I’ve been thinking lately about fascial tension in the body (probably because of the workshop I have coming up with Jenn from En Route Wellness ;)) and how it relates to tongue tie symptoms. This post is probably a bit more of a ramble, but it is quite literally a stream of consciousness blog, so if you want to be inside my brain for a bit, come along for the ride:)
Why should we even care about fascial tension and tongue ties in the first place? They are getting to be more of a common diagnosis these days. There are also definitely some questions of why is that? Are we just getting better at diagnosing, or is there another reason? Is there a reason why people's bodies have more tissue tension in this day and age? So, here are some of my thoughts, just as a chiropractor, who's done some training in this and has walked this journey on my own.
From a personal perspective, I have had two tongue tie releases on two of my kids. For the older one, it made a very obvious difference right away. He could breastfeed well but he screamed anytime we tried to give him a bottle. At this point in time I was still in school full time after he was born, and so it was of a necessity that he took a bottle. I have now since learned that the tongue has to move differently in order to breastfeed versus bottle feed, and so it makes sense considering how his tongue was formed that bottle feeding would have been so difficult.
He had what was considered a grade 4 tongue tie. Hiis tongue could not lift up due to the frenulum, the piece of tissue that tethers the tongue to the bottom of the mouth, as it was all the way at the tip of his tongue, causing a butterfly shape to his tongue.
Interestingly enough, breastfeeding was not painful at all. I didn't deal with any issues there but it was the bottle feeding that was a struggle. After we got his tongue released at about six weeks bottle feeding was a night and day difference.
Then when he was about two years old, when he was starting to talk more, we noticed that he was drooling a lot still. He would drool when he was laughing and when he was crying.
I started to wonder why? Because he had gotten his tongue tie released. In theory he should have had more motion in his tongue but for some reason his body wasn't getting the cue to swallow. During all this time, he was getting chiropractic care but hadn't gotten any other kind of body work. Also it was by me and I was a very brand new chiropractor. I hadn't done a whole lot of tongue tie training, or fascial work, or more in depth cranial work.
As time went on, I reached out to a cranial mentor and got more pointers from him. We met with a craniosacral therapist and had a few session. I continued to work on him too.. We added in myofunctional work with him too. As he got older, we noticed things with his speech as well.
His “s” was slushy sounding and it was evident to me again that he still had saliva in his mouth, and wasn’t swallowing. He was also a snorer. In retrospect, he got the tongue tie released but also there was likely a lot more body work that could have been done pertaining to the tongue tie fascia and the restrictions there, as well as cranial work. His speech continues to be something we are working on to this day.
Fast forward to last year when I had my fifth baby. We noticed that he was breastfeeding well and without pain, but I got mastitis twice in a two week span. I had assessed and adjusted him when he was hours old, and while the tissue in his mouth was mildly tight, I wanted to see how cranial work plus chiropractic adjustments would help his body. Breastfeeding was a little bit pinchy the first week but nothing was present like cracking or bleeding nipples. After the bouts of mastitis, I got two different pediatric dentist opinions. I wanted to be thorough and sure before we did any sort of a release. We ultimately decided to get his tongue and lip tie released.
In the meantime, I was adjusting him. I knew a lot more about cranial work at this point and Jenn was doing cranial fascial work on him. He's been a very relaxed, happy cuddly baby. We haven't had any breastfeeding issues. Thankfully, we've been able to breastfeed to a year.
I share those two journeys because the fascial world is becoming more known, but it's not known enough about yet. When I hear parents talk about breastfeeding struggles, or their baby being really tense, or constipated, or spitting up, or gassy, or colicky, my thought is that their baby needs bodywork, in addition to a tongue/lip tie assessment.
My biggest goal with our upcoming workshop is to communicate the necessity of having bodywork alongside a release. When both are done properly, the baby benefits in a much bigger way. When the bodywork piece is lacking, we end up with a longer journey, like my older son.
When getting diagnosed with a tongue or lip tie, it is important to know that the fascia isn’t just tight in the tongue. The tongue tie fascia stretches throughout the entire body, all the way down to the toes. So releasing it at one point will help there, but also we need to address the whole system.
Bodywork can be a game changer in so many ways!
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