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TMI Update Nervous about baby's lip tie release


Stibalfamily
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Tomorrow morning my 4 month old is getting her upper lip tie released and I am so nervous and scared. How awful is this going to be? She may need her tongue released too we are not sure if they will do that as well. I am all butterflies. Can you tell me how it went for your babies. 

 

Update: The surgery was a bit more dramatic than I was hoping it would be. She did need both her upper lip and tongue released. In fact both of my boys have an upper lip tie too. They put her in a papoose board and numbed both areas with a syringe then they left to let the numbing meds kick in. She was super mad and screaming already. The upper lip tie was pretty tight and thick, they used a laser and you could smell the burning skin. It left a huge scab. He used silver nitrate to stop the bleeding. Then he lifted her tongue and clipped the frenum. That did not seem as big of a deal. But I had to hold gauze in her mouth for 5 or 10 minutes to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. She was so upset and scream-crying. I am not sure I would do this again. I hope this fixes her nursing issues but jeez. This was pretty terrible. It was done by a Pediatric ENT with 22 years experience. He is also a faculty member at Loma Linda Medical School so I believe he was qualified and knowledgeable. DH was pretty shaken up and visibly distressed and so was I. I wanted to update in case someone else was looking into it. I would love your suggestions for aftercare, DH says if it grows back we will NOT be revising it. 

Edited by Stibalfamily
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We have never dealt with a lip tie but all 3 of mine have needed a frenulectomy for tongue tie. When done on an infant it took 30 seconds and there was no blood. The hardest part for the baby is holding the mouth open to get in and clip the frenulum. Afterward they sucked on a pacifier and were fine.

 

 

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It was done in minutes. He was nursing right off the bat after both the lip tie and the tongue tie. They were done at separate times due to the tongue tie being an actual surgery as it was so thick and posterior. The tongue tie bothered him a little more because it was more in depth. 

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My last had lip and tongue done in the same procedure at 9 weeks, then tongue redone at 12 weeks after it reattached. It was awful and very stressful for him, and the recovery/stretches afterward were a nightmare, particularly the first week. And he was a mellow baby too. But if it had been the lip tie alone I don't think it would have been a big deal. So...I hope your LO only needs the lip done. But a lip tie almost always indicated a TT too from what I've read so you might want to prepare yourself for the worst.

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I will add that we used a preferred provider both times, and I did the stretches faithfully both times, and my baby's TT reattached both times. I gave up after that. He did nurse some better, and his reflux and sleep improved, so I guess it was worth it even though he never had a great latch by any means and it's too early to know if he'll have speech issues. But I've had others with uncorrected TTs and one needed speech and still has reflux issues at 5 yo (idk what the cause is), and another had severe reflux as a baby and toddler so...I guess if #6 has a TT that affects nursing, or reflux, it'll be clipped, but I'm not looking forward to it.

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My son had an "undetected" lip tie that connected all the way to his teeth (he has really stretchy, lush lips, so he always seemed to be okay while feeding). He had two face plants during toddlerhood that fixed the problem without much drama. 

 

I wish I had been given the option to have his clipped because I think it was a key issue in nursing--his difficulties were consistent with what I read later. I had not heard about lip ties (only tongue ties) when he was an infant.

 

Best wishes!

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