What is a Tongue Tie?
Tongue tie (ankyloglossia) refers to the little skin or membrane that attaches to the underside of the tongue. If that membrane is short and tight, inelastic, or located close to the tip of the tongue, it can limit how easily and how far the tongue moves. Since the tongue is the key player in breastfeeding, it can have anywhere from a mild to a severe impact on breastfeeding.
Before women in America began delivering in hospitals, tongue ties were routinely noticed by the midwife and divided at birth. Then we became a bottle feeding society and who knows or even cares what a baby's tongue is doing on a silicone nipple?
- Sucking blisters: these are a tell-tale sign that your baby may have a tongue tie. With a tongue tie the baby has to hold on tight with her lips, thus a blister may appear. Sometimes the lips appear white after feeding.
- Fatigue: when the tongue is not able to perform its job well, the baby will use smaller, less powerful muscles to do this job. These babies tend to get tired quickly. You may notice small quivers of your baby's chin- a sign of overtaxed muscles. Think about having to perform all of the jobs your arms and fingers normally do together with just your fingers. How long would you last?
Are there professionals who can correct a tongue tie?
Carmen Fernando's website, Speech-Language Pathologist in Sydney, Australia