There is a little piece of skin underneath your tongue that keeps it connected to the bottom of your mouth. (called a fredulum (sp?)or something like that) Well, I noticed that the skin under the tongue of my 6 1/2 month old son is really close to the tip of his tongue. He’s kind of having a hard time moving his food to the back of his mouth because his tongue can’t move as freely as I think it should. He also can’t stick his tongue out very far. I was talking to his Dr. about this today and he said that we should wait about 3 more months before doing anything about it because it might change during that time.
Has anyone ever had that piece of skin clipped or know of anyone who has? I’m just looking for a little information about it and haven’t been able to find anything on the net because I don’t know what it’s called. Searches on “tongue” and “tongue disorders” just show stuff like “black hairy tongue” and “tongue cancer.” Anyone have any info for me about this?
I found a couple of articles which may help you. The biggest concern is that the child will have trouble breast-feeding. The concesus seems to be that if you breast-feed the child, and it’s having trouble, it should get clipped right away. If not, then it’s more of a personal decision, like circumcision.
I’m not a pediatrician but I do have 3 kids, one of whom had his “tongue clipped” as an infant.
Lots of infants have tongues that don’t extend much past their frenulum so that the tip of their tongue appears tethered to the floor of their mouth (at least in comparison with some other infants and with older children and adults.) This is normal. As they get older, their tongue will grow, the tip will become more mobile, and they will stop looking strange to their parents.
Some pediatricians will respond to parental concerns such as yours by declaring the child “tongue-tied” and offering to clip the frenulum. I don’t know why they do this. Perhaps they are concerned that the child is truly abnormal and that speech development will be delayed unless something is done. This may be true in one case out of a million. Perhaps they offer to operate to please the worried parents. Perhaps they operate to please their stockbrokers. I don’t know. Some doctors seem to be eager to operate on basically normal anatomic structures for questionable reasons (e.g., most circumcisions, most tonsillectomies, asymptomatic impacted wisdom teeth, etc.).
You seem to have a smart pediatrician. He doesn’t offer a needless operation, he tries to alleviate your worry by suggesting that nothing need be done now. At the same time, by promising to reevaluate the situation in three months (instead of telling you "it’s normal, don’t worry) he is showing that he shares your concern.
My first born had his frenulum clipped at around 3 weeks of age while I was out of the country. I think the pediatrician told my wife that it was a trivial procedure in a tiny infant but would be more complicated if it were done at an older age. I think it was trivial for my son but it was definitely traumatic for my wife. When, after it was done, we asked another pediatrician about such procedures, he just smiled.
At least one of my other two children (I forget which) had the same appearance as an infant but we did not have anything done to his or her tongue. I can report that all three can now stick out their tongues really far.
My youngest brother had the same sort of deal that you describe. My parents decided to have it clipped. The only negative effect that it may have caused was a slight speech impediment, which speech therapy seems to have fixed. My brother is fifteen now, and completely normal (aside from being 6’2", and 200 something lbs.)
And I think it’s called a frenulum, though I don’t have a cite.
I suggest you read article suggested by Quadell at http://www.adam.com/drgreene/971103.html
(If you read that one, I don’t think you will gain much by reading the others.)
Back in grade school I was an altar boy. One of our jobs way back (pre-Vatican II) then was to hold the paten under the chins of the communicants to catch any crumbs of host that might fall. None never did (I always fantasized that I’d be the great altar boy hero who would catch an entire ciborium of spilled hosts, but the priests were frustratingly deft.) But, I did see a whole lot of tongues. (You thought this was a non sequitur, didn’t you?)
And I can relate from this experience that a good number of people can’t stick their tongues out past their lips. Or, if you think that was an unscientific leap of logic, I’ll revise that to: A good number of practicing Catholics in the St. Louis area during the period 1959-1962 couldn’t stick their tongues out past their lips. Maybe they’re all better now.
Thanks for the links quadell and Yeah. They were very helpful.
My son never had trouble breastfeeding but he did have trouble taking the bottle. I have to use those NUK nipples because he wouldn’t take the other kind. He also had a hard time pulling the nipple to the back of his mouth for a while. I had to put the nipple in the back of his mouth so he could start sucking… it’s like he couldn’t get his tongue under it enough to pull it in himself. He takes bottles just fine now though. Also, now that he is eating cereal and baby food I notice he’s having a hard time moving the food to the back of his mouth so he can swallow it. I guess that I will wait another few months and see what happens. If he is still having trouble eating after a few months I will probably ask the Dr. to clip it.
My almost-3-year-old had this when he was very young (a few months), and I was worried about it making it hard for him to learn to talk. We didn’t do anything, but I haven’t noticed it for a couple years now. I assume it got better on its own one way or another. I’ll take a look when I get home tonight.
My mother tells me I was tongue tied as an infant. Nothing was done as far as surgery is concerned. Apparently when I got my lower teeth the frenulum got cut/ripped by them and it freed up my tongue. I have no speech impediment and can eat as well as the next guy. I do have perhaps the shortest tongue of any of my acquaintances. Although I can’t touch my nose with my tongue I can still tie a cherry stem into a knot with it.
John
Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
“I call this game FUN-IN- A-BOX”
Said the cat.
