tongue tie is when there is only about a millimeter of stretch and they can't move their tongue'. Okay, I get that. But Pierce was clearly tongue tied. He had a bit of stretch but that stretchy piece of skin was attached at the VERY END of his tongue and right at his gums, looking like this... (this is a random pic from the web but it looked just like Pierce's tongue)

The Specialist says in a stern voice 'you need to quite looking at it and quite worrying about it.' Okay fine, I left the office feeling like maybe it's not such a big deal. But after a few weeks, it was still bugging me. Why not clip the tongue if it can only help, not hurt. Why wait to see if Pierce will have speech problems if we can get it clipped now and he can have full movement of his tongue. Win win if you ask me. Another reason people clip them is because they look like a snake tongue, it's kind of crazy (heart shaped). So at his 4 month check-up, I told his Pediatrician I wanted a second-opinion on his tongue. She agreed and completely backed me up about getting it clipped. Since our insurance had changed I was able to get in to see the Specialist she had taken her son to (on the Phoenix Children's Hospital Campus). So I made the appointment for August 22nd and in we went. Here is my happy boy before his appointment. (I wish I had gotten a better shot of his tongue but I didn't)

The Specialist walks in, looks at his tongue and says 'oh nice, we can make this look really good.' What? I say 'so you think he needs it clipped?'...making sure I'm not crazy for wanting it clipped. She agrees that it is so far forward that it's not allowing his tongue to have it's full mobility. The stretchy part was so thin that it would be an easy clip and he'd have no problems. She said the problem with waiting to clip tongue-ties is that if they do have problems down the road, they have to be put under in the OR when right now, it's an easy snip. She tells me that they don't even numb the area because the numbing shot would hurt just as bad as the clip itself. So they just hurry and clip it, no medicine, no nothing. She tells me that I need to step out of the room and go down the hall since it would be a little traumatizing to watch...poor baby. So Lincoln and I walked out and two more nurses walked in. I hear my baby screaming a few minutes later and out they come to get me. Talk about quick. The doctor was holding some gauze in his mouth and handed Pierce over to me so I could calm him down. And off we went. There is not a lot of bleeding usually but I think because they had to have clipped at the end of this tongue and right by his gums, he was kind of a mess that evening. He would start playing with his hands (in his mouth) and bloody drool would come out, he looked like he had gotten in a fight that day. But by day two there was no bleeding and he was good to go. You'd never know his tongue was attached where it was. I am SOOOOOO glad we got it clipped! Pierce was a total champ!