What is a tongue tie?
A tongue tie is a membrane that extends from the underside of the tongue, in the middle, to the bottom of the inside of the mouth. The pictures at the top of this page show the membrane under the tongue, with a cotton bud used to gently lift the baby’s tongue upwards. The picture on the left, below shows a more severe tongue tie with the membrane extending right to the tip of the tongue. The picture on the right shows an apparently milder tongue tie. How common is it? Estimates vary, but a commonly quoted figure is that 1 in 20 babies has some sort of tongue tie. It’s commoner in boys and there may be other members of the family who have also had a tongue tie. Many tongue ties are minor and do not require treatment. However a tongue tie that is interfering with breast feeding may require assessment with a view to possible treatment (frenotomy). Some bottle fed babies will also benefit from tongue tie release. The assessment should be carried out by someone with experience in this field
