How a tongue-tie is resolved

The proper term is actually "revision". Tongue-ties are revised. On a fine Monday morning when Sam was about five months old, we took him to Dr. Tali Lando of ENT Faculty. She checked his mouth and agreed that he has a posterior tongue-tie, but it's not one of the bad ones she's seen. Still, the good doctor claimed, it pays to just deal with it now while he's a baby and the procedure is no big deal to perform and recover from. Here's how it went.

We laid Sam down on the examining table and held his hands and feet. An assistant held his head down so he faced the doctor. Dr. Lando gave him a quick shot to numb the area (Sam cried for just a few seconds after that) and then snipped the offending frenulum, which took just a few seconds! Then she pressed a gauze on that area to stem the bleeding. When she removed it, the gauze just had a pale peach-colored stain - no bleeding! I was told that I should try to nurse him right away as that would help the area heal quicker. I was only too happy to oblige. Nursing really comforts Sam (and me!).

I nursed him and didn't see any remarkable difference yet. His suction felt like it always did. For the next few days after the procedure, Sam nursed a little less than normal and it did not feel any different than it did before. THEN we noticed a change. A few days later my nipples got sore! Oh boy, did they get sore! Sam also went from nursing for 15 minutes to about 7-10 minutes. By now, at 8 months, he nurses for about 5 minutes. His lips also flange out the proper way, surrounding the nipple in a proper latch. No more lipstick nipples either.

I wondered why I didn't see a change in his feeding right away. Then it occurred to me. He was using brand new muscles that had never yet been within his range. When using them in the beginning, just after the revision, these muscles would tire easily until he exercised them enough to endure an entire feeding.