Why So Many Babies Are Getting Their Tongues Clipped
It’s uttered in hushed tones during mommy-and-me yoga classes and at Montessori-school drop-offs, discussed ad nauseam in breastfeeding support groups and on parenting message boards.
It’s called tongue tie, and it’s everywhere. In online mom groups, it’s blamed for all sorts of parenting woes. Baby isn’t gaining weight, or won’t take a bottle? Have you tried checking for ties? Kid won’t nap? It’s probably related to tongue tie. Baby have a rash? Check under the tongue!
Tongue tie, or ankyloglossia, is characterized by an overly tight lingual frenulum, the cord of tissue that anchors the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. It occurs in 4 to 11 percent of newborns. A lip tie—a related condition—is an unusually tight labial frenulum, the piece of tissue that keeps the upper lip tethered close to the gum line. Tongue and lip ties often occur in tandem.
To breastfeed effectively, babies need to create negative pressure (in a word, a vacuum) on the breast. This differs from the compression that some babies with limited tongue mobility use, effectively squeezing the milk out rather than sucking.
This compression can be painful for mothers, and breastfeeding pain can compound the stress of the exhausting first weeks of parenting. And cases of severe tongue tie have been linked to issues such as failure to gain weight.
But the tongue-tie madness in pediatricians’ offices, lactation rooms, and online groups has some researchers
