Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Tongue-Tied

Clare is moderately tongue-tied, and it has been a subject that comes up now and again. Lately, her new speech therapist has asked about the possibility of Clare having her tongue released. Clare is showing progress in her speech, but mainly when it comes to sentence structure (such as adding verbs into her vocabulary and forming complete sentences rather than 2-year old two-word commands). She has not really come too far with her strengthening or articulation, and the therapist feels much of this is due to her limited range of motion in her tongue. This week at therapy, Clare demonstrated that her oral abilities were too weak to even bite into a Ting (a natural cheesy doodle thingy), and we know she has trouble with chewing, biting, and generally eating anything that she cannot swallow immediately or soften in her mouth a little bit.

We last saw the ENT regarding Clare's tongue-tie when she was only months old. At that time, he suggested having it released. However, Clare was unable to have the procedure done while already under anesthesia for a cath since she is on blood thinners during her caths. And her cardiologist did not feel comfortable clearing Clare for a separate procedure under general anesthesia unless it was a life or death situation. Fast forward three years, and we are seriously exploring the option again. Clare has been clinically stable heart-wise for over a year now. She is older, stronger, and has tolerated general anesthesia many times in the past. She would most likely be able to go off her blood thinners for a couple days without any lasting harm to her heart. (This is all my hypothesizing right now!) So now I am in the waiting game to hear back from the cardiologist about the procedure and scheduling appointments with the ENT to receive more details on what the procedure entails.

While we wait, it is very cute to hear Clare remember about completing her consonants at the end of words... such as drawing out the "S" sound in "yes." She sounds like a snake - "yessssssssssssssssssss."

7 comments:

Aunt Joan said...

Teresa ~ Isn't it too bad that "cute" speech-stuff can't last forever?? I am sure she will benefit from the procedure. {both of my boys were done at birth!} Good luck with the waiting game, and I will keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers, as always!
love ya, Aunt Joan

Auntie Becky said...

Hey guys!!
I bet it is cute to hear her. I will keep her in my prayers...and you all to, while exploring the procedure. Love you guys!!!

Auntie Becky

Unknown said...

I hope your wait isn't a long one, I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.

Tara said...

Payton had hers done when she was about 9 months old. It was not bad at all. I will be thinking of you all as you play the waiting game.

Kerry said...

Good thing you have that video recorder on her cute voice :) Post as soon as you know about the dr!

Amy said...

I went through this dilemma with AVery, hers however loosened up and is not an issue any longer. I understand your concerns. Ask the ST if there is anyway that being tongue tied is a benefit because it keeps the tongue stable due to low tone in the mouth. That is what our pedia said, he thought Avery was better off being tongue tied.
xoxo
Amy

Lisa said...

one of our neighbors kids was Toung tied...I think he eventually got it clipped but he sounded so cute before