Ep 20 Update from the Traveling LC

Katie Oshita RN, BSN, IBCLC is on the road (updating from Tampa Florida) again.  In this episode she covers tongue tie from a mom and provider prospective.  Katie's daughters are 13 and 10, both undergoing tongue 👅 tie releases, functional frenuplasty aka Zaghi Method, and 1 upper lip tie release by Dr Maggie Davis.  Katie talks about Myofunctional therapy, Myofascial release, palate expansion, pain management and how it was to be a mom watching her daughter's releases (spoiler alert: super cool as a provider, terrible as a mom!).  See how tongue tie doesn't go away or stretch, the compensations just get bigger and affect daily life more.

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Disclaimer, this content is meant for information only and not as a diagnosis or medical treatment for any condition. If you or a loved one needs help, please seek out a qualified medical professional for assistance. Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Katie Ostadt, BSN, RN, IBCLC, and infant feeding specialist. Quench your thirst for knowledge and travel with me across the nation to discover, learn, collaborate, and better serve clients from all over the globe. Let's ride and thrive together. Hi, thanks for joining me today. So I have been telling you a little bit about my journey and traveling through this podcast. And this episode is going to be a great update on just everything from my travels, our tongue tie journeys, and more. So let me dive right in and start with telling you that I made the big decision not to have my tongue tie released. It was actually a really difficult decision and kind of upsetting because I had found a fantastic provider. I really like Dr. Maggie Davis at Florida Tongue Tie and Tampa. And she was still going to release my girls, and it felt like the right time. However, I started body work, as we all know, um, when you're when you're not just a few days old, um, but you know, many years or decades, our bodies have compensations and tightness and areas of tension, and it takes more work to get those out. So I had started doing some myofascial release because there's a lot of different modalities that can be beneficial for tongue time. I mean, chiropractic is one, cranial sacral is another, osteopath, myofascial release, or others. But when the older the patient is, I feel like the more complicated the bio the bodywork is going to be dealing with real complicated things, right? It's it's got bigger tension, bigger issues, much more long-term compensations. So I found a great practitioner of myofascial release, Miss Kendra Legrand. It's Thrive Myofascial Release down in Seminole in the Tampa area. And we were really happy and enjoyed. I mean, I had a great release session with her. I went home feeling like it was the most gentle massage I'd ever had. I've never had myofascial release before this. And so I didn't really know what to expect. It's kind of weird description, but it's almost like a massage where she doesn't really move. I know that sounds kind of weird, but there's there's a lot of gentle pressure on your body, never anything painful or even really uncomfortable, and not a lot of movement, just holding, waiting for the body to release the fascia, which doesn't happen until I believe three to five minutes of contact. So, you know, I we had our first myofascial release. It was a couple of weeks before our tongue ties were scheduled, and we were all on schedule. And then that night I had a massive pain flare. So not something I always talk about. And I mean, it's not hidden, it's just not in my front page. I have small fiber neuropathy, it's chronic pain syndrome, and pain is just a part of my life, has been for about 11 years now. It's something that I deal with all the time, and it's something that, you know, the last, oh, I don't even know how many years, but the last few years, I've been doing a lot of work on it. I've done dietary testing and worked with dietitians and taken things out of my diet and put them back in, and I've seen big changes, but I'm still not getting quite where I want to be. And my body is apparently still in a very high stressed inflammatory state. So I had a really, really negative reaction. Kendrick called it a healing crisis and said that sometimes this happens, but that when it does, usually that shows the person is going to need significantly more body work than planned or more time, you know, in between the myofascial release and the tongue tie release. And I didn't have that time. I had about another 10 days, two weeks. And so we had to make a decision. And I spoke with Dr. Davis a lot. Maggie was great, and we discussed all the options and really felt that if my body was in such an inflammatory state right now that even something as gentle as myofascial release stressed out my body, it was saying it couldn't handle anymore. And for me right now, managing my pain, making my life livable so that I'm able to walk, able to get out, able to drive and do things is more important than dealing with my tongue tie. It just is. My tongue tie is what it is. I sleep with my mouth closed, I have pretty good quality sleep. Overall, I'm feeling really rested and it's just gonna have to wait. So I made that big decision, but I did move forward with both of my kids. So on April 11th, after a few more body treatments, they were having a guided