November 8, 2014
When I had my son 12 months ago a nurse told me in the hospital, “your son will always want to be held”. Night two in the hospital I told my husband, “I got this, go home and take care of Ady (our 2 1/2 year old).” Andrew was up all-night and screamed all night. This would be the first in 12 months of days/nights my son would just scream in pain. I struggled with nursing issues for 6 months. My son has been seen by lactation consultants, 2 GIs (approx 10 visits), endocrinology, neurology, sleep doc, allergist, chiropractor, ENT, and a dietician. He has been diagnosed having milk & soy allergies without the usual symptoms. He has had 2 strains of the flu virus at the same time (hospitalized), Roseola virus, Hand, Foot & Mouth, Croup, ER trips, x-rays, 2 ultrasounds, upper gi, allergy testing and nothing. No one has been able to explain to me why my son cant sleep night or day, has feeding issues, food intolerance, bloody murder cries, constipation and reflux. After giving up nursing at 6 months, pumping round the clock for a month, elimination diets, food journals, & 7 formulas our symptoms stay the same. My son has been on Neocate (Hypoallergenic, $45/can formula) for a month which is dairy free and that didn’t do the trick either. I have been on a 12-month mission to find out what hurts my son so much? I research day/night and people close to us know this has been the hardest year of my life.
I challenged our pediatrician yet again on Thursday about tongue-tie. We spoke on the phone and I questioned again. I said, “I think we missed something. I know we have discussed this before but are we sure Andrew is not tongue-tied.” He responded back to me that I needed to move past the fact that I could not breastfeed and may need to consider the fact that Andrew needed to be evaluated for behavioral issues. Andrew was 12 months and two days old. I couldn’t fathom that at 12 months you could have behavioral issues.
That night I was very frustrated. I was a part of an MSPI support group on Facebook and I described my frustrations in a post. I described Andrew’s symptoms, my nursing issues, his reflux, constipation issues, his pain cries, and all the diets he had been on. One mom replied to me asking if I had considered tongue-tie? She then referred me to a national tongue-tie support group. From there I got involved in the Ohio Tongue/Lip Tied Babies Support Group. I posted about our story. I was overwhelmed at the response I got. A mother replied to me right away asking for a picture of my son with his mouth open. She insisted my son was tongue-tied. Several moms agreed. I researched the page and read all of the literature. I looked on the preferred provider list and found the name of Dr. Milton at Brunswick Kidds Laser Dentistry. For the next 24 hours I researched tongue-tie like crazy. This time I dismissed what my Pediatrician had told me. I called around and researched places in the area to get information on how they perform tongue-tie procedures. I learned that Dr. Milton’s office was one that had state of the art technology that could treat him with a laser if he did in fact have a tie. I called an ENT office and discussed Tongue Tie. They told me that in order to perform a frenectomy they would have to put Andrew to sleep and use a knife. I called Dr. Milton’s office and had my first encounter. After describing our story to the receptionist she found a way to squeeze us in the next day on a Saturday for a consultation.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
When I arrived with my husband, Adalyn and Andrew at Dr. Milton’s office I had to complete a questionnaire. It was the first time I had been to an office that our symptoms seemed to match up. I checked almost every box on the list and anxiously waited.
Dr. Milton brought our family back to his office and evaluated Andrew. Not only was my son tongue-tied but he was lip tied as well. We also learned that Adalyn had a lip tie but that it was not something that needed to be taken care of until she was older.
He was extremely professional and he was able to explain why Andrew had each symptom that he did. While I can’t explain his reflux and constipation issues as he did, it was all about the fact that digestion begins in the mouth. We also learned that he had seen other cases with similar symptoms that had been confused with having food intolerances and that we probably could put him back on cow’s milk with no issues.
He tried to be realistic with us when he was setting expectations with us. He explained that he had “never seen a case this bad to go this long undiagnosed.” He explained that since he had such learned behavior and had been in pain so long we would be lucky if we saw a 20% improvement.
He was able to laser the two ties without putting him under. The procedure lasted 4 minutes. Andrew fell asleep immediately in the car.
We were sent on our way with instructions on how to do stretches to keep the areas from reattaching and with the understanding that it was going to take some time to learn how to suck from a bottle. This was going to be new for him. We were to give him ibuprofen for any pain and to relieve discomfort.
I can’t tell you the relief I feel in my heart tonight. I hope this truly changes things. My family really needs some much-needed rest. I hope this encourages mommas everywhere to keep fighting, trust your momma gut & challenge what you feel is right. Thank you to all of my family & friends who have supported us through this past year.
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February 20, 2016
I can tell you that Andrew has never thrown up or refluxed since that procedure. He can stick his tongue out with ease and no longer battles constipation issues. Andrew is currently on cow’s milk with no issue. The only issue this procedure did not resolve was his eczema. I will continue to work on that. My husband and I agree that we have probably seen an 80% change in Andrew since this procedure.
From the bottom of our hearts we thank Dr. Milton and his team at Brunswick Kidds Laser Dentistry. You changed our lives and we thank you for your kindness and professionalism.
I hope and pray in my heart that this reaches other families that are struggling to find answers. My goal of putting this story out there is that others find answers much sooner than we did.
