A note from Bethany: One of my favorite parts of this work is collaborating with providers who see the whole baby. Dr. Rachel Franco at Flow of Life Chiropractic in Plainfield is someone I trust deeply when it comes to body tension, oral restrictions, and what babies need to feed well. Her perspective here is one I wish every mama could read before the tongue-tie conversation even starts.
Yes! You read that right! When a baby is experiencing tension or restricted movement throughout the body, gentle chiropractic care may help support improved mobility and function. Tongue-tie chiropractic care is one specific way to address the body tension that can quietly affect how a baby feeds, latches, and moves.
At Flow of Life Chiropractic, Dr. Rachel Franco and her husband work with babies using gentle, specific, neurologically-based chiropractic care. Care may focus on areas such as the jaw, neck, spine, and cranial structures, depending on the individual needs of the baby.
A tongue-tie, or restricted oral tissue, can limit the tongue’s ability to move freely. But the tongue does not work in isolation.
Feeding requires coordinated movement between the tongue, jaw, mouth, neck, head, and the rest of the body. If a baby has developed tension or compensation patterns, those areas may also influence how comfortably and efficiently they are able to feed.
Not sure whether a tongue-tie is part of your baby’s picture? The free Tongue-Tie Symptoms Guide from Bethany walks through the signs to look for before you even get to an evaluation.
Common signs we see in the office for babies with oral restrictions include:
- Difficulty achieving or maintaining a deep latch on one side
- Fatigue during feeds
- Difficulty coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing
- Preference for turning the head to one side
- Tension through the jaw, neck, shoulders, or body
- Difficulty with positioning or achieving a comfortable feeding posture
- Torticollis, arching, or excessive hiccups
Chiropractic care can be one part of a collaborative approach to helping a baby move and function as comfortably as possible.
Think of it like this: if the tongue is restricted, a baby may develop ways to compensate during feeding. Those compensations can sometimes contribute to tension in other areas of the body. Supporting overall mobility and reducing unnecessary tension may help create a better environment for the baby to practice more functional movement patterns.
How Tongue-Tie Chiropractic Care Helps Before and After a Revision
For some babies, chiropractic care is recommended as part of the support surrounding a tongue-tie evaluation or revision.
Before a procedure, the goal may be to assess and support areas of tension and restricted movement that could be contributing to feeding challenges.
After a revision, babies may need time and support