Baby’s Tongue tie consequence

I have worked with babies for the past 12 years with craniosacral therapy, and recently I have seen more babies with tongue tie than before. I am not sure if the problem has increased or there is more awareness now of the problem.

In 2019, I know that many mothers choose for some reason or another, to bottle fed their baby. So, it might be that mothers did not have enough support to understand or even check that the baby did not have a tongue tie.

Now the problem with the baby having the tongue tie, start with the baby, having more colic than others, with painful, explosive poos. The baby may start get rigid legs, wriggle a lot or trying to put their knees up to get a bit of relief from their bloating belly.

Tongue-tie (you see a frenulum, a white thick extra collagen thread) is considered genetic and or congenital. The image below is quite severe, the tie does not have to be that severe to cause the same problems. It is worse though as if the mother has got a very good supply of breast milk or the baby is bottle fed, that tie will stay there unnoticed, leading to the the baby not having a great movement of the tongue, cannot make the normal noise of the baby which will lead to baby talking eventually.

Problems will arise later on with eating and chewing, speech impediment, stomach upset and more. Cognitive behaviour might be different as the baby communication is stopped in some way. The tongue is attached and connected to the intestinal tract in some way, the nose and breathing patterns, the sleep pattern, the movement and flexibility of the head, the balance of the body, and much more!

Symptoms and sign to look for that are connected with tongue tie are:

• Difficulty in breastfeeding;
• Tongue might be heart shaped when stuck out;
• Increase frustration from baby as does not get enough milk in and fail to grow;
• Baby might chew instead of sucking. Painful for the mother when they breastfeed;
• Increase colic due to more air sucked in;
• If not resolved and bottle is given, then eventually problems might arise later on in life with speech and eating problems, this include the lip tie; doctors will not do anything for the lip tie till the age of 5 years, by then the child might have already a problems.
• Tongue does not come up of the mouth much, or only occasionally (posterior tongue tie)

Tongue tie affects more boys than girls, reasons why not fully known; Usually tongue and lip tie come together, even though the lip tie has been given less importance, it is still essential that it is done, as otherwise the speech can be affected as well as can result in a big gap between the teeth as well. Even though rare, I have seen a cheek tie as well. CST could be helpful in stretching the frenulum, but it has to be done many times and it will never be the same as cutting it. The procedure is simple and pain free as the frenulum has very few blood and nerve supply.

Support can be given to the area with CST for any possible minor trauma and resettle the baby system into a normal state after the tongue tie procedure, as well as teaching the brain to reconnect to various way of moving the tongue. It is also essential that you do the tongue tie exercises for 6 weeks after the procedure.

The importance of addressing it as a baby, is as follow:

“The tongue is connected with the entire intestinal tract in some way or another, through the neck muscles, the head muscles as the occiput (back of the head), the sternocleido-mastoid, and if the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth it can also cause the sympathetic division of the nervous system, the stress one, to be active all the time, you might see babies who do not sleep well for that reason. This will also affect the digestive system, as if the parasympathetic nervous system is low, than the valve of the digestive system will be shut, and hence cause more problems, as well as constipation and increase bloating, which in turn would also cause straining and stiffness of the entire skeletal system. Reflux could also be caused by a tongue tie and/or the nervous system being in high alert (e.g. babies few weeks old to few months and more fight to go to sleep).

Do see a professional tongue tie expert to be assessed, either with the NHS or privately. It is worth it. Parents might be more concern that they need to be to have the issue dealt with, but a bit of discomfort now, is worth the freedom and health of your baby in the future!

© Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) R-Nutritional Therapists – NAET – R-Craniosacral therapist – PCI NLP Coaching programme – Certified Angel Guide – Mindfulness Meditation teacher – HeartMath meditation -Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) – Trauma certification (PESI) – MBant – M-CSTA – CHNC registered