Little Miss Lily had her tongue or "frenulum" clipped today and what a HUGE difference!
We went to the ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor for a consult and thankfully he wanted to clip it right then and there in the office. Three snips, a little blood, a lot of crying and a boob full of milk later - Lily was content and can now stick her tongue out!
Nursing is already more comfortable. I am having to be vigilant with retraining Lily to latch on correctly as she got lazy with her short tongue.
We were happy to do the procedure now, not only to minimize nursing pain on me, but also because once babies are 6 months old, they have to go under general anesthesia for the procedure.
This procedure was SO worth it and I would really recommend it highly. Some pediatricians apparently feel it is not necessary - however, I doubt they are the ones nursing! The tight frenulum can also lead to speech issues, orthodontic problems and of course having a hard time licking ice cream cones or lollipops!
Snipping the frenulum use to be very common in the 50's and 60's when people nursed. It fell out of favor with the advent and widespread use of formula in the 70's and 80's. Of course it is now gaining favor again due to the revival in breast feeding thank goodness!
Now we just have Amelia's tear duct surgery coming up. This one we have to do general anesthesia, ugh.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Lily's "new" tongue
Posted by Frenzied Family Four at 11:58 AM
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2 comments:
OUCH! Need I say more! I don't think I could have been in the same room when they did it. Were you in the room? Eeek... Just thinking about it makes my mouth hurt. Glad she is more resiliant than I am. Good Job Melissa!
I actually held her for the procedure - it took like 5 seconds. I sat in the chair and held her in my lap, the medical asst. wrenched her chin down and the doc used the wooden speculum to push her tongue up and then scissors in the other hand and A LOT of quickness!
The doctor did ask if we wanted to leave the room which we kind of didn't understand. Then he asked "how involved we wanted to be"? I guess that was whether I wanted to hold her, etc.
No pain though - no nerves in the frenulum area. We did have soem blood, especially after nursing (the sucking I guess) as she spit up a big black lump of gunk later - old blood.
Feel better soon!
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