Newborn Tongue-tie: Prevalence and Effect on Breast-Feeding

Abstract

Objective: The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine whether breast-fed infants with tongue-tie have decreased rates of breast-feeding at 1 week and 1 month of age, (2) to determine the prevalence of tongue-tie, and (3) to test the usefulness of the Assessment Tool for Lingual Frenulum Function (ATLFF) in assessing the severity of tongue-tie in breast-feeding newborns.Methods: A case-control design was used. All infants in the Regions Hospital newborn nursery were examined for tongue-tie. Tongue-tied babies were examined using the ATLFF. Two breast-feeding babies with normal tongues were identified and matched for each case. Mothers were interviewed when the babies were 1 week and 1 month old.Results: The prevalence of tongue-tie was 4.2%. Forty-nine tongue-tied and 98 control infants were enrolled. Tongue-tied babies were 3 times as likely as control babies to be bottle fed only at 1 week [risk ratio (RR), 3.11; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.21, 8.03) By 1 month, tongue-tied babies were as likely as controls to be bottle fed only. (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.55, 1.82) Twelve of the tongue-tied infants had ATLFF scores of "Perfect," none had scores of "Acceptable," and 6 had scores of "Function Impaired." The remaining 31 infants had scores that fell into none of these categories.Conclusions: Tongue-tie is a relatively common condition in newborns. Affected infants are significantly more likely to be exclusively bottle-fed by 1 week of age. The ATLFF was not a useful tool to identify which tongue-tied infants are at risk for breast-feeding problems. (J Am Board Fam Pract 2005;18: 1-7.)

Classificação anatômica do frênulo lingual de bebês

“…Most babies had normal frenulum, in accordance with the literature 10,13,14,17,18 . However, it was found 37% of babies with lingual frenulum alterations, this frequency is higher than presented in previous studies 10,[13][14][15]23 .…”

“…Among the others studies, only one 18 reported gender of the sample, with a prevalence of male. Other reviewed studies only mentioned gender in the prevalence of alteration of the frenulum [10][11][12][13][14][15]18,23 .…”

“…Previous studies have classified the altered frenulum babies as ankyloglossia 1,[12][13][14][15] , lisp 1,10,11 or simply change the frenulum 23 . Part of the studies 10,11,14,15 used Hazelbaker protocol to classify the frenulum and the other part did not mention the criteria and instruments used 12,13,16,17,19,20,23 .…”

“…Part of the studies 10,11,14,15 used Hazelbaker protocol to classify the frenulum and the other part did not mention the criteria and instruments used 12,13,16,17,19,20,23 .…”

“…There is considerable controversy among health professionals regarding the classification of the lingual frenulum altered 9 . Different classifications are found in the literature: lisp 1,10,11 ; ankyloglossia 1,[12][13][14][15] ; short frenulum, long frenulum, frontal lisp 1 ; short mucosal, long mucosal with mandibular fixing and hypertrophic with fixing the alveolar ridge 12 ; short, anterior fixation and short with anterior fixation 4,16 and altered frenulum 8,17,18 .…”