release. So Kendrick came to Dr. Davis's office and we had guided release, which was something really new to me. I believe it's still new to a lot of practitioners, but I'm hearing more about it in the small select group of some IBCLCs and myofascial therapists and body workers that I try to stay in contact with and stay kind of current as to what's the next thing happening. You know, as a practitioner, I want to know that for my patients. As a mom, of course, I want the best possible result for my kids, right? Of course, I want the best, the best ways of making this successful. You know, we we had been doing myfunctional therapy, we did our body work, we really wanted a good result. I really did not want them to go through this again. I had made homeopathic pain remedy and healing tinctures, and I was all set to go. So we get there for the day of the release, and both my kids were nervous, but seeing Kendra did help calm them down because they both really like Kendra. I mean, they love Dr. Davis as well, but they definitely associate a lot of comfort and relaxation with seeing Kendra because myofascial release, they would just lay there and be so calm and sleepy and warm. You know, she has one of those heated mattress pad things on the massage table, which is just the best thing ever. I mean, my goodness, that thing totally relaxes me. But anyways, she was there and did about 20 minutes before the release on each girl, each of my girls, and then they went into the room with Dr. Davis, and I went with them and they got prepped for everything. You know, we start, it's it's a lot in a way for someone older. Think of it like having an oral surgery or a big cavity. They got nitrous oxide, then they got the numbing gel, and then they got the shot. They weren't even aware of the shot. They were both watching movies. They were totally fine during that part, right? Really, really comfortable. Dr. Davis did an amazing job of making sure that they were comfortable connecting with them, telling them to raise their hand if they had a problem, just like she does in all of her pediatric dentistry clients as well. You know, she's so really cautious and just wants to make sure that she's never causing pain, that going to the dentist is a positive experience. I know a lot of really great pediatric dentists that are like that. And I wish, I wish they all were, and I don't think they all are, but it is a really wonderful thing to see. And Dr. Davis definitely understands how important that is and wants kids to really like going to the dentist and to never associate it with pain. So they got all comfortable, and Dr. Davis started the release, and it was, you guys I have to say, was the weirdest thing. It was felt like half my body was super geeking out and just amazingly loving this. I was like, wow, look at her. She's dissecting the fascia. Oh my goodness, I can see the genioglossus muscle. This is so cool. The other half of me was screaming in my head, going, oh my God, my kid's mouth is being cut open. What have I done? This is gonna be terrible. And it was really, it was so weird because I kept going back and forth between mom and provider mode. And it was really overwhelming at times. Like it's hard to be mom and provider, and I can't turn off provider. I wasn't, I wasn't there as an official capacity, of course, but I've been a nurse for 22 years and an IBCLC for seven now. I can't turn it off. Like it's not turning off. It is what it is. So there was a lot of conflicting in my brain, but there was some really fun geeking out. It was pretty cool to watch. You know, there was dissection of the fascia. She does go down into the genial glossis muscle. And then before she sutured the gleam genioglossus muscle and during suturing, that's when Kendra was in the room assessing for tension, checking to see if she felt like both sides were even, if there was more tension on one side or the other, if anything needed to be loosened. So that was really beneficial because I wanted to, like I said, we only want to do this once. I really wanted to make sure that we were doing a good job and that we were getting everything that we possibly could. My younger one went first and she did have an upper lip tie, which was like huge. I mean, that lip tie was so huge. It took so long. I was as a mom, I was totally cringing. That was probably the hardest part to watch because it turns black with the laser as it happens. And I'm like, oh my God, what are we doing? And then when she finished the upper lip tie, she did the tongue. And my younger daughter with the lip tie had a very, very posterior tie. So that one that causes a lot more breastfeeding issues, but is totally not visible. So it was it was really cool to watch and to see that tie really pop out and to release it and to see what the floor of the mouth would look like without. And then before I knew it, Kendra came in, everyone was good, felt the release was complete, sutured up, and we were out of the room and going to the next kiddo. So we did it all again. My second one, my older daughter has or had an Eiffel Tower tongue tie. So it's the one that starts really narrow and then it goes out. She actually had four strands from her tongue tie, four folds in the front of them that went up to each of the four for teeth in front. It was pretty cool and totally terrible at the same time. So it was really interesting to