Tongue snipping in babies, yes or no?
Parents are rushing to give their newborn babies a bizarre surgical procedure to ‘help’ them breastfeed better.
The increased popularity of the surgical procedure is being linked to efforts to get more women to breastfeed and help babies who have problems feeding.
‘Tongue tie’ is where the thin piece of skin that joins the underside of a baby’s tongue to the lower jaw is abnormally short, it’s a real but rare complication that can create issues with breastfeeding. Its treatment, cutting the skin under the tongue, has been growing in recent years.
Doctors are warning that, in most cases, the issue naturally heals over time and the rapid rise is a “fad” being driven by lactation consultants and dentists who are making money from the procedure.
The Daily Telegraph spoke to paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall who said that tongue tie “was the new black” and he was concerned by the increasing number of babies being treated for it.
“It’s an operation performed on something that heals itself over time,” Dr Ingall said. “Mothers are being told their children will not be able to speak properly and that their jaws won’t grow properly, so there is a fear campaign operating out there and it is being driven by dentists and lactation consultants and osteopaths referring to each other. They’ve turned nothing into something.”
There are valid cases where tongue-tie hinders baby's ability to latch and breastfeed which can result in malnutrition. Doctors are worried that parents are now rushing to have the procedure done even if baby is likely to outgrow it.
What are your thoughts on this? Would you have your child operated on for ‘tongue tie’?
'The Doctors' explain the procedure below...