Tongue tie clinic for babies

The midwifery led tongue tie clinic for babies at Hereford County Hospital offers quick and painless tongue-tie divisions to make it easier for babies to feed. 

Dedicated midwives are specially trained to carry out the minor procedure on babies who are up to ten weeks old.  The clinic brings treatment closer to home for parents and their babies.

We are pleased to be able to offer this treatment locally, which we know makes a difference to parents and their babies.   Babies with tongue tie can have difficulty feeding and the condition can cause problems with breastfeeding, such as low milk supply and mastitis.

The procedure we carry out is very simple and only takes a few seconds to complete. Parents are able to start feeding their baby straight afterwards, with many finding it much easier once the procedure has taken place.

If you think that your baby may have tongue tie please discuss this with your midwife, health visitor or GP for a referral to be made to the tongue clinic at Hereford County Hospital. 

Treatment is only necessary if the tongue-tie is making it difficult for the baby to feed and we will assess this at the first appointment.

A tongue-tie may cause feeding difficulties in both breast and bottle fed babies, including:

• difficulty latching
• difficulty sustaining latch
• colic, wind, flatulence
• prolonged weight loss
• prolonged jaundice
• static weight
• prolonged feeds - frequent feeding - noisy feeds (clicking) - dribbling during feeds - restless between feeds - unsettled post feeds
• heart shaped tongue

Those who are breastfeeding a baby with tongue tie may experience any of the following:

• Engorgement - mastitis - painful feeds - sore / damaged nipples - reduced milk supply - misshapen or discoloured nipples post feed

The Trust launched this clinic in May 2023. Here is a quote from parents whose twins had this procedure carried out.