Our Lip & Tongue Revision Experience

Hello Loves!

Since the second week of Skye’s life we have struggled with numerous issues, from breastfeeding to screaming the house down. Being the internet savvy Mum that I am, I found myself spending the moments of silence when Skye was asleep scouring the internet for answers for my babies woes. I should have probably been taking that time to sleep myself.

Skye’s Symptoms

• Bad latch
• Clicking while feeding
• Falling asleep while nursing
• Crying
• Never full, feeding every 10mins
• Build up of milk on tongue
• Dribbling
• Reflux

But it wasn’t until Skye turned 4 weeks that I found something that related to what we were going through. Lip and tongue tie. I spent my time looking at pictures, reading a million articles and pacing back and forth around Skye’s crib willing her to wake so I could peek into her mouth.

Once she woke I found she looked just like the pictures. Her lip tie looked like a level 4 (out of 4). I also noticed that when she fed her top lip tucked under. Although I couldn’t hold her tongue still enough to take a peek, I did feel like there was something tying it down.

The next morning I called our local lactation consultant, which if you live in Barrie, ON, Barrie Community Family Health Team which offers free lactation meetings. The lactation consultant was able to check her tongue and it did seem to be tied, however she didn’t look at her lip as they don’t even fix those on location. They do offer free tongue tie snips but with scissors. Anyway after our consultation I left with a couple of breastfeeding techniques, and a clearer sense of what to do with little Miss Skye.

But I wanted a second opinion, the next day I booked an appointment with our family doctor who again confirmed that Skye was both tongue and lip tied. She informed us that laser frenectomy release would be the best option, not only for right now, but for Skye’s future. Especially because the lip tie could cause some dental issues down the line. With that knowledge we booked an appointment for her laser removal at a reputable Barrie dentist. Molson Park Dental.

The Procedure

Now let me just take a moment to appreciate Molson Park Dental. Sarah made our whole experience enjoyable… if that’s the right word to say for this haha. Dr. Chapnick was super friendly and professional. Upon arrival Sarah explained the whole procedure, Skye would be taken in and the whole thing would be around 10 minutes. She also offered us a variety of drinks to keep our hands busy haha.

Dr. Chapnick came in and did a quick assessment of Skye’s mouth, where he again confirmed that she was indeed tongue and lip tied, her lip being the worse of the two. Then he whisked her away into the procedure room. The most awesome thing was that they don’t even take her out of her carseat. She remained as snug as a bug the whole time. Sameer and I waited in the reception, we could hear Skye crying which just broke our hearts. Sameer paced back and forth, while I was on the phone fretting to my Mum. But from Skye being taken in to them bringing her out was a total of 6 minutes!! Skye came out slightly numb in the mouth, but quiet and happy in her car seat.

I then took Skye into a private office where I was able to breastfeed her right away, this brings comfort to both the baby and mummy. I instantly felt a difference in the way she was feeding. Her latch was deeper and she fed for a loooot longer.

Post Procedure

With our aftercare instructions we headed home with our little bundle of joy. We were told to do a sweep of her two laser points 4-6 times a day with a super clean finger for the next few days to avoid reattachment. However this isn’t very common as the great thing about the laser option is that it cauterizes it.

The procedure went great and little Skye was as happy as a clam for the next couple of hours, in and out of sleep and smiling all the time. Then the evening hit and this cute little angel decided to scream the house down. Pain hit and there was no way of soothing her. Sameer jetted out to our local pharmacy and came back with Tempra in hand. A small dose of this settled her, however we did need to give her a second dose before the end of the night.

I can’t entirely say that all of her issues were fixed by the laser removal as it later came to our attention that Skye indeed had bad acid reflux issues, but that’s a whole post on its own.

The procedure was super beneficial for Skye, not only in breastfeeding but like I said earlier, for her future. She had a better latch and was feeding for a lot longer. She was also obsessed with her new tongue that she kept sticking in and out of her mouth.

If you are thinking about getting your little ones lip tie, tongue tie or both removed be sure to do your research first, take your time, ask questions and make sure it’s the right fit for you.

xoxo Fil

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