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A WARNING has been issued to new parents about the practice of tongue snipping in newborn babies.

Parents are outraged after Dr Thomas Lyons, of Eagleby Medical Centre,  said the tongue tie procedure, frenotomy, was painful to babies and “ also unnecessary and costly to parents.”

The news comes after Jimmy Rees, aka Jimmy Giggles, withdrew from ‘Dancing With The Stars’ to spend time with his family after his baby son’s recent health scare following a tongue tie procedure.

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“All the research that doctors have done show that very few babies have benefited from it.”

Dr Lyons said parents were getting it done at day two or three of life when they did not even know if there was a problem.

“I’m recommending they don’t listen to their lactation consultant – that they get a second opinion from their GP who will monitor the baby’s weight,” he said.

Lismore paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall said tongue tie “was the new black” and he was concerned by the increasing number of babies being treated for it.

“It’s an operation performed on something that heals itself over time,” Dr Ingall said. “Mothers are being told their children will not be able to speak properly and that their jaws won’t grow properly, so there is a fear campaign operating out there and it is being driven by dentists and lactation consultants and osteopaths referring to each other. They’ve turned nothing into something.”

Dr Deborah Bailey said: “I’ve been a paediatric surgeon for 30 years and I would have done maybe half a dozen a year in older children, now babies are being done at about 30 a day.”

Dr Thomas Lyons claimed lactation consultants and midwives were “creating an industry”.

“I’m shocked that it is now a common practice,” he said.

In 2010-11 there were 739 babies treated for tongue tie in NSW but by 2014-15 this figure had leapt to 2178.

Worldwide tongue tie surgery rates are rising. In one Australian study, tongue tie surgery rates rose by 3,710%. Canada recorded an 89% increase, the USA a 300% increase.

Dr Lyons said if the baby was not gaining weight, looked sick and was malnourished they can easily be feed from the bottle with no problems to growth at all, but breast feeding may not be possible.

“What I’m saying is that there is no rush, that parents should wait a couple weeks and get a second opinion,” he said.

“They’re recommending the tongue snip without discussing the alternatives that their baby may grow up well on just the bottle.”

Mum of three Laura Mazza has previously shared her battle to get support with a tongue tie diagnosis. Read her story here.

And another Mum shared her experience of tongue tie after her newborn’s dramatic weight loss – read more here.

Symptoms of tongue-tie

The symptoms of tongue-tie can include that:

•the tongue can’t poke out past the lips
•the tongue tip can’t touch the roof of the mouth
•the tongue can’t be moved sideways to the corners of the mouth
•the tongue tip may look flat or square, instead of pointy when extended
•the tongue tip may look notched or heart-shaped
•A baby with tongue-tie may have difficulties breastfeeding or bottle-feeding
•The front teeth in the lower jaw may have a gap between them.

Causes of tongue-tie
There are two main causes of tongue-tie. Either the frenum is too short and tight, or it failed to move back down the tongue during development and is still attached to the tongue tip. In the second case, a heart-shaped tongue tip is one of the obvious symptoms. It is not clear whether or not tongue-tie is inherited.

Tongue-tie in toddlers seems to be less common than in babies, which suggests that a short frenum can normalise itself as the child grows. In persistent cases of tongue-tie, the child may have certain speech problems.

Difficulties can include creating sounds that need the tongue or tongue tip to:

•touch the roof of the mouth, to pronounce sounds such as ‘t, d, n, l, s, z’
•arch off the floor of the mouth, to pronounce sounds such as ‘r’.

The Australian Breastfeeding Assoc says some babies with tongue-tie are able to attach to the breast and suck well. However, many have breastfeeding problems, such as nipple damage, poor milk transfer and low weight gains in the baby, and recurrent blocked ducts or mastitis due to ineffective milk removal.

A baby needs to be able to cup the breast with his tongue to be able to remove milk from the breast well. If the tongue is anchored to the floor of the mouth, the baby cannot do this as well. The baby may not be able to open his mouth wide enough to take in a full mouthful of breast tissue. This can result in ‘nipple-feeding’ because the nipple is not drawn far enough back in the baby’s mouth and constantly rubs against the baby’s hard palate as he feeds. As a result, the mother is likely to suffer nipple trauma.

