Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2314 readers

239 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Inside the Booming Business of Cutting Babies’ Tongues (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Dentists and lactation consultants around the country are pushing “tongue-tie releases” on new mothers struggling to breastfeed.

Tess Merrell had breastfed three babies and never expected trouble with her fourth. But after a month of struggling with her newborn, she hired Melanie Henstrom for help.

Ms. Henstrom, a lactation consultant, identified a culprit: The infant’s tongue was tethered to the bottom of her mouth. It was a common problem, she said, and could be fixed with a quick procedure at a dentist’s office.

“It was touted as this miracle cure,” said Ms. Merrell, a high school soccer coach in Boise, Idaho.

Ms. Henstrom recommended a dentist, who in December 2017 cut under the baby’s tongue with a laser. Within days, the infant, Eleanor, was refusing to eat and had become dangerously dehydrated, medical records show. She spent her first Christmas on a feeding tube.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My two kids have both been born with this issue and having their tongue release helped immensely. We also wanted to get it over with, since leaving it may cause speech difficulties as they get older.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

Yeah.

There's a lot of folks ignorantly commenting here who haven't held a baby who is struggling to get enough calories - both from a boob and from formula - equating tongue tie release with circumcision.

Is it over proscribed? In that is a medical practice that earns money, I'm 100% sure it is.

Is breastfeeding oversold as a one-size-fits-all panacea? Absolutely.

But anyone who has held a baby who was going through a terrifying struggle to maintain a healthy weight - both on and off boob - knows that tongue tie release is not optional for some babies.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

One of my 3 had it.

In all honestly I think I needed it too but never happened.