Chicago Tongue-Tie Center Blog

Being a parent to a young child can often lead to feelings of overwhelm, especially when it comes to keeping track of their health. While there are common childhood ailments like colds that every parent watches out for, there are other conditions, particularly related to infants, that can be challenging to stay informed about. Lip and tongue ties are a prime example of this. Many parents may not have encountered much information about them before becoming parents, and what they have heard might not always be accurate. Here, we aim to clarify some common misconceptions about lip and tongue ties.

Lip and tongue ties are conditions where these parts of the mouth are restricted in their movement, and they are often identified during infancy because they can make breast or bottle feeding almost impossible. However, not every child with these problems is diagnosed early, so it’s not uncommon for toddlers to be dealing with them as well. As you can imagine, the symptoms change as a child gets older, so for concerned parents, it’s important to know the signs and who to reach out to for help.

When you envisioned having a baby, you probably assumed that breastfeeding would come easily and be an incredible experience. The reality is that many babies and mothers struggle with this “natural” process. Babies can fail to latch, nursing mothers can have sore or cracked nipples, and everyone can come away from it feeling frustrated.

But don’t give up! Before you decide to feed your baby through a bottle permanently, try these tips to help your baby with latching.

No matter how many parenting books you read, there will always be aspects of parenthood that leave you puzzled. One such challenge could be when your child faces difficulties with latching during breastfeeding, possibly due to a lip or tongue tie. Recently, the treatment for these issues has seen a significant increase, leading many parents to question whether the condition is now more common than before. Continue reading to find out if lip and tongue ties are indeed more prevalent as well as what steps to take if your child has one.

As your baby grows, you enjoy introducing them to new things. After they reach six months old, you started giving them more normal foods, whether bottled or home mashed, and laughed at their funny reactions. But as you get closer to their first birthday, you notice that they can’t seem to handle more solid foods, like Cheerios or baby crackers, which dissolve very quickly. Perhaps your little one even gags or throws up!

Within a few short months, your child should be off formula, if you’re bottle feeding, and rely on solid foods for nutrition, which means you need to get to the bottom of this problem soon. After a bit of research, you find out about something called a tongue tie. The information below will help you understand this issue and how resolving it can help your baby grow and develop the eating skills they need to thrive.

As a parent, you should always want what’s best for your child and their smile—and if they suffer from a condition like a tongue tie or lip tie, their pediatric dentist will likely recommend a frenectomy to address the issue. It’s natural to have concerns about any type of procedure that your little one might need, but you should know that this treatment option is nothing you or your child needs to worry about! Here’s a closer look at what this treatment involves and what you can expect while your child recovers from it.

Since you left the hospital with your newborn, you haven’t had an easy time of nursing. You seem to produce a decent amount of milk, but your infant doesn’t seem to latch on properly. It can be frustrating for both of you—and it can even leave you with sore nipples—but what can you do?

You can meet with a lactation consultant!

This trained professional can help new mothers and infants in many ways, especially if your baby ends up having a tongue tie. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of working with a lactation consultant in this specific scenario.

It should be simple, right? Your baby should latch on and suck milk out of your breast, but it’s not turning out that way. Whether you’ve met with a lactation consultant or not, you learn about the possibility of a lip or tongue-tie which could be preventing you and your baby from successfully nursing.

If your baby does have a lip or tongue-tie, you’re far from being alone. Fortunately, there are minor procedures, called frenectomies and frenotomies, that can help your baby latch on properly and make the nursing experience better for both of you. In this post, you’ll learn more about lip and tongue-ties and these treatments to correct the problem.

When looking for a practice to take care of a tongue-tie, there are certain criteria they should meet. For instance, check if they have a soft tissue laser. Although some practices still use the traditional method of resolving a tongue-tie, laser frenectomies are far superior!

Regardless of the type of frenectomy performed, the main goal is to sever the connective tissue that is restricting the tongue. So what makes one of these procedures so much better than the other? Essentially, they differ in how they are carried out and the results afterward. Keep reading to learn more about these methods and to learn why laser frenectomies can best help you or your child.

When you think of a tongue-tie, you may associate it with a newborn baby who can’t nurse, but did you know that adults can have one too? According to some estimates, around 25 percent of infants have a restrictive tongue-tie. However, due to several reasons, some babies with tongue-ties seem to fly under the radar. Those who go undiagnosed continue to have their tongue-ties into adulthood, but can a tongue-tie really be bad for fully grown patients? Is it too late to treat a tongue-tie in an adult? Read on to find out more valuable information.