Leo's Tounge Ties

If you've read my breastfeeding journey blog, I mentioned that my lactation consultant discovered that Leo had lip, tounge and cheek ties.

We were referred a specialist and were lucky to find that we had a specialist in town- Sandi Earl Dental.

Our first appointment was the 14th of October. This was to confirm the ties and if Leo needed surgery to release them. We were there for about 1.5hrs being given all the information. Leo's ties were graded as level 3 and there were worries of breathing issues, jaw development and the need for more intervention later. Because of this we decided to go ahead with the release surgery.

The recovery period we were given was 9 weeks. So we booked him in as soon as we could, as I was returning to work in January and didn't want daycare or my Mother-in-law having to do the recovery stretches.

We were advised to see a chiropractor before the release surgery so his mouth was relaxed and to prepare him for the next day.

His surgery was the 3rd of November 2021 and it was a morning full of emotions. We arrived at the Dental clinic and were taken to the waiting area (a separate building from the actual Dentist). He was weighed and swaddled and the dentist took him off to the surgery.

The surgery took no time at all.. was under 30 minutes. He came back all smiles, with a little blood due to the size of his lip tie, and started eating with no issues at all.

The recovery stretches are the hardest part of the entire experience. The first two weeks were every 3 hours, including overnight, not fun to wake your bub when he sleeps through the night.

Week 3 extended the night time routine to 4 hours. Weeks 4 and 5 extended night time stretches to every 5 and 6 hours. By week 6 we could push out day time stretches to 4 hourly and week 7 was 5 hourly daytime and 6 hourly at night.. Weeks 8 and 9 were 3 times a day 😪

It's an extremely long process and I'd be lying if I said I got them all right on time. There was also a couple of night time stretches completely missed as I slept through my alarm 🤦‍♀️

He had a 2 week check up and we also went in around 4 weeks post op as I was concerned that the night time stretches I had missed had delayed his recovery.. both check ups showed he was recovering well and that nothing looked to be rejoining.

As hard as the 9 weeks of stretches were and I hated having to wake him, I am so glad we went ahead with the release surgery. His speech improved so much and he doesn't suck as thumb nearly has much as he was .

If you have been told your baby has ties and are hesitant about the surgery, I feel you. I didn't want to put my baby through that, however, it was one of the best decisions we made.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Kιɾʂƚιɳ Sιɱαɾα xx ♥