Occupational Therapy for Tongue Tie (2023)

Tongue-tieOccupational TherapyNurture and Nourish Services Charleston, SC

Dec 18

Therapy for Tongue Tie

When it comes to infant tongue tie, many people have heard of speech therapy or craniosacral therapy, but occupational therapy is also a great option for addressing oral ties comprehensively.

Occupational therapists have a similar scope of practice as speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the treatment of infants with feeding challenges. This means we can assess and treat oral function, swallowing, and coordination of suck, swallow, breathe. In addition, we are trained to address whole-body issues, which can be crucial in helping infants overcome feeding challenges. With occupational therapy, parents can feel confident that their child is receiving comprehensive care to improve feeding and overall development.

What is Occupational Therapy?

I love being an occupational therapist, but if I’m honest, sometimes it’s really hard to explain exactly what occupational therapists do. A big part of that is because occupational therapy has a huge scope of practice and OTs can specialize in nearly anything. I’ve chosen to specialize in infant development and feeding and have spent years building my knowledge base in this area.

Occupational Therapy for Tongue Ties

Just yesterday I participated in a discussion about what is the occupational therapist's role in managing tongue-tie. This discussion made me realize how much a tongue-tie-savvy OT can do to support a breastfeeding dyad. The great thing about OTs having such a broad scope of practice is we have a knowledge base that helps us assess and treat so many challenges that infants and dyads with ties face.

OTs can help with:

Oral motor skills, swallowing function, feeding function
Developmental skills- tummy time, rolling, sitting, crawling reflex integration, baby milestones
Sensory difficulties that could be contributing to feeding issues
Positioning- we support the breastfeeding dyad with positioning to improve breastfeeding, also in the infant to support the baby's development and avoid issues like head flattening
Bodywork/manual therapy- to address any muscle imbalances, tight tissues, and tension
Oral motor therapy- functional feeding assessments, pre-post frenectomy care, wound care
Bottle feeding- helping to identify appropriate bottles/nipples that will improve feeds

It’s important to know that not every occupational therapist can treat all of these issues. If you are looking for a therapist to help with any of these issues you need to find a therapist that specializes in infants and ask if the provider has had training in the treatment approach you are looking for.

About my practice

I have advanced training in pediatric craniosacral therapy, lactation, breastfeeding, bottle-feeding skills, swallowing dysfunction in infants, sensory integration, oral motor skills, gross-motor skills, and development.

I don't exactly offer one-stop shopping, because often families need a tongue-tie team working together. I do offer many of the services that are needed when considering a tongue-tie release. This does help you to cut down on the number of visits with different providers that are part of getting optimal results.

Comprehensive Tongue Tie Support

I’ve had a lot of extensive training to get here. I completed UCSD’s lactation consultant pathway 2 program, which was over 100 hours of coursework and 300 internship hours. It was a ton of work, but a labor of love. Here is list of the amount of training I have taken specific to infants:

43 hours of oral tie training (tongue and lip ties)

450 hours of lactation training
63 hours of craniosacral therapy training
9 hours of bottle-feeding training
2 hours of flange sizing
12 hours of tummy time training
16 hours of torticollis training

In addition to these courses I also previously have taken coursework in feeding therapy, neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT) for infants, reflex integration, and the floortime method. I also completed all the coursework to get sensory integration and praxis certified (SIPT). It’s important to me to get this additional training so I can provide comprehensive support to my clients. If you need help with tongue ties or are considering a release, reach out to Nurture and Nourish Services today. I can help support you through this process and help determine the optimal timing of the release.

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