Dr Charlotte Lewis: Taking care of tongue tie

12/18/2023

This article was published in the New York Times today, December 8, 2023. There are 3 take-aways in my mind.

1. Releasing oral ties are not without complication.

2. There are many reasons for breastfeeding challenges and oral ties are just one of these.

3. Look for a provider who understands breastfeeding and who provides evidence-based evaluation and management.

09/23/2022

Conclusions: The majority (98.1%) of infants receiving a lingual frenulum release alone had successful feeding after only one procedure, and only 5.8% of all infants receiving any intervention required a maxillary frenulum release for successful feeding, calling into question the relative necessity of performing maxillary frenulum releases for breastfeeding difficulties.

01/06/2022

I believe in and practice shared decision making.

Shared decision making is an important part of family-centered pediatric health care in which the clinician and family partner to make the best decision about a child’s treatment and care.

12/01/2021

To diagnose ankyloglossia (tongue tie) you need an understanding of both tongue anatomy and function.

03/02/2021

Babies are amazing! Healthy newborns “know” when and how much to eat! Watch baby’s feeding cues. Feed when hungry, stop when done. A healthy life-long relationship with eating begins in the beginning!

11/28/2020

One word this mom says over and over is “shame”....I wish we could take the shame out of feeding our children. I think about Maya Angelou and her quote so full of grace:

Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.

Better isn’t always going to be breast. There should be no shame in doing our best and striving always to learn more so we can do better.

That goes for all aspects of raising children.

Something was obviously wrong. But we were in a mode of survival that overcame mental soundness.

12/09/2019

When is the optimal time to address a tongue tie?

It depends! But in most cases, babies seem to tolerate it better in the first couple of weeks of life.

To really evaluate the degree that tongue tie is causing maternal pain, it can help to wait until mom’s milk supply has increased a bit—usually by day 5.

10/25/2019

We accept Medicaid at UWMC.

10/23/2019

In July, researchers from Bristol, UK published their newest tongue tie assessment tool in picture form. If you are interested, the article is at: https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13006-019-0224-y/figures/1