watch. Hers was interesting also because she's had so many less symptoms, but a worse-looking tongue tie. This is one of those really good examples of how anatomy does not beat function. Function is always more important. Symptoms are always more important than anatomy. Because if you took my two kids side by side, my older one had a very obvious, I don't even know how they missed it, even 13 years ago, tongue tie, like super obvious tongue tie. Okay, goes right up to her teeth. It's pulling those teeth back. Like it was very clear. My younger one had a very hidden tongue tie. Posterior, you really had to reach in, press on the floor mouth. Then you would feel and see that band pop up. However, my older one has a lot less symptoms. She had torticollis and had a lot of body tension, but she breathes with her through her nose. She sleeps with her mouth closed, she has a good shaped palate, she was getting decent sleep, a lot less symptoms. My younger child had, you know, TMJ, halatosis, Rexism, really poor sleep, super exhausted, and an incredibly high arch palate. I don't know if I believe I talked about this in the previous update, but we started oral expansion. And so she has a palate expander on her upper and lower. And that's been a lot too. So she has this expander in there because her palate was so high, her tongue couldn't reach. Even doing everything she could, her tongue could touch the teeth on the sides, like the back molars, but it could not possibly reach the palate because it just curved so high away from it. So this is again another reminder that it's like it's so important to look at symptoms, not just anatomy. Both of my kids, yes, they did need their tongue tie released, but the older one, it was so much more cosmetic for her. It was really pulling back those teeth and it was more body issues. But my younger one had a lot of really functional issues that were really difficult for her now. Okay. So one thing I will tell you is within the first few days, I asked the kids constantly questions. What does it feel like? How do you feel now? How does this feel? How does that feel? Can you turn your head? How does your body feel? Everything. Because I wasn't going through this myself. I really wanted to learn as much as I could from them. I will say life works out the way it's meant to, because had I been mom, provider, and patient, I would have lost my mind. And my poor husband would have gone crazy too. Like I just could not have cared for them the first three days and been sore myself. Like it just couldn't have happened. I will say the homeopathic pain remedy was really great to have on hand. And yet I'm trying to learn more homeopathy and trying to understand it better. I don't, I'm at that really tough spot where I want to do more natural remedies, but I don't know enough. And so while we were trying to do it immediately post-release, both the girls were in a lot of pain and we had to give ibuprofen. And they had ibuprofen that day and the next day and a half. And they, I think they each had like three or four doses. It was definitely not my preferred. I'm trying really hard not to use pharmaceuticals and to use homeopathic methods. But I also am a mom and I don't want to see my kids in pain. And watching your kid cry in pain, it just sucks. So that was our compromise. And we used it when we needed it and we stopped as soon as we could. And I'm trying to learn everything I can about homeopathy so that I can offer them better choices next time they're in pain because I know that there's better options out there. I just don't know them yet. So back to asking them how they felt. You know, my oldest said she was really hoping for a light bulb. She's like, I want it to be instantaneous. And she's like, it didn't happen instantaneous. And I was like, okay, that's okay. Wasn't, you know, you have 13 years. I wasn't expecting it to be instantaneous. And she said she knew she was just hoping. But over the first three days, I heard a lot about her neck. You know, she's like, Wow, that that feels good. So this child of mine who had torticolis pops her neck, I'd say pre-release four or five times a day. And when she pops her neck, she would crack it to one side and then the other and usually pull it and make it look like it was gonna roll off her body. It was so, it was so terrible to see. I was always telling her to stop it. And even our chiropractor, we went to a wonderful chiropractor in Petaluma when we were still in California before we started traveling. And our chiropractor kept trying to explain every time you do this, you're causing more inflammation. Let me adjust, come in, let's, you know, work on things. So it's been a real interesting thing for her neck. And we went back to Kendra two days post-release, and she put her hands on Emily's neck and was like, oh my gosh, I don't feel like this is the same neck. It was so different. She said the tension was so gone that her her neck felt so much softer and could turn more fully. And it's been about two weeks, two and a half weeks now since the release, and both the girls are feeling really, really good. My older one has mentioned a couple of times that she her neck feels really good. She still gets some headaches, still gets some tension, and we're still working through that. We have a little cranial cradle from Kendra, and she lays on that and you know, we'll do some stretches and