Our experience with oral tie release on a newborn

As soon as my daughter was born, we spent time skin to skin during ‘golden hour’ and breastfed once she started rooting around.  When she latched, I almost jumped off the bed in pain.  All I could think was ‘this is what breastfeeding is like?! I have to do this 8+ times a day?  For how many months?!’

Luckily my amazing doula and the nurses were in the room and everyone turned around as there was a clicking noise coming from her.  Apparently, that’s not normal.  And don’t let anyone else tell you it is! The clicking and pain persisted despite attempting different positions.  At this point, the nurses recommended we see the hospital lactation consultant.  Unfortunately she wasn’t there after 3 PM, so it had to wait until the next morning.  Those next 18 hours were uncomfortable to say the least.

When the lactation consultant came in on Sunday, she examined the latch and said everything looked really good.  Despite this, my nipples were coming out of her mouth lipstick shaped and I was told my baby was just unique, and this might just be how she feeds.  I am here to tell you if you have your nipple coming out mis-shapen, get a lactation consultant, ideally through referral!, ASAP.  From Sunday to Wednesday we just pushed through breastfeeding with clicking, misshapen nippled, and as the days wore on, blistering and bleeding.  It was so uncomfortable I would literally yelp in pain.  Even though your nipples are getting used to breastfeeding, this pain isn’t normal!! 

The pain was so excruciating that by 4 days, I had to exclusively pump and bottle feed for 24 hours in order to get some healing in.  This is where a support system prior to delivery is so important.  My doula encouraged me to take this step and not feel guilty about doing so.  Prior to getting to the 24 hour pause period, we’d already tried nipple shields, only one side per feeding, different pillows, and every position imaginable.

How did we find a solution?

My chiropractor is an amazing resource of connections in Denver where we live.  I highly recommend contacting a trusted provider you already work with and seeing if they have suggestions.  My chiropractor pointed me towards a pediatric chiropractor, sometimes referred to as a bodyworker.  We also already had an appointment with our integrative pediatrician for the baby’s 4 day check up.  At the pediatrician we discussed the feeding pain and she took a look for ties.  She wasn’t sure if there were any, and told us to see with the chiropractor.  If you have a baby with a tie, bodywork is essential to the healing journey.   

What we didn’t realize about ties, it’s not just the frenectomy and you’re good to go.  The bodywork helps teach them the proper latch after the release.  More on that later!   

Our appointment with the chiropractor led to identification of posterior ties.  At this point we were directed to a pediatric dentist.  My advice – do not go to just any dentist! In the Denver area there’s one dentist who is renowned for infant tie release, and taking a conservative approach.  We were incredibly lucky and able to get in with her in 2 days.  Our appointment with her was the consult and procedure, in the event we wanted to move forward. 

The consult resulted in identification of a cheek, lip, and tongue tie.  She said clicking is a tell tale sign of ties and by no means reflects ‘uniqueness’.  We opted to move forward with the frenectomy immediately as I needed the pain relief, we needed to ensure she was able to get the right amount of food, and ultimately I felt like it would create a better bond between baby and I, as opposed to dreading feeding time.  

Infant oral tie release – a committed journey!  

In our postpartum haze, my husband and I definitely did not comprehend the healing journey post tie release.  It’s both a time commitment, mental challenge, and financial investment.  Post release we saw a lactation consultant who specializes in ties, recommended by the dentist and our pediatrician.  You’ll find that once you have one phenomenal provider, you start hearing the same names over and over again and can build an A team very quickly. I am SO grateful for the phenomenal experts we had to guide us on this journey. 

Now normally you would see the lactation consultant and do a session with them, then at home exercises, then the tie release a week or two after.  (At least this is how our dentist operates for the best outcome).  However because the dentist was going out of town for 2 weeks, we opted to do the release before seeing the lactation consultant.  We had the release Friday and were with the lactation consultant Tuesday morning. 

The day of the release is awful.  I’ll list below what I wish we had on hand to make her more comfortable. Also for us the pain wasn’t just 24 hours, but you could tell she was uncomfortable for about 48 hours.  The day of the release you start doing ‘stretches’.  This is a nice word for putting your fingers in babies mouth and applying pressure to the wound to stretch it and ensure as it heals, that it doesn’t tighten and heal with the same issue.  You do these stretches for 6 WEEKS! And these stretches break your heart.  Making your baby cry and causing them discomfort is the worst feeling.  The stretches have to happen every 4 hours, 6 times a day.  With our newborn, she was feeding every 3 hours and we opted to just do the stretches every feeding so we didn’t need to wake her up to do them.   

In addition to one follow up appointment with your dentist at the two week mark, you’ll likely see a bodywork / chiropractor once a week for 4 weeks, and your lactation consultant two or three times in the 6 week healing process.  On top of the oral stretches, you’ll also be given exercises from the bodyworker and/or lactation consultant to help the baby learn how to latch and develop muscles with the new movement their mouth has.   

Walking in, 5 days postpartum, I had no clue about this process and how exhausting it would be.  I’m writing this at the 6 week mark – we’ve officially graduated from stretches! And we’re elated.  If this is a journey you’re embarking on with your little one, just know that it is worth it at the end.  By about 3 or 4 weeks, the stretches became so much easier as they weren’t making her sore at all.  And after healing, her oral function & overall body preferences (she used to have a hard time moving her head to the left) are dramatically improved.  We breastfeed without any pain and clamping.  

What I wish I had known about oral release:

• The support team you have really matters – make sure you trust them! You want the best of the best here.
• It will be mentally very challenging the first two weeks and you feel like a terrible parent.
• There’s exercises AND stretches! It’s a lot on your plate with a newborn.
• By week 4 you’ll be so tired of doing the mouth work, but you’re getting close so don’t give up!
• If something still seems odd to you after the release, it probably is.  So speak up! She still had clicking and we had to change the exercises.  The providers wouldn’t have known this if we didn’t tell them something still wasn’t at 100%.

Hang in there, you got this! It will be worth it at the end.