Kellie Eason RN, RM, IBCLCKellie is a Nurse, Midwife and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice, with over 25 years experience. After consulting over 6000 families in 4 years & seeing so many adverse effects as a result of failure to attain pre-frenectomy feeding & child health assessments, I thought I would share this advice with the intent of helping others. TONGUE OR LIP TIE SURGERY IS NOT INDICATED FOR ALL INFANTS WITH LIP & TONGUE TIES
NOT ALL INFANTS THAT HAVE LIP/TONGUE TIES NEED SURGERY
TONGUE/LIP TIE SURGERY SOMETIMES DOES NOT WORK
WITHOUT A PRE-FRENECTOMY FEEDING & HEALTH ASSESSMENT, YOU RUN AN INCREASED RISK OF:
MAIN POINTS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER...
HERE’S A TYPICAL CASE EXAMPLE OF WHAT I SEE, WHEN INFANTS HAVE THE PROCEDURE WITHOUT ATTAINING A PRE FRENECTOMY FEEDING & CHILD HEALTH ASSESSMENT Crying, desperate mum can no longer cope with her fussing, poorly feeding baby, she may have had a history of low milk supply, recurrent mastitis, nipple damage. She seeks advice from friends & social media, proceeding to a referral from her GP to a tongue/lip tie surgical provider... Baby has tongue/lip tie surgery... Baby’s feeding and behaviour regresses, with their health & wellbeing further compromised...this is not what mum expected. Mother & baby get admitted to mother baby unit under Psychiatric, & Paediatrician care. Mother & baby unit staff can only provide limited assistance because the child is in pain - baby screams out for mum while strange staff cuddle baby whilst she has dinner. Mum gets more stressed because this simply isn't working. The whole family is struggling with stress at home because mum isn't coping & things have gotten way worse before they have even gotten better.... This cycle continues for another 2 weeks, but each day feels like a year for this poor mum. Her baby picks up on her stress, which makes things worse. Mum’s mental health deteriorates as she feels guilty that the procedure didn’t fix her baby’s fussiness & feeding problems. Mum’s milk supply, nipple damage, mastitis is an ongoing issue - making her feel even worse, just more complications to deal with.... Mum & baby return to lip/tongue tie surgeon for review appointments to find that wound has reattached & upon questioning, mum has been procrastinating the dreaded "stretches" or fails to do the stretches effectively because she can't handle hearing & seeing her baby in distress. Surgeon has to re-stretch the wound open again which is more painful than the procedure itself. There is still another 3 weeks of this journey to be continued HERE’S A TYPICAL CASE EXAMPLE OF WHAT I SEE, WHEN INFANTS HAVE THE PRE-PROCEDURAL ASSESSMENTS WITH POST SURGICAL REHABILITATION
I'm really keen to hear about your own stories with regard to experiences with your child with a tongue/lip tie whether it was surgically treated or not. What were you pleased about? Would you do anything differently next time around? |
Kellie Eason RN, RM, IBCLCNurse, Midwife, IBCLC, Infant Feeding Therapist, Birth & Parenting Educator, Baby Sleep & Settling Consultant Categories
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