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.
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.