For many mothers breastfeeding can be extremely difficult, painful, and not seem to provide sufficient milk for the newborn. Though many factors play into successful breastfeeding numerous breast feeding specialist note tongue and lip ties as the frequent cause of breastfeeding difficulties. A tongue tie (ankyloglosia) is an abnormally thick or restrictive connection between the tongue and the floor of the infants’ mouth. This restriction prevents proper tongue movement that in turn prevents proper latching for breastfeeding.
Improper latching by the infant can lead to mastitis, swollen or clogged ducts and/or extremely painful nursing. The good news is a simple procedure can be performed to release the restrictive tissue under the tongue and/or lip. This allows the newborn to latch properly onto the mother and greatly improve their feeding.
Though a tongue and/or lip tie correction will greatly improve the infant’s ability to nurse, our office strongly encourages a mother and infant to work closely with a lactation consultant. Kitsap County has numerous wonderful resources to help new mothers and infants achieve successful breast feeding. We encourage moms to visit the Kitsap County Health Department http://www.kitsapcountyhealth.com/CommunityHealth/pch_lactation.php for more information on these services.
Our office is pleased to offer this service to infants and with the use of a laser this procedure is only a few minutes long and relatively painless for the newborn. If you have any questions or would like your child to be evaluated by Dr. Neste and her team please contact us at: 360-692-9560 or info@silverdaledentalcenter.com