Toddler Tumbles are sometimes a blessing in disguise!

When Bunny was born she had a hard time nursing. When she was 3 days old she was diagnosed with a tongue tie. She still had trouble nursing even after it was clipped. When Bunny was 10 months old she was FINALLY diagnosed with an upper lip tie. I was very frustrated when we found this out, the ENT and Lactation Consultant should have check for a lip tie. Most of the time when there is a tongue tie there is also a lip tie. We were told it would be best to wait to correct the upper lip tie until her adult teeth were coming in, around age 6. The procedure would involve numbing her mouth, cutting the upper lip tie out, stitches in her lip, and multiple doctors visits. Doesn’t sound like fun. I so wish she was diagnosed with this when she was 3 days old, it could have been taken care of so easily then with little pain and little to no recovery time!

A few days ago Bunny fell, like a toddler is prone to do. She bumped her mouth and was bleeding. Her lip was fat, we assumed that was where the blood was coming from. She did not cry too much, and was happy with an ice cube. We didn’t think anything of it. Today, Bunny fell AGAIN! I guess I should get used to her falling, she is trying to go faster than her little legs allow! She seemed fine after she fell, no tears or anything. A few minutes later we were eating a bagel and I saw blood on her bagel. UH OH! I opened her mouth to see what was going on and much to my surprise I saw HER LIP TIE WAS NOT CONNECTED ANYMORE! She must’ve detached it when she fell!!!

The extra bit of skin on her lip used to be attached to her gum, in between her two front teeth.

This is GREAT! It means no correction is needed when she is older! No pain for her, no tears from me, no huge doctors bill. No trauma!!! I did NOT want my 6 year old to have to go through that. This also means Bunny’s adult teeth won’t have a gap between them! (Her gap is adorable right now.) Bunny’s lip tie was so bad she wouldn’t let me lift her upper lip to look at it, she would always fight me. I could never take a photo of it because she would thrash around whenever I tried to look at it for more than a second. The following photo is similar to what Bunny’s lip tie looked like before she fell.

I am so thankful a tiny toddler fall corrected her lip tie. I was hoping something would happen all on its own so my sweet little girl wouldn’t have to endure any pain later in life. Another bonus- Bunny was able to nurse WITHOUT the nipple shield, latching and unlatching all by herself for the FIRST TIME since we started using the nipple shield! 13 months old, maybe we can start weaning from the shield!!!