then feels better, but it is significantly better, significantly better than it was, like, you know, 80% better than it was. And she says, you know, it's interesting because that was how her neck always was. So she just figured everyone's neck was like that. She didn't really know what it could feel like. I mean, how can you if that's always been your reality? One of the interesting things was she over-pronates her feet and really rolls in her ankles to the point of, you know, wearing off shoes on the inside of the heel and rolling her ankles sometimes and just having really bad foot posture. We've done a lot of talking and a lot of walking about, you know, the right kinds of shoes and walking around the house barefoot, planting her feet, using her toes. And post-release, a couple of days she said that she felt her feet felt different and it was easier to now put her feet on the floor completely. They didn't feel like they were being pulled in like they were. And I did not expect that. Right. I mean, I knew it was going to be related to the neck, and I knew that of course it's possible our fascia connects all the way down, but I didn't know there was really going to be a difference for her legs and her feet, and there has been. And so that's been really, really wonderful. Her body tension is hugely gone. I will say my younger one says the biggest thing for her that she's noticed functionally right now is that she's not popping her jaw. She can eat apples and, you know, a big sandwich, whatever, and open her mouth without popping. She was popping, her jaw was has been popping multiple times a day, probably since she was about five. I mean, that's the last five and a half years of her life. That's half of her life of us being told it's normal that your child's jaw pops. Well, it's really not. And she's feeling so much better with that. That's, you know, that's so much better. And her palate is widening, her tongue is getting up. I also noticed about two days post-release, her tongue had not been touching the expander, right? Her expander was in there trying to widen that palette, that upper expander, and her tongue had not been touching it. Well, she got up in the morning, two days, two or three days after the release. And when she opened her mouth, I said, Let me see your tongue. And I look, and it has these big rectangle outlines of the expander. So while she had been sleeping, she had been lifting her tongue and pressing it into the expander. And I was so excited, I was like, wow, you couldn't even do that a few days ago. So that was already big change. And we are back doing myofunctional therapy, right? We had to wait, I think Dr. Maggie had us wait a week. And once she was cleared and the stitches were out, they had all popped out and everything already and that everybody looked good. And we started back on therapy and we do our exercises three times a day. I will say that's not fun. It's not bad. It's not, it's not bad, it's not painful. It's more being a mom who's busy trying to remember to do it three times a day. That's really all it is. It's it's just trying to make it a habit so that we do it regularly. We usually do ours in the car. I mean, we live in an RV, we travel a lot. Once we get somewhere, we tend to go out and see things. So we do ours in the car frequently. So that helps. You know, I do try to think breakfast, lunch, after dinner, but it is something to remember. Remembering the exercises is tough. I will say when thinking about the difference between having a tung te release and the and the therapies on a baby versus someone older, I will tell parents all the time it's a hundred times better. I mean, number one, you've got the time aspect, you've got, you know, four or five weeks, four to six weeks, maybe till we get to a really good breastfeeding period, hopefully post-release with a baby. And it'll be months before we start stop myofunctional therapy. It's the cost of it all. I mean, I'm spending thousands and thousands of dollars on an expander. And there's a tongue tie release, and there's myofascial therapy, and there's myofunctional therapy, and it's a lot. It's a lot of time, it's a lot of money, it's a lot of exercises at home and work. And I know new parenthood is in a very overwhelming time, but I definitely look back and wish that I had known absolutely hands down. If I could have done this when my girls were babies, I hands down would have done it because not doing it when they're babies does not take it away. It postpones it. It just means that you're gonna have more work later and you're gonna be symptomatic until then, right? The symptoms vary, you know, for babies, they tend to fall into a few big categories, right? You know, the painful breastfeeding, gassy, not gaining weight, not sleeping well, those tend to be the general things. But as you get older and older, it's interesting. Some people have very classic symptoms of like, you know, the TMJ, the bruxism, the you know, high palate and the mouth breathing. And then other people it turns into sinus issues and they have tons of sinus pain. And then other people it turns into reflux, and other people is body stuff. So there is a lot of variation as you get older, but the thing is, it doesn't go away. It's still going to be there, it's still your body not functioning to its full capacity, and so it will compensate. Your body will find a way, but it's