He Was Brave

My Miguel just went through a tough time yesterday at the Doctor’s clinic. He was diagnosed with ankyloglossia (tongue-tie), a condition where the skin that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth (called frenulum) is over-extended thus restricting proper tongue movement. According to several related articles I’ve read, this condition is very common and a simple procedure called tongue-clipping (frenotomy) is performed to correct this. Although I read that for some babies, the condition corrects itself within the first year of life, it was also stated that there is no medical evidence to support this. Tongue-tie has an effect on feeding–specifically breastfeeding (could also be the reason why Miguel’s weight gain is so slow), and speech/language development. You may have seen some kids who cannot pronounce s or r properly, this is because the movement of their tongue is restricted by over-extended frenulum.

We had to make a very difficult decision of whether or not to have his frenulum clipped, as this will be done without anaesthesia or any medication. We weighed the consequences of doing it now or delaying til he’s a bit older but tht would call for a more complicated procedure to be performed by a surgeon and sedatives and stitches will then be necessary. We thought of the possible impact on his self-esteem if eventually he cannot speak properly the way other kids do. We considered the possibility of him being traumatized if we subject him to such pain at this age. I remember asking the doctor a lot of questions about blood, and pain, and crying, and trauma, and infection, and medication–before we finally agreed to have it done.

I was shaking the whole time and cried even before Miguel started crying. I didn’t dare look at him but didn’t want to leave the room as well (so I could just snatch him away just in case I changed my mind at the last moment! ). It was good that his doctor assured us that it’s a quick procedure which will take no more than ten seconds and I could just nurse Miguel afterwards to pacify him.

**Flashes of the days when he was still so tiny, so fragile came rushing back to my memory. He was counting on me to protect him.**

It was the first time I heard him cry like that–full of pain and anger. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer. And then it was done. Moments later he was in my arms sobbing, but he still didn’t want to nurse. Few minutes later he was nursing and when he was finished he stuck out his tongue and flashed a big smile as if he was saying ‘look mom, I’m brave’! He was, indeed! And I let out a sigh of relief.

Celebrate Breastfeeding

Let me just say I am one with the world in celebrating Breastfeeding Week 2007! Though it has been quite a challenge for me to succeed in exclusively breastfeeding Miguel (and I almost gave up on the second week of trying), my decision and determination to pursue it is always affirmed when I read pieces of information on the net, magzines, newspaper or just about anywhere relating to the wonders of breastfeeding.

And today as the world celebrates Breastfeeding Week with a theme “Breastfeeding the 1st hour: Save One Million Babies”, I feel blessed that I was able to give my Miguel the best start in life.