Tongue Tie

We have been questioning whether or not Milo is tongue tied for a while now. (Tongue tie is when the tongue strap thing under the tongue goes to the end... it is also called anchored tongue.) Milo seemed to stick his tongue out, but we have never been able to get a good look under the tongue. So we just kind of said, its probably fine. Well we have recently started to noticed that when he does stick his tongue out there is a bit of a dent in the middle... kind of like a snake. Hmm. Maybe Milo is tongue tied. So I started to look into it a bit and I read something very interesting...

"When a tongue tie is causing problems with breastfeeding, the baby often does not open his mouth widely, thus not latching on to the breast at the correct angle. Instead he may latch onto the nipple, and ‘gum' or chew it, causing severe pain and eventually, nipple damage. There can be cracking, distortion, blanching or bleeding from the nipple, sometimes followed by infection or mastitis." -http://www.tonguetie.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=10

While nursing has gotten better since my nipples are now almost healed from the original wounds, he is still clamping causing the blanching. My nipples still are white on the ends from the cut off of circulation and you can still see a crease from the clamping. And I do still get very sore when the circulation does return. That's why I was kind of fearful that he is teething. If he is doing that with his gums... what will happen when he gets teeth?!

Milo goes in for his 8 week appointment next week and I'm going to talk to our pediatrician about it. My understanding is there are different degrees of tongue tie. My guess is that if Milo is in fact tongue tied it is more just a bit too tight since he can stick his tongue out. The most common solution is to snip it. I know it sounds awful. But they say it is simple, causes very little pain, and very quickly solves the breastfeeding problems. I would hate for Milo to have to go through that. But if he is tongue tied and we don't I may not be able to continue breastfeeding when he gets teeth. In our book, the benefits of breastfeeding are more important and while the snipping may cause short term discomfort... he will be so much more greatly benefitted in the long run. But... that is all speculation right now. We'll see what our pediatrician has to say about it.