Ankyloglossia- So Common?!

As people have followed our journey with Ellington’s tongue tie, I get several phone calls or texts or emails a day from people who believe their child may be tongue tied too.  In fact, our lactation consultant came over the other day, and we were laughing about how she had gone to her nursing moms’ group this week and rejoiced over having checked a baby who was not tongue tied.  It’s true, we have seen so many of these ties now that we’ve been taught how to properly diagnose them.  And, yes, it is frustrating that they are so common!  Why is this and what are the implications?

I believe there are several reasons we are seeing this so frequently these days.  First of all, to quote Dr. Kotlow (and this quote makes me laugh out loud every time I hear his voice saying it in my head), “You see, it all started with the hippies!”  As he said this to me, I wondered to myself, “Does he really know who I am and what I do for a living?!”  Ha!  Anyhow, his point is this, for decades, moms bought into the lie that formula was as good as breastmilk.  So, we had generations of moms who did not nurse their babies.  Nursing is one of the biggest things that will clue moms in on their babies being tongue tied.  Moms know when they are nursing if the latch isn’t right and is something is off with their baby’s anatomy.  Trust that motherly instinct!  He went on to explain to us that as more and more moms were educated and eventually returned to nursing, and wouldn’t settle for anything better than the best- breastmilk- for their babies, that when it (nursing) was uncomfortable, they sought answers.  Therefore, tongue tie started being discovered more and more, and they’d have it corrected and their nursing pains relieved.

Now, we didn’t delve into this with Dr. Kotlow, but here are my thoughts after our conversation…  If you don’t use it, you loose it.  Right?  How sad!  I think over so many generations and years of so few moms nursing their children, we lost proper function.  Many people are familiar with Sally Fallon and Dr. Price.  They teach that what we have eaten for generations is so far from what we were created to eat that we have literally changed our facial structure; hence, the wisdom teeth removals, fillings, braces and weird teeth alignment.  Makes sense to me that this could also be the case for extra tissue and tissue placement where it shouldn’t be.

In addition, there’s research that shows when moms use cocaine there is a higher incidence of tongue tie in their babies.  After Mellanie mentioned this research to me the other night, when I quote it to moms they get the weirdest look on their faces.  ”I’ve never used cocaine!” some will quickly blurt out, to which I chuckle.  I’m not accusing you of wild behavior, but this study brings up some interesting points too.  If one researched chemical (cocaine) can cause this abnormality, what other chemicals- that no one has yet researched- might do the same?  Furthermore, one of the most prescribed drugs in our society are stimulants to treat conditions like ADD and ADHD.  Cocaine is a stimulant, and these prescribed stimulant drugs many times work on the same areas of the brain and cause some of the same side effects.  Countless studies have shown that many drugs- and several different types- have been found in our water supply.  Are we seeing increase in abnormalities due to all of this?  In my opinion, possibly so.

And, we can’t deny that with more education, there will be more awareness and more diagnosis and correction.  Again, no matter what the cause (or prevalence for that matter), we are so grateful for the cure!

Lifetime Family Wellness Center will be hosting Dr. Kotlow to speak on Saturday, May 14th from 9am-12pm.  Please spread the word, and I’ll share more details soon.  You will not want to miss his presentation!