Swallow study for baby with posterior tongue tie

This is Baby Z's barium swallow study that was done when she was about 4 months old. She has posterior tongue tie and had a suspected VPI (it's highly doubtful she has one, but it was suspected at the time).

I thought it might help other parents and professionals see what a baby with posterior tongue tie looks like on a study.

She's feeding from a Haberman (Medela special needs feeder), which is the only bottle she's capable of drinking from. At the time this was taken she could not create suction on her own due to her tongue restriction.
With OT and suck training she's learned to use her tongue much better and has now made really great improvements.

I wrote about all her breastfeeding difficulties and the journey to get this far on my blog, which can be read here: http://babyslime.livejournal.com/647800.html

Information on posterior tongue tie can be read about here:
http://thelogicallady.blogspot.com/p/posterior-tongue-tie-information.html
Dr. Lawrence A. Kotlow, D.D.S., P.C. - http://kiddsteeth.com/articles.html

A Haberman/Medela Special Needs feeder looks like this :
http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breastfeeding-devices/83/specia...

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• posterior tongue tie
• tongue
• tongue tie
• Ankyloglossia
• posterior
• baby
• infant
• face
• suck training
• haberman
• special needs
• breastfeeding
• nursing
• feeding
• bottle feeding
• breast feeding
• swallow study
• barium swallow
• barium
• xray
• medical imaging
• speech pathology

[babyslime]

@rinagang 1. Sure you can. 2. Long story short she made amazing improvements with PT/Ot and there ended up being no real reason to go with surgery when she had the same results without it. :) Her case is not common, and we realize that, but we were very fortunate and today at 7 months she's now nursing normally, exclusively at the breast, with no supplements or difficulty as of 3-4 weeks ago but it took a lot of work to get here.

[rajeevagave]

I am a physician with a special interest in breastfeeding and tongue ties. I am extremely impressed by your post and feel like this can help both professionals and mothers to understand what a tongue tie can do. Could I please give this link on my website for people to look at this amazing video.

Thanks

[babyslime]

@rajeevagave Sure you can. Thanks for asking.

[Caasana]

I've been getting hits to my blog from here and am absolutely amazed at this video! Thank you so much for posting this! Can I add it to my tongue tie page? -Metaphysical Mama

[babyslime]

@Caasana Absolutely! :)

[rinagang]

I am a speech language pathologist specializing in feeding disorders in infants. I see infants with tongue ties all of the time. The most difficult ones to treat are those with posterior tongue ties. Even after they feed from a bottle, transitioning them to spoon feeding is quite difficult and exhausting.

Your video would be very helpful in educating the physicians I work with. Can I use it?

2. Why aren't you deciding to send the child for an assessment for a frenulectomy?

[Dundisoliloquy]

I am still breastfeeding with no problems. My dad and brother's tongue ties are very tight and neither of them had any problems eating or speaking correctly. This is an interesting subject because I don't know too many people with this issue. I'm glad to have seen it though just in case I should ever meet someone with it I could maybe help them.

[Dundisoliloquy]

When my daughter was born I didn't know she was tongue tied. It hurt a lot when I breastfed her and I thought it was because I had to relearn how to breastfeed after being out of practice from my first child. About 8 years or so. I noticed her tongue was different after about a week. I knew what it was because both my dad and older brother have it. I was told that doctors could snip it but I refused to have it done. After two weeks of breastfeeding the pain stopped. She is now 18 mos.