not going to find it in a great way. Compensations are not the same. So I would, you know, I tell people all the time if you can do it when you've got a baby, yes, it's hard, but it's definitely better. It's so much better to think that, you know, if I had done it as a baby, I wouldn't have a kid in palate expansion, most likely, right? Because she would have had a nice normal palate and her tongue would have been able to keep it open like it was supposed to, you know. So at this point, I'm feeling really good about where my kids are. We're a couple of weeks post release, and they're doing their mayo really well. We're getting good floor of the mouth stretches. We're getting really good lip seals, definitely seeing more lip closure on my youngest at night and seeing more rested children, which is lovely. I mean, nobody likes those cranky kids in the morning. So having, you know, having better quality sleep. It wasn't that they needed more hours. They were in bed plenty of hours and had a very regular sleep routine, but having the better quality sleep is it's a huge difference. So I'm very appreciative for that. And I just can't speak highly enough of our team. If you're in the Tampa area, you've got some really great providers. Dr. Alex Johnson is our ortho doing our airway expansion and our palate expansion. Dr. Maggie Davis, sorry, at Florida Tongue Thai Center is was our release provider doing an amazing, a really amazing zoggy method of functional phenoplasty on my girls. And I saw her do laser phrenectomies as well on babies. Um, and then Kendra Legrand from Thrive MFR in Seminole is a really great and wonderful, very caring myofascial therapist. So I feel very lucky to have had a great team. We've been seeing Sandra Colson from Denver virtually for our myofunctional therapy. And so we have had a stellar team, you guys. It's just been wonderful. And I hope that everyone throughout the country can find teams that really work well for them. And I will say that's why telehealth can be really amazing. It doesn't work for everything. Obviously, you're going to need a release provider somewhat in your area. You can drive to the release provider because you're not going to see them that many times, right? And you're definitely going to need a body worker in your area. That one, that one's really got you. You're going to need somebody that you can can put their hands on you and help release tension and help with the fascia. But myofunctional therapy is a fantastic thing to be doing virtually, right? There's very few limitations. I mean, we're going on and we're doing exercises and they're showing us and we're showing them back and we're talking and we're using primarily we're using things at home. I mean, for lip seal, right now we're using a button pull. It's a piece of string and a button. Like most people have a piece of string and a button at home, or if they need to go get them, they're very minimal cost. It's not some specialty thing you need to order from a special company. And, you know, myofunctional is a fantastic virtual therapy. It's a great aspect of telehealth, which I really want to talk about a little bit is telehealth and why. You know, I've had people ask me, why are you doing telehealth? Is it just because you're traveling? And yes, I am traveling. And yes, it makes my life possible and it gets me out here to enjoy the country, which by the way, at the moment we finally left Florida post-release. And after spending three long months there, it was wonderful and got to be quite a bit too hot. And I got tired of some hurricane warning. So we got out of there and went to Shenandoah National Park this last week, which was absolutely gorgeous. I got to spend my birthday in the national park, which is a wonderful place for me. National parks are just so calming. And it was really funny. My birthday was a Monday, and I felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. There were so few people in there, and it was just beautiful and so peaceful and very restorative for me. I'm very much a nature person and sitting in trees and smelling the forest and watching the leaves open and hearing the birds, it just is very restorative to my soul. So it was, it was very, very good for us. It was just what we needed. And now we've gone the opposite way, and we're um much closer to DC now today. And tomorrow we go into Washington, DC for the first time. And my kids have never been. I've never been. My husband went once in high school, but you know, that's kind of been a while. So we are all very excited. We've got Smithsonians to go to and monuments to look at, and you know, the Capitol building and the White House, and just a lot of a lot of things for us to go see and so much history. So much history. So I am absolutely loving traveling and RV life. So that's definitely a pro. But when people ask me about, you know, am I only doing telehealth for this? And I say, no, definitely not. I will most likely continue telehealth, even when we stop and we get a house, because I truly think it is fantastic. There are only a few other lactation consultants in the country that I know of that are doing this intentional telehealth-only lactation practice. This is my practice, and this is why. So let me just tell you a few really amazing benefits about telehealth, right? And telehealth specific for lactation. So, number one would be not everyone