in March 2025 Babies 🇬🇧

Tongue tie

I just wanted to give a little bit of information regarding our baby’s tongue tie situation, incase it helps any other parents/babys. As soon as my baby was born, the midwife noticed he had a tongue tie (so it was quite noticeable immediately). On discharge, the paediatrician confirmed a tongue tie, but stated as the baby was latching to the boob, there was no concerns and everything was fine. Due to a number of reasons, we switched to formula quite early on, and my baby took to a bottle straight away, so I almost forgot about the tongue tie, as it didn’t seem to be causing any issues. Over this last week, my usually calm baby, has been absolutely full of gas/wind/constipation and has been so uncomfortable. Arching his back during feeds, struggling to pass wind and then passing loads in one go, latching to his bottle and then going bright red and moving away from the bottle, but still wanting more. During the night, he’s been grunting, trying to push wind, going bright red. Just generally really visibly uncomfortable. It was taking him about an hour to have a bottle and he would always fall asleep and we would have to keep waking him to finish the bottle. I’m not sure what clicked, as I was considering changing his formula etc, but I remembered about the tongue tie situation and started to look into it abit more. We paid to have a private consultation today and they confirmed he has a significant tongue tie that would be massively effecting his feeding. Although he seemed to be latching onto a bottle fine, his latch and suck were very poor and he would have been taking in so much air, causing the wind and gas. We had it cut, and the difference immediately was quite startling tbh. He drank his full bottle in about 10/15mins, had no wind at all and there was no issues at all during the feed. They did say things can still be abit up and down for 4 weeks after, but I honestly can’t say how different his bottles have been today. I can’t comment on if his sleep is affected tonight yet, but as he seems so much more comfortable, I’m assuming it’s going to be better. I just wanted to let other mums know, as I know having an uncomfortable baby is heartbreaking. We weren’t provided any information at all through the nhs, but a tongue tie can cause so many issues with digestion etc because of the amount of air being taken in. She said it can also cause issues with weaning, where baby’s cannot learning to chew properly and therefore struggle at the weaning stage and even a number of things going into adulthood, such as oral hygiene, for the amount of things we actually use our tongues for. I did mention that he has seemingly been ok for the last 4 weeks, and she did say that issues with a tongue tie can become more prominent after the first month or so, due to the higher volume of milk required etc, which is why it has started to affect him more this week. Just thought I’d pop this on here for people to do their own research on.

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My son who is 6 weeks has a really bad tongue tie, he couldn’t latch so I had to move to formula and I can tell he’s taking in air and milk goes down his chin while he’s taken it. He’s been grunting, gas, wind, going red. All the things you said he’s going through. I’ve been waiting with the NHS for awhile now as the list could be 6-8 weeks! So i am going private which are coming on Wednesday and fingers crossed it all goes well!!!

After reading this I am now convinced my little one has some sort of tongue or lip tie! Especially with @Kirsty saying that about milk dripping done the chin, honestly her chin is sometimes covered! I’ve been researching silent reflux because of her behaviour but some sort tie would also explain it

My little one’s tongue tie got missed by so many people. It took me crying down the phone to the infant feeding team and them coming to see me for the health visitor to get the ball rolling to get it sorted. My daughter has had issues with latching both breast and bottle, has always made a loud clicking noise when she drinks and gets lots of gas and trapped wind. I swear she wears more milk than she drinks😂 We have an appointment next week to hopefully get it sorted🤞🏻

We’ve got our appt on Wed she will be 5 weeks! my little one also dribbles milk down when feeding on the bottle can latch but was not helping my milk supply so I combi feed mostly pumping due to the amount of air she’s taking in too! Sounds like she’s in pain after feedings 🥺

It honestly breaks my heart that so many babies are being let down with this. We are in a privileged position that we were able to afford to go private, but so many people will not. Just to give a bit of an update, we had the procedure done yesterday afternoon and every bottle since has been absolutely fine. He’s had normal wind, but when burping has got it up easily, and has had no issues with gas. When we had the appointment, she said that as his latch was so poor, he was taking in so much air. This would unfortunately travel into his intestines and stomach and this is what causes the gas and constipation (i literally had no idea that the air and wind could cause so many issues with bowels and digestion). He slept really well and did some minimal grunting, but nothing like how it was. She did say it could take about 4 weeks for him to train his tongue to start working properly.

Tongue ties can affect things later on in development, I’m not sure why they’re not referred immediately no matter the feeding method. We had ours cut on the NHS and didn’t have to spend any money!

Thank you for sharing this . My baby is nearly 2 weeks old & midwife noticed straight away a tongue tie. We ve now been referred to lactation clinic but nearest appointment is in 3 weeks. It’s really affecting feeding at the moment and similar to what you said.. you can see the discomfort / constantly sleep during feeds

I just wanted to share that after seeing this post everything that you said really resonated with me about our little girl and experience with feeding since she was born. She lost a lot of weight (13%) due to what we thought was a delay in my milk coming in after an emergency c section and loss of lots of blood. We were then readmitted to hospital, put on a feeding plan, and ultimately made the decision to move to formula. Since then, our little one has had really bad wind after every feed and never seemed satisfied. I saw your post and had a look under her tongue and thought I could see a tie. We booked a private midwife appointment with a specialist who confirmed a severe tongue tie (75% anterior) and performed the separation there and then. Fingers crossed this helps, I’m going to try breastfeeding again and work to get my supply back up. Thank you so much for sharing ❤️

Just an update, had my son’s tongue tie yesterday and what a difference I’ve notice! We went private as the waiting list was far too long but his feeding so much better!

@Kirsty glad to hear this 🙏🏻 we have a cancellation appointment tomorrow for tongue tie. Does it hurt them at all when it’s cut??

@Ceri that’s amazing! There will be a bit of blood and a bit of crying, once you give them a bottle or a boob, they stop. Feeding them helps it to heal. They will explain it all and the exercise to do after but it’s healed pretty quickly and he seems himself today

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