The first six months of Willa’s life were really hard. Not because Willa was a challenging baby, she was actually one of the happiest and content babies I’ve been around! But after my experience with children (I was a nanny for about 10 years before having her) I knew something was not right but I didn’t feel like I had the right support to figure out what was going on.
Willa struggled with reflux. She would spit up large amounts, multiple times after every single feeding. I get that spit up is normal for babies, but this was not normal spit up. I kept pushing for answers with the pediatrician, but because she was gaining weight and considered a “happy spitter” (meaning she didn’t cry when she spit up), they didn’t see any problem with this. To be honest, it really frustrated me that my child had to be in pain for them to take my concerns seriously.
I did a lot of research about reflux and I came to the conclusion that reflux is a SYMPTOM of something and you better believe I was on a mission to find the cause of it. After five long months, it was recommended to me to bring Willa to a pediatric dentist that specializes in tongue and lip ties. This confused me a little because she had been evaluated for both of those when she was born. What I learned is that most pediatricians aren’t properly trained in diagnosing tongue and lip ties.
We brought her in to see a dentist that was highly recommended, and what do you know, our little lady had a tongue tie. Thankfully they were able to revise it that day. It took maybe a week or so to see improvement, but wow, what a difference it has made! It truly was a life changing thing. Willa was able to keep all of her feedings down and she began sleeping SO GOOD (I’m assuming because she was actually able to keep food in her tummy, which obviously helped her sleep longer stretches).
So what are signs of a tongue tie? Willa’s symptoms were spitting up, milk leaking from her mouth while feeding, arching her back during her feeds, very gassy, excessive drooling, and choking on milk/gasping for air during feeds. There are some other symptoms that babies can have along with symptoms that nursing mothers can experience (I don’t want to speak out on those because I don’t have experience with them, but I encourage you to research other symptoms if you think your baby may be struggling with a tongue or lip tie).
Want to know what isn’t a symptom? The baby being able to stick out their tongue past their lips. This is a myth and I think prevents a lot of babies getting the help that they need. The picture below is a random picture I snapped from Instagram of Willa sticking her tongue out. This was before her tongue tie revision…she’s obviously sticking it out past her lips! If your baby can stick out their tongue, they very well could still have a tongue tie.
Please know that all of this is a condensed version of what took place over the course of six months. This was a long journey and a lot of trial and error to figure out what was going on with our sweet girl. We went through five different types of formula, so many bottle brands (Boon Nursh was our favorite for her), weekly chiropractor visits, daily probiotics, and even an ER trip at three months due to some scary spit up that the pediatrician urged us to bring her to the Emergency Room for some scans and testing.
My hope in sharing this post is that it helps brings awareness to tongue ties and that second or even third opinions may be needed. I hope that if your child is struggling with reflux know that you’re not alone (I know for me it was such a lonely feeling and it felt like no one understood), but I also hope it encourages you to research some options of what could be causing the reflux.
If your child had a tongue or lip tie, what were some of their symptoms? Leave a comment and hopefully it can help other parents identify other symptoms.
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