re: Tongue-tie surgery for young child

I have three kids and two had to have tongue ties revised as infants to help them breastfeed properly. One also had a lip tie done.

If your child is under a year or so you want to get it done with the laser that actually removes the tissue. Our provider won’t do that for an older kid bc there is no anesthesia or anything, they swaddle and it is done in a few minutes. An older kid will need something different. I have a friend who did her kid’s when they went in for ear tubes to avoid multiple rounds of anesthesia.

The poster who said check around a lot is correct. I know people who got theirs clipped by an ENT who said there was no need to stretch it or anything afterward. It reattached the way it was and solved nothing. You need to do the stretches for two weeks or so afterward.

My son was tongue tied at birth, but the doctor steered us toward not doing anything because it didn't affect his feeding.

We ended up having it done due to speech reasons right before his second birthday. He has a few speech issues as a 6 year old, but has made a ton of progress since he started speech therapy 2 years ago. My wife feels awful for not doing the snip sooner, but I'm not convinced that it had anything to do with his speech issues.

Seems like the easy way out.


I was pulled out of class everyday to do speech lessons up until about the forth grade.

It was just practicing over and over again making the right sounds. It gets to the point you dont have to think about it anymore.

This may sound extreme but I recommend a evaluation with a physical therapist certified in orofacial myofunctional therapy. I am not a medical professional but proper tongue movement and placement is critical to a growing child. It is worth the cost of an evaluation to rule out any possible issues and in my personal experience this type of physical therapist is more experienced in recommending therapy or a procedure than a speech therapist. They also work hand in hand with dentists, orthodontists and ENTs.