Photo and video curtesy of Dr. Ghaheri

Taking a good picture of the tongue tie of your child is crucial for off-premises assessment of the tongue tie.

In order to take a good picture, follow the guidelines below.

Step 1: Two people are preferred, one to lift up the tongue and one to take the picture.

Step 2: Acquire a good LED headlight, or use the one in your phone.

Step 3: Proper positioning. The lip and the tongue should move up for normal breastfeeding. Getting your fingers under the lip or under the tongue is important for testing if you can easily pick the tongue up. See below for a good positioning.

Step 4: Elevate the lip or the tongue, see video here.

Step 5: For the person taking the picture, make sure you position yourself so you can bring the entire frenulum in view. One trick is to have the focus already set by focusing on the mouth before you do the elevation. On iPhones (and possibly Android phones), holding your fnger on the desired area of focus for several seconds will result in a locked “autofocus/autoexposure”, so that it won’t try to refocus as the baby moves. Another trick is to just hold the shutter down and take a rapid burst of photos to see if you can find a suitable picture. Along similar lines, you could take a video and then choose a screen shot later.

For more on tongue tie treatment, click here.

For more on aftercare, click here.