has an IBCLC in their area. Okay. You need to live within an hour of an IBCLC, usually to get within their range for what they're going to drive to for you. Some areas, it's only a half an hour. Well, there's a lot of places where there isn't an IBCLC. And so they might be able to find a CLC who has, you know, 40 hours of training as opposed to 500 plus. They might be able to find a breastfeeding educator who's taken a weekend class or a day class, but they're not going to necessarily find an IBCLC. And this is huge. Not all IBCLCs are created equal. This is the same as with any other profession, right? We're not all the same. There are amazing pediatricians that are up on the research, that are staying current to changes, that are holistically minded and, you know, not gonna recommend antibiotics for every little thing, that are caring and there for their families and really wonderful. And then there are some that are just kind of doing what they have to do each day and they're moving through and they're focused much more on quantity than quality. They've got a large number to get through, they've got 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes for patient. They keep it moving. Well, it's the same thing with IBCLCs. Not everyone's created equal. And I'm the first to say that if you were to come to me with expecting multiples or needing help with breastfeeding multiples, I would tell you that I really am not your girl. I'm just not. I've worked with less than five pairs of multiples in my IBCLC career. I did more in the hospital as an L and D nurse, but that's totally different. And I don't know really how it happened. I just never seem to get multiples. So I'm really not an expert. I can muddle through it, yes, but you deserve someone who that is their thing. You deserve the best. You deserve someone who knows all the tips and tricks and possibly even went through it themselves. So I would find, like if someone approached me for that, I would say, no, I'm not really the best, but I can help you find someone who is. I can help you absolutely find an expert. Same thing for if you were inducing lactation. That is definitely not my thing. It's just not. I've never walked anyone through the protocol. If you're adopting or you want to lactate for your partner's baby, the gestating parent, it's not my thing. I don't know how to do it. Yes, I could read about it, but again, you deserve the best. You deserve someone who can answer all of your questions, who knows what they're doing, who has done this before. Okay. So again, I would help somebody find the right person. I am an expert on tongue tai. That is my absolute love. And if you come to me with some gut health or some really complicated breastfeeding issue or allergy, baby breastfeeding allergy, those are my specialty. Okay. Those are the ones, the really complicated things. That's where I'm taking classes constantly. I'm really geeking out on all the different things. And those are the ones that I'm I want to see and I can know that I can support with quality, with knowledge, with resource, with experience, and staying up on the current research. So not everyone is going to have a qualified IBCLC to help them with a 10-k baby in their area. It's absolutely not going to happen. So, what are those people supposed to do? I mean, we've got plenty of areas that do not have a TOTS expert in them. So, are they going to go get care from an IBCLC that really thinks that it's just a snip and done? Or are they going to get care from someone who doesn't even recognize that it's a tongue tie and just tells them that the latch looks great from the outside? That's not going to help them. That's not going to solve their problem and get them thriving. That's not going to prevent compensations for their baby for life. No. So I am a big advocate for telehealth lactation because I can be the right expert for some people. And throughout the country, not everyone has that expert in their backyard. So that is why telehealth lactation is very important. You know, it's a huge thing. You know, even if you have someone who might be semi-local, there's other advantages of telehealth, like you know, driving and no parking, both for the client and the IBCLC. And there's no exposure risk, not just COVID, but we're also talking golden flu season or anything. You know, I mean, you have a newborn, it's always worrisome to take them out and get exposed. And frequently it's less expensive. Not always, but frequently telehealth is less expensive. I know when I was seeing clients in person, my home visit was $100 more than my telehealth because it was a lot more time. It was more time with them, but it was also a significant amount of time for me driving, right? So I would easily spend a half an hour each way in the car. That's an hour of my time. And these are just some of the reasons that telehealth lactation is really what I do and what I love and why I'm passionate about it. Finding the right provider for you is also about finding someone who loves what they do, because that's what you deserve. I am not doing telehealth as an afterthought, and I'm not going to try to talk someone into telehealth who wants an in-person home visit. Okay, that is not what I want to do. I want you to get your in-person home visit. If that's what you feel will help you, if that's what you need, then that's what you should do. I'm