This is a newborn's tongue.
1. Can you see how the lift of the tongue (bottom part) does not come from the base where the tongue meets the floor of the mouth? Or order to properly breastfeed the tongue should lift and go down to draw milk out. The front (anterior) part stays in conctact with the breast, and lies over the gum ridge.
2. Can you see the sides if the tongue not flipping out like a stingray and looking kind of bunched? The sides should be able to go up so that the tongue can groove, and milk be directed to the back of the mouth for swallowing. Otherwise the milk spills to the sides.
3. Can you see how the mouth looks like it isn't open very wide? A wide open mouth is needed to have a proper latch on the breast. A mouth that is not wide open and a tongue not being over the bum ridge, especially when the baby is nor positioned correctly, results in biting and sore nipples. The tongue tip that is not keeping contact with the breast abrades the nipple, causing trauma (ulcers, blebs, lacerations, bruises, etc). cocktail wears in navy blue
4. Can you see the vertical white band at the base of the tongue? That is the lingual frenum or tongue tie. It is one of the causes of a short tongue. It's white because it is blanching from being stretched as the tongue tries to move upward. The baby will be having trouble breastfeeding and when the mothers anatomy doesn't allow compensation or the baby simply doesn't know how to compensate, trouble ensues.
I could go on. But this is long already....
Tongue tie is real. And the journey is long and often tedious, just like when you are teaching leg or arm muscles to move (the tongue IS a muscle with NO bone, only fascia).
