Tongue-tie

When we were dealing with Ollie's 'mild' tongue tie issues, I had such a hard time trying to evaluate whether or not to get his frenulum snipped. And, I felt like everyone I asked (LLL Leader, OB, pediatrician and even the Otolaryngologist we consulted) just kept saying "its up to you." Well, OF COURSE its up to me! But where was I to find scientific, rational guidelines from which to make a decision? Even after researching it extensively, I still just felt ambivalent about the procedure, and whether the benefits would outweigh the negatives. Especially since the Drs would only agree to correct it under general anesthesia, and there are risks with anesthetic especially for an infant.

The Hazelbaker tool is an excellent method for performing this assessment, and gives an easy way to evaluate and score whether or not intervention should be sought. However, I wasn't previously able to find a good explanation of how to use it.

I would encourage any mom considering corrections to tongue tie to look at this article: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/5/e63

From memory I completed the tool today (Ollie's 10.5 mo now) and found that Ollie scored a 7 & 11 on the two areas assessed. Scores of less than 8 of 10 *AND* less than 11 of 14 indicate significant tongue-tie; truly his was/is a mild case. That, combined with the pain I went through, makes me think in retrospect we would have both benefited from having the procedure done.

I wish one of the 'experts' I'd seen had gone through this assessment with me at the time - or that I had known about it and could have used this to guide our discussion! I hope knowing this helps someone else.

Originally published on ivillage, Info on tongue-tie, for anyone trying to decide whether to correct it or not and referenced at Breastfeeding a baby with tongue tie: links from Kellymom.