How a Tight Tongue or Lip Can Fuel Colic Symptoms
You released the lip and tongue tie expecting feeding to click into place. Instead your baby is still gassy, still fussy, still not settling the way you hoped.
Tongue tie (ankyloglossia) and lip tie happen when the frenulum, the small band of tissue connecting the tongue to the floor of the mouth or the lip to the gum, is too tight or too short. That restriction can affect breastfeeding, bottle feeding, and your baby's overall comfort, turning every feed into a struggle: a shallow latch, a broken seal, gas, slow weight gain, and pain for a nursing mother that never should have to be normal, feed after feed.
Many parents do not realize that tongue and lip ties often coexist with upper cervical tension and compensatory patterns throughout a baby's body. Birth trauma, in-utero positioning, and the extra effort of feeding around a tie can all add nervous system stress that further limits feeding. Releasing a tie takes a frenectomy, done by a lactation-trained dentist or ENT. At Van Every Family Chiropractic Center, our doctors provide gentle care before and after that release, addressing the tension patterns a frenectomy alone does not undo, so the whole body can actually use the new range of motion.
How Tongue Tie & Lip Tie Shows Up
Tongue tie and lip tie rarely show up as just one thing. Most parents notice a shallow latch that will not stay put, or a clicking and smacking sound during nursing that means the seal keeps breaking. Milk can leak from the corners of the mouth, feeds can stretch on far longer than they should, and weight gain can lag even when a baby seems to be eating constantly. The extra air swallowed around a poor seal often turns into gas, reflux, and fussiness after a feed. For a nursing mother, persistent nipple pain or damage despite a good position is one of the clearest signs something upstream is not working.
A restricted tongue rarely stays isolated. The jaw, neck, and shoulders tend to compensate right along with it.
Why Tension Builds Around a Tie
A baby with a tongue tie works harder for every feed, and that extra effort shows up as tension elsewhere: a tight jaw, a stiff neck, shoulders pulled up toward the ears. The nerves that coordinate sucking, swallowing, and tongue movement travel through the brainstem and upper cervical spine, so tension held in that same area can interfere with the very signals a baby needs for a strong feed. Birth itself can add to the same pattern, particularly with a difficult delivery or awkward in-utero positioning. By the time a tie is diagnosed, the compensations around it are often just as much a part of the feeding problem as the tie itself, which is one reason a frenectomy alone does not always fully resolve things.
Care Before and After the Release
Before a frenectomy, our doctors work to release the compensatory tension that has built up in the jaw and upper cervical spine, which sometimes improves feeding even before the procedure happens. We also use INSiGHT scanning, thermal, HRV, and sEMG, when age appropriate, to get an objective look at where stress is stuck in a baby's nervous system rather than relying on the tie alone to explain what is happening. Many providers recommend a follow-up visit within 24 to 48 hours after the release.
Using Koren Specific Technique (KST) and Talsky Tonal Chiropractic (TTC), adjustments use only fingertip pressure, lighter than checking a ripe tomato, with no cracking or discomfort. After the release, that same gentle care helps the body integrate its new range of motion instead of drifting back into old tension patterns.
Working With Your Whole Team
Our doctors work as part of your baby's care team, staying in contact with your lactation consultant and the provider performing the release so timing and care line up on both ends. We also teach you a few simple techniques to reinforce progress at home between visits, so feeding keeps improving even on the days you are not in the office.
What Parents Often Notice
A deeper, more comfortable latch and less pain while nursing are usually the first things to change, along with less gas and fussiness after a feed and fewer clicking sounds during nursing.
Weight gain tends to catch up as milk transfer improves, many babies who once nursed on one side only become willing to feed comfortably on both, and parents often notice their baby seems more settled and comfortable overall.
Take the First Step If feeding has been a struggle before or after a tongue tie release, our doctors are glad to help in Royal Oak.
Book OnlineCommon questions
No. Releasing a tongue tie or lip tie takes a frenectomy performed by a lactation-trained dentist or ENT. What our doctors do is address the compensatory tension patterns and nervous system stress that build up around a tie, which meaningfully improves feeding and supports better outcomes from the release.
Ideally both. Care before the frenectomy helps release compensatory tension patterns, sometimes improving feeding even before the procedure happens. Care after the release helps the body adapt to its new range of motion, so old tension patterns do not limit the improvement.
Many providers recommend care within 24 to 48 hours after the release to help the body integrate the new range of motion. Our doctors coordinate timing with your releasing provider so nothing gets missed.
Yes. Our doctors use Koren Specific Technique (KST) and Talsky Tonal Chiropractic (TTC), light, nervous system focused contacts with pressure lighter than checking a ripe tomato and no cracking or twisting. Parents stay with their baby throughout, and babies often nurse or sleep right through their adjustments.
A lactation consultant (IBCLC) or pediatric dentist trained in tethered oral tissues is the best resource for diagnosis. A shallow latch, clicking during feeding, slow weight gain, gas and reflux, and milk leaking from the mouth are all signs worth mentioning to them. Our doctors can also screen for these signs during a visit and point you toward the right next step.
Why Your Tongue-Tied Baby Still Struggles to Feed
Sore nipples, clicking sounds, a baby who never seems satisfied. Tongue tie is often part of the picture, but the tongue's tightness is rarely the whole story.
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“Tongue Tie Isn't Just a Mouth Problem”
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