Doctors in the US are urging families to partially cut off their babies' tongues to make breastfeeding easier, an investigation has warned.
Called “tongue-tie surgery,” a laser is used to burn away excess skin under the tongue, or the tissue that connects the lips and cheeks.
It was originally intended to be used in babies who have a genuine defect that prevents them from feeding properly, but doctors have become increasingly liberal in prescribing it, even though about 60 percent of infants recover without surgery.
The number of surgeries performed increased 800 percent between 1997 and 2012, from around 1,280 procedures to more than 12,000, with doctors and lactation consultants raking in millions of dollars annually.
In some cases, the procedure causes infants severe, persistent pain and difficulty eating, leading to malnutrition that may require connection to feeding tubes.
Idaho-based lactation consultant Melanie Henstrom has received several complaints from families to whom she recommended tongue-tie surgery, whose babies ended up being unable to breastfeed and eat solid foods, resulting in extreme malnutrition
Dentists who perform the procedure typically use a laser to cut through the excess skin that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth
A number of doctors said in a New York Times investigation that it was a money grab by dentists and lactation experts with extremely little government oversight.
During surgery to release tongue ties—a condition in which an unusually short, thick, or tight band of tissue holds the underside of the tip of the tongue to the floor of the mouth—this band of tissue is removed using a laser.
It has become a niche industry, in some cases earning dentists millions of dollars annually, to perform quick procedures on babies for about $600 to $900 a pop to make breastfeeding easier.
Money is also given to the lactation consultants who refer parents to doctors.
One of those lactation consultants is Idaho resident Melanie Henstrom, who, according to the New York Times, has received multiple complaints from her clients and health care workers because she aggressively pushes the procedure, which is not always medically necessary.
The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners has received at least three complaints about Ms. Henstrom since 2020, including one from pediatric physical therapist Kelly Strickland, who said, “I was referred to parents who were unwell who went for follow-up care and.” 'It was traumatic that she pressed so hard on her baby's mouth.'
Ms. Henstrom is known to have recommended the procedure to mothers on Facebook without ever seeing the babies in person, and allegedly worsened the babies' pain by digging around in their mouths and increasing pressure at the point where the Surgery was carried out.
She also insisted to worried parents that without the surgery their babies would never breastfeed or eat solid food again.
However, the procedure can actually cause the baby to lose the ability to extract breast milk with the tongue and eat solid food.
Idaho native Tess Merrell was convinced by Ms. Henstrom to book newborn Eleanor for tongue-tie surgery. Eleanor later refused to eat and became dangerously dehydrated. She spent her first Christmas with a feeding tube
In one case, Ms. Henstrom recommended the procedure via a Facebook post to a Boise, Idaho, mother named Tess Merrell, even though a pediatrician, physical therapist and lactation consultant insisted to her that tongue-tie was not the cause of her problem breastfeeding her baby comfortably allow .
Ms Merrell's baby underwent the procedure and soon suffered malnutrition and dehydration.
Ms. Merrell, a high school football coach, said: “It was touted as a miracle cure.”
“We felt really stupid afterwards because we paid to hurt our baby.”
The doctor who performed the procedure, Dr. Joel Whitt, insisted that Merrell's experience was the only bad outcome out of some 800 surgeries he performed.
Ms. Henstrom is also known to have referred patients exclusively to a dentist named Samuel Zink. During procedures in which Dr. While Zinc cut babies' mouths with a laser, Ms. Henstrom held the babies while he performed the surgeries.
The New York Times investigation uncovered a slew of reports from mothers whose babies were placed on feeding tubes after losing alarming amounts of weight.
A mother in Montana who registered her baby for the procedure in November 2022 reported that her baby lost his ability to suckle and his weight dropped from the 97th to the 15th percentile in just three months.
In Delaware, a pediatric ear, nose and throat doctor said she recently treated an 11-day-old baby who was hospitalized after the procedure because of severe weight loss.
Between four and eleven percent of babies are born with excess tissue connecting the tip of their tongue to the bottom of their mouth. However, many doctors say the condition is harmless and there is little evidence to support claims that it improves food absorption.
A notable 2017 analysis looked at five different studies with a total of 302 subjects to measure how well babies breastfed after tongue-tie surgery. However, the researchers behind the study raised major caveats, including the fact that the sample size was small and only two were double-blind.
According to the analysis published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, none of the studies suggested any long-term benefit to a baby's ability to breastfeed.
The researchers concluded: “Previous studies have not answered the clinically relevant question.” [surgery] For infants with tongue limitation and feeding difficulties, this leads to longer-term breastfeeding success and resolution of maternal pain.”
“Only one study has examined frenotomy in infants diagnosed with moderate tongue-tie and concluded that frenotomy had no objective effect on either infant feeding or maternal nipple pain but was subjectively effective.”
Doctors are sounding the alarm about the increasing number of procedures being performed that they consider to be medically unnecessary.
For example, Kentucky-based Pediatric Associates last year warned parents about the growing number of dentists offering laser surgery “at very high prices,” adding: “We have seen babies experience severe pain after this procedure, sometimes leading to severe pain.” an oral aversion (refusal to eat).” ).'
The boom in baby food production lasted from the late 19th century until the 1960s, before breastfeeding again became the preferred method of feeding babies.
In 1977, a survey of American mothers found that two out of five mothers were breastfeeding their babies, double the rate 15 years earlier, largely due to women's growing belief that breastfeeding offered their infants a natural and healthier option to obtain vital nutrients.