here because not everybody wants that, or they don't have anybody around, or they don't have that expert they need. I'm here because I love telehealth and I want to be that TOTS expert for as many families as I can who need help and support and knowledge and experience, not limited by location. I'm internationally licensed. I can see clients anywhere in the world. All we need is a good internet connection and to figure out the time zones and get an appointment on the books, and we're good, right? I can work with anybody. So I really feel that telehealth has come such a long way, just even since the beginning of COVID. But I am, I am just, it is a big thing for me. And I want clients to know this is not an afterthought. This is not a reactionary COVID thing. This is not, I'm not doing it because of that. I'm doing this because I truly believe this is the best way to bring my knowledge and experience to the most people and to be able to help them thrive with their babies and stop being in pain, stop being limited and stop being ignored, right? So many parents are ignored when they go in with breastfeeding struggles, with farty, gassy little babies that are miserable. They're told it's colic, they're told to suck it up, they're told that eventually it'll go away, that they should toughen up their nipples. They are ignored and they are gaslighted and they are not heard. And that is not okay. So I am here for them. I am here to listen. I am here to support and educate, and I am here to make sure that we can get them on the road to thrive. So I just want to say that I love telehealth and I think it's a fantastic thing, and it's such a gift to be able to support families from anywhere and to not be limited to who I can drive to. So, with that, I will tell you that I have some really great episodes coming up. You know, I've been meeting with really wonderful providers, both in person and virtually when location doesn't work out or travel schedules don't work out. I've got one coming up pretty soon with Autumn Henning. I've got one coming up with Dr. Trilfe and Free to Feed. You know, I'm gonna go do a wonderful in-person at the Baltimore tongue tie. Like we've just got some really great stuff coming up. And if you have a suggestion, if you know someone who I should talk to, tell me about an expert in your area. Tell me about somebody that I should meet. Maybe you have a great bodyworker or an amazing ortho who also does sleep dentistry, or you know, a great tongue tie release provider. Tell me. I would love to meet with them. I would love to learn and share knowledge with them, and I would love to help get their knowledge and their message out. So please feel free to reach out to Katie the Traveling LC anytime. You can look at my website, cuddlesandmilk.com. And there is a page right on the home screen you'll find podcast. And I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear who you want me to meet with and who I should see next. For the most part, the next six months, we're exploring the Midwest towards Wisconsin and then all the way out towards the Maine, and then back down towards Florida in December. So I've got all of this East Coast and a little bit of Midwest mixed in. And I am super excited because I've really never seen any part of this country over here, and neither of my kids or my husband. So everything is new and everything is exciting, and we can travel and think about one day where we're going to end up living. So I hope this was beneficial for you. And I just want to say to all the parents out there who have tongue tie kids who've done their release, I feel your pain so much more now. And I know that going through that as a mom also gave me more empathy and more understanding for what it's like as a parent going through it and watching it. So I see you and I know that you are doing your best and that you're just trying to make the right decisions for your kids. And if you chose not to have the release and you thought that was the right decision at the time, and then you changed your mind, please be kind to yourself. You did absolutely what you thought was the best case at that time. With the knowledge you have, that's all we can ever do. There are so many decisions as a parent that I look back on and I'm like, what was I thinking? I should have known better, I should have done better. But when we know better, we do better, right? Maya Angelou said that. And that is those are words I live by, which is why I try to always know better. I try to learn as much as I can, but I have to give myself some grace and understanding. And all of you parents out there, please do it for yourself as well, because we can only know what we know. Okay. It's all right that you didn't know when you made the choices that you thought were the best. And if the Tang Tai release wasn't successful or you didn't do it, now you regret it. All you can do is let go of that, give yourself some grace and move forward with new knowledge. So thank you for joining me on the podcast and listening to me today. Please reach out and tell me, you know, what you thought of it and who you'd like me to interview. I'm always ready for suggestions. So thank you so much. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change you. I hope that you enjoyed the podcast today and learned something new. If you know someone who would benefit from this podcast, please share.