4 Comments

As someone who has observed tongue tie release procedures for babies AND assisted with circumcisions as a nurse AND had a tongue tie release procedure myself as an adult, it makes literally no sense for people to be on board with mass circumcisions for cosmetic reasons and be against tongue tie releases. There is clearly either a disconnect of education/information or they feel they are losing control and it is a power grab.

Expand full comment

Def scared of losing control

Expand full comment

I get that you’re trying to bring some balance and nuance to the issue, but what about the babies?

Cutting a very sensitive area of the body that has a lot of nerve endings on a routine basis seems barbaric.

I have heard of babies actually be very distressed after the procedure and have no real change in breastfeeding outcomes.

It’s a real trauma to a very young child and we should consider how necessary it is.

It does seem to be over diagnosed which means Mums are allowing practitioners to perform unnecessary painful and potential traumatic procedures because they’ve been led to believe this will benefit a child. Much like circumcision was sold as a ‘hygienic’ practice that will benefit boys in the future.

Moreover, with such a sudden jump in the prevalence of a once rare ‘condition’, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to question why this would be the case? It seems suspect that every second newborn needs to be snipped.

My son was diagnosed with a tongue tie by two seperate practitioners but so were several new born children of parents I knew, which made me question the diagnosis. A few of us decided not to intervene and have gone on to have successful breasts feeding journeys of nearly 2 years.

All this is to say, medical procedure are not without their risks, including this one. And we shouldn’t downplay subjecting young babies to unnecessary pain, even if it ‘helps the mother’.

Expand full comment

It’s nonsense that it’s profit driven - as if in the US any aspect of healthcare isnt somewhat profit motivated anyway... why are paediatricians exempt from such scrutiny? That aside, we obviously have a nationalised healthcare system here in the UK, and midwives frequently refer babies with tongue tie to get revisions made by doctors.

Expand full comment