Lip tie is related to, but very different from, the better-known and more common condition called tongue tie. Lip tie is the condition when the membrane behind an infant’s upper lip is unusually thick or rigid. When that membrane — called the labial frenulum — is unusually thick or rigid, it can restrict the upper lips range of motion. The presence of a labial frenulum is completely normal, and not the sign of any problem. A potential issue arises only if that labial frenulum restricts the range of movement of your child’s upper lip.
Lip tie is different from tongue tie. Tongue tie is a condition related to the membrane attaching the tongue to the bottom of your infant’s mouth. Lip tie relates to your infant’s upper lip. While lip tie occurs less frequently than tongue tie, they can affect a child simultaneously. While the causes of lip tie and tongue tie are not completely understood, there is some consensus that genetic factors play a significant role.
What are the symptoms of lip tie?
The most common indication that a child may have a lip tie is that the child is having difficulty breastfeeding. An infant with lip tie can also contribute to breastfeeding-related challenges for the nursing mother, too. Breastfeeding-related symptoms of a lip tie in an infant include:
● Problems latching onto the nursing mother’s nipple
● Problems breathing while feeding
● Falling asleep often while nursing, or seeming to become very fatigued by nursing
● Making clicking sounds while nursing
● Colic
A nursing mother with a child experiencing lip tie may experience the following
● Pain while breastfeeding or afterwards
● Breasts that feel engorged even after your child has nursed
● Mastitis, the accumulation of milk in the breast tissue
● Blocked milk ducts
● Fatigue from constantly breastfeeding a child who never seems satisfied
The most serious cases of lip tie may prevent an infant from gaining healthy weight. That difficulty gaining weight can require parents to supplement breastfeeding with formula or bottle feeding if that’s easier for the child to accomplish despite reduced range of upper lip movement.
If your child is having difficulty with breastfeeding, contact a pediatrician, lactation consultant, midwife, or pediatric lip tie center in Tampa for a feeding evaluation. While there may be several causes of breastfeeding challenges, they will quickly be able to diagnose if a lip tie is contributing to the issue. You’ll be able to explore alternative feeding approaches to ensure your child receives the nourishment she needs, and discuss whether treatment for the lip tie is appropriate depending on how serious the complications are or may become.
As your child gets older, lip ties may cause other complications. In some cases, lip tie has been associated with difficulty eating from a spoon, eating finger foods, and even with an increased prevalence of tooth decay.
What can be done about lip tie?
Lip tie is not, in and of itself, dangerous. Its seriousness — and whether or not anything needs to be done about it — depends entirely on whether it is compromising your child’s weight gain, health, and development. Those are issues you should discuss carefully with the lip tie center in Tampa.
If complications are serious enough to warrant treatment, the type of treatment that is appropriate will depend on the “Level” of impairment. Your pediatrician or midwife and the staff at the lip tie center in Tampa will help you to understand the difference between the levels, and where your child falls on that spectrum.
Level 1 and Level 2 lip ties generally do not require treatment — called revision — unless they interfere with feeding. On the other hand, Level 3 and Level 4 lip ties may prompt a recommendation to undergo a frenectomy. Frenectomy is a quick procedure that uses a laser or sterilized surgical scissors to release the lip tie. Frenectomies are performed with little or no pain or discomfort, and without requiring anesthesia.
If you or your infant are struggling with breastfeeding while experiencing any of the symptoms discussed above, contact a pediatric lip tie center near you. Let us review your child for any sign of troublesome lip tie and support you both through the discovery of solutions.