What is a posterior tongue tie?

Frequently I meet families who are advised that their baby's tongue tie is slight, not impairing feeding, or as the baby is gaining weight they cannot have a tongue tie in the first place.

This is frustrating as a little way down the breast or bottle feeding journey problems emerge, which may have been minimalised or avoided if a correct assessment and diagnosis had been given. This frequently occurs in the case of a posterior tongue tie. A posterior tongue tie is a visual description based on the insertion of the lingual frenulum in relation to the tongue and the floor of the mouth.

As seen in the photo this can be seen to be very short and anchoring the tongue to the floor of the mouth which can significantly impair function and lead to poor weight gain, damaged nipples, choking or gagging due to poor control of flow of milk, messy bottle feeds (sometimes breast), poor latch and vacumn on the breast.

At Babytobreast Peterborough you will be able to have a functional and visual assessment and be able to make an informed decision whether to treat, wait and see, or leave alone.

Some baby's manage initially but experience problems with weaning foods so I will provide care for babies up to 1 year.