The Impact of Tongue and Lip Ties
Your baby is struggling to breastfeed. You're experiencing pain, your baby is fussy and gassy, and you hear a persistent "clicking" sound during feedings. A well-meaning friend, or perhaps a lactation consultant, mentions two words that send you down a rabbit hole of online research: "tongue-tie."
For many parents, the conversation around tongue and lip ties (also known as Tethered Oral Tissues or TOTs) begins and ends in the mouth. It's seen as a simple mechanical problem: a tight piece of tissue is restricting your baby’s tongue, making it hard for them to latch. While this is true, it's only a fraction of the story.
A tongue-tie is not just a mouth issue; it's a whole-body issue. That tight band of tissue creates a chain reaction of tension that can affect your baby's entire body. At Maximized Chiropractic, we understand that to truly resolve feeding issues related to TOTs, we must look beyond the latch and address the tension patterns throughout the body.
Understanding the "Resistance Band" Effect
A frenulum is the small fold of tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth or the lip to the gums. When this tissue is unusually short, thick, or tight and restricts normal function, it's considered a "tie."
Think of this tight frenulum as a resistance band permanently anchored in your baby's mouth. Every time your baby tries to suck, swallow, or even just move their tongue, they are pulling against this band. This has two major consequences:
Fatigue: Just like exercising with a resistance band, this constant pulling is exhausting. A baby may latch well for the first few minutes but then quickly become tired, start chomping instead of sucking, or fall asleep at the breast before they are full.
Compensation: When the primary muscles for feeding get tired, the body recruits other muscles to help. Your baby will start using their lips, cheeks, and jaw muscles to compensate for what the tongue can't do. This is what leads to many of the common symptoms parents notice: a tight, painful latch, lip blisters, clicking sounds from a poor seal, and swallowing excess air, which can cause colic and reflux-like symptoms.
How Tension Travels Through the Body
This pattern of compensation isn't isolated to the face. The body is an interconnected web of fascia—a type of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle and organ. The tension that starts in the mouth can travel along these fascial lines, creating tightness and asymmetry throughout the body.
This is why a baby with a significant tongue-tie might also exhibit other physical signs, such as:
A preference for turning their head to one side.
Difficulty lying flat or hating "tummy time."
Asymmetry in their head shape that doesn't resolve after birth.
This whole-body tension can make it physically uncomfortable or even painful for a baby to get into a comfortable feeding position, leading to fussiness and breast refusal.
The Crucial Role of Chiropractic Care in Tongue-Tie Treatment
Because a tongue-tie is a whole-body issue, the most successful treatment plans involve a team approach, often including a lactation consultant, a specialized dentist, and a pediatric chiropractor. Chiropractic care is essential both before and after a tongue-tie revision procedure.
Before a Release: Preparing your baby prior to a release is critical. Gentle chiropractic adjustments before the procedure help to release pre-existing tension in the baby's skull, neck, and jaw. This "bodywork" allows the dentist to get a more accurate assessment of the tie itself and can lead to a more complete and effective release. We also provide important stretches and oral function assessments for your baby to make sure the tension around the tight frenulum has relaxed before the release.
After a Release: A release procedure is like cutting the anchor of the resistance band—it frees the tongue, but it doesn't erase the muscle tension and compensation patterns the body has learned. This is why chiropractic care after a revision is just as important.
Gentle, specific adjustments help the body heal from these ingrained tension patterns. By restoring proper alignment and function to the cranium and spine, we ensure the nervous system can communicate effectively with the newly freed tongue. This helps the baby learn how to use their tongue correctly for the first time, prevents the tissue from re-attaching improperly, and allows them to finally achieve an efficient, comfortable, and successful feeding relationship. Combined with post-release exercises, your baby will have the best chance of a successful procedure.
A Gentle, Safe, and Essential Part of the Team
It's natural for parents to feel nervous about the idea of an adjustment for their infant. It's important to know that pediatric chiropractic adjustments are incredibly gentle and safe when performed by a trained and certified doctor. We use no more pressure than what you'd use to test a ripe tomato, focusing on restoring optimal function to the nervous system so the body can heal and coordinate itself.
If you suspect your baby has a tongue or lip tie, or if you are planning a release, a whole-body approach is key. By making a pediatric chiropractor part of your team, you are giving your baby the best possible chance to release stored tension, restore proper function, and thrive.
