Yasmina Kattou, edited by Wassila Belhacine 9:08 p.m., May 04, 2022

Some parents decide to operate on their children to have their tongue tie cut off - a small part that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth.

If this operation can sometimes facilitate difficult breastfeeding, no study proves the benefit of this act.

In a press release, the Academy of Medicine warns of its dangerousness.

This is an increasingly common practice.

More and more parents around the world and in France are performing it on their newborns: frenotomy, that is to say cutting the tongue frenulum, the small piece that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth.

This operation is often recommended in order to facilitate breastfeeding considered difficult, because painful for the mother or with gastric problems for the children.

Nevertheless, no study proves the benefit of this far from trivial gesture.

The Academy of Medicine warns of this act in a press release.

"A gesture that is not insignificant"

"Cutting the frenum of the tongue is a gesture that may seem trivial, which is not. It is a gesture in general without general anesthesia, we cut this frenulum of the tongue which is short and which looks like a small cord , considered painless for the newborn, it is cut with a pair of scissors", describes Elisabeth Elefant, full member of the Academy of Medicine at the microphone of Europe 1.

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"All the studies lead to the fact that there is no proof of the interest of this gesture. So, we find ourselves faced with a gesture that has not found its interest and its benefit when breastfeeding is not not going well", continues the doctor.

According to Elisabeth Elefant, this act is "relatively aggressive, since there are local consequences afterwards in terms of scarring, even haemorrhage, and possibly after that can manifest itself in children who have difficulties in terms of oral feeding.