There are many signs that a baby’s tongue-tie may be causing problems with breastfeeding, but you don’t have to have all of them:
•nipple pain and damage
•the nipple looks flattened after breastfeeding
•you can see a compression/stripe mark on the nipple at the end of a breastfeed
•the baby keeps losing suction while feeding and sucks in air
•the baby makes a clicking sound when feeding
•the baby fails to gain weight well
•the tip of his tongue may be notched or heart-shaped when he cries
•he may readily gag

It is important to note that all of the above signs can be related to other breastfeeding problems and are not necessarily related to tongue-tie. If you experience any of the signs above, you may wish to consult an expert.

Share your comments below.

 

Image via Getty

  • Why would anyone do this to there child if it wasn’t necessary breastfeeding is the best for your child and for your child to bond with you. People should stop and think about doing this to there child l see it as kind of abuse if it’s not necessary

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  • My husband was heart shaped tongue tied and my son was born the same. possibly hereditary. my husband had his corrected later in life when he was undergoing another proceedure and wanted it done as it inhibited his speech and eating alot. he didnt want this for our son so we had it sniped at 7 weks old. no cost at all and minimal pain to bubs (now 8 years old). best thing we ever did. unfortunately the hospital failed to help us with this and he wasnt able to be breastfed. we had to see a paed dr to fix the issue. i realise every situation is different, but I am thankful we did it. My son still had to have speech therapy.

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  • yeah that is a lot to take in. hopefully it would resolve itself for most of the kids.

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  • omg i had never even heard of such a thing

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  • Speech pathologists are trained to provide specialised assessment and advice on tongue tie. In fact, they advise GPs on whether or not intervention is needed. I imagine that an experienced lactation consultant would also be very knowledgable on tongue tie too. I believe parents should get a specialised opinion first before opting for surgical intervention.

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  • Wow, I didn’t realise this was such a big issue. I was told my son was tongue-tied and that affected his ability to breastfeed. We had other medical issues that resulted in my having to discontinue breastfeeding and to then bottle feed so it became a non issue. I must admit I wasn’t very well informed by medical staff.

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  • Both my son’s have been born with tongue and lip ties, my eldest’s were never corrected and we struggled with poor weight gain and difficulty breast feeding for 8 months and then he had formula top ups. His lip tie looks to have released when he got teeth but he still has a tongue tie and is behind in his speech and drools excessively in his sleep. I will be getting his tongue released this year and wish it had been done as a baby. Our youngests tongue tie was so severe that he dropped below the 5th percentile while breastfeeding (he was born on the 75th), he couldn’t poke his tongue out or move his tongue freely in his own mouth, we had both ties treated when he was 5 months old and apart from being inconsolable for the first five minutes after the procedure he was completely back to himself within 24 hours. He has since bulked back up to the 80th percentile and is eating solids like a champion and his reflux has reduced a hell of a lot. Definitely worth it in my opinion

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  • I agree that where possible one should try and get a second and if possible a third opinion. It can be a complex situation.

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  • Dr Lyons should be deregistered for making such outlandish comments the babies can grow just as well on a bottle. What’s in the bottle? Despite good intentions after a few months it’s likely to be formula as if a baby can’t BF directly and mother has to express to bottle feed it’s very hard to express enough to make enough milk and very tough double handling. Breastfeeding is the best for babies oral development, nutrition and immune health. I do sent even compare to for a feeding and is so much better than bottle feeding EBM. You maximise the immune protection afforded by breastfeeding with saliva backwash at the nipple ONLY by breastfeeding!! It’s so convenient for you. Dr Lyons statement is dangerous. He is scaremongering new parents. He is recommending they move away from their lactation consultant, an expert in breastfeeding and steering them towards their gp who unless they have a special interest in breastfeeding personally will have nothing to suggest than formula top-up for poor weight gain and will probably even given them formula samples to get started. Breastfeeding support is the domain of lactation consultants, midwives, and child and family health nurses. Not GP’s. This artical should never have been published. Please find a good news breastfeeding story to report on!!

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  • My sister in laws little baby had a problem feeding and it was very stressful because baby could not feed properly so they did this surgery and she said it looked painful but as soon as she started to feed it was ok cause baby could actually feed with no more problems.

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  • Snipping a baby\’s frenulum is an assault just as much as Foronic or male circumcision there is no medical need for any of these things. some of the things listed above have no bearing on the ability of a baby to breastfeed. a flattened nipple means nothing My second daughter was breast fed for two years and I had flattened nipples after feeds. All new babies and mothers take time to get feeding established The secret is to let the baby take as much into its mouth as it can manage some mouths are bigger than others. Yes the mother may feel discomfort for a time until the baby has grown a littl. If she feels more than she can bear then we are fortunate that we can safely bottle feed.

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  • I’m not sure why there is outrage. It’s great that people are questioning things everyday and looking at better ways to address things.
    I now feel really lucky to have had someone not only
    Point out my sons tongue tie but also follow up with it may never cause an issue to him so I was informed but not panicked and he is now 5 1/2 years old and it never caused issues with breast feeding, eating, speaking etc
    It’s a welcome thing to have someone give you options

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  • Absolutely ridiculous. I perform laser tongue and lip tie releases regularly and EVERY MOTHER has been ECSTATIC almost immediately after the procedure. These are virtually painless procedures and particularly with topical anesthetics, they are 100% safe and effective treatments. The latch is almost immediately improved. There are numerous practitioners just like me nationwide who are also helping infants and toddlers ( AND MOMS!).
    Get your facts straight and ask those of us out in the field if this is a good idea!
    Respectfully yours,
    Dr. Raymond J. Voller
    Pittsburgh, PA

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  • This seems reasonable but it truely is difficult for a new mum to trust any advice when everybody suggests different things. I think that they should get as much info as possible before cutting it sounds reasonable. Just I really feel for those mums it would really sucj being in their shoes.

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  • Fully agree with the outrage – hadn’t heard of this before. There are enough problems in the early days with breastfeeding, we don’t need to add another one.

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  • I disagree with a lot of this. My daughter has a slight lip tie and had a tongue tie, I had to get tongue tie fixed at two weeks old because she was not latching whatsoever and it was painful and stressful for us both. The snip took about a second, then she cried for a second until I put her on and hey guess what, perfect latch and happy baby! The procedure was absolutely necessary and we’re now 16 months breast feeding and still going on strong, and her speech is clear which tongue ties can sometimes prevent.
    “Just put her on the bottle” was NOT an opinion for us unless absolutely necessary, fed is fed but breast is best so that’s what I’ll strive for first and foremost. I know we made the right decision personally. It is NOTHING like circumcision whatsoever, either. What an absolutely ridiculous comparison.


    • I’m with you in this one ! Glad that it all worked out well with your son and that you’re still going strong breastfeeding him.

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  • What a ridiculously uninformed article. Tongue ties were regularly snipped in the 30s and 40s before formula companies convinced doctors to just recommend bottles. The problem is that the symptoms of a tongue tie will still be there even if a child is bottle fed. Symptoms include reflux, Swallowing difficulties resulting in jaw and neck pain, severe digestive issues, poor dental hygeine and crowding of teeth, speech problems and more. Furthermore this article fails to address the many children who have posterior tongue ties which are almost always accompanied by an upper lip tie. An severe upper lip tie can make it almost impossible for a baby to even latch on to a bottle. Finally, breastfeeding is very important. It is the best nutritional food for your baby and for some people, artificial milk is not an option when considering the health of their baby

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  • So because a tounge tie causes a little bit of pain we should avoid having it down if it’s causing breast feeding problems we should bottle feed instead. The biggest crock i have heard. We need to normalise breastfeeding because out all all mothers 2/3 if them can actually breast feed without issues but only 1/3 choose too formula should be prescription only for those who have tried everything and i meam everything and bubby was suffering so they had to use formula. tounge tie does cause speech issues when they are older and that is proven. This doctor is full of shit

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  • Personally this article is offensive. To imply it is better to bottle feed than have a tongue tie revised is ridiculous. According to our highly informed paediatrician it is a pain free procedure at birth due to lack of nerve supply to the tissue. I had to have both of my kids done due to breastfeeding issues and poor weight gain. I do not regret it one bit. Articles like this do not help or inform parents, they just make them scared to make the decisions they need to make for their children. Over 6 months of age the procedure requires anaesthetics and is much more serious so why wait and make it worse

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  • My son was born with a tongue tie that was picked up by the midwife who suggested the procedure, I was hesitant as my husband has a tongue tie and never had any problems. After speaking to the paediatrician who assessed him I was much more assured that the procedure was not in his best interest. He had no feeding problems. I breast fed him and had no issues with nipples or anything else and he speaks normally. Sometimes it does pay to wait to see if the tongue tie is going to affect attachment etc and then if it is a problem reassess. I was lucky j was a second time breast feeding mum so I already knew how to feed it may have been a different story if I was a first timer as it took a while to get the hang of things with my first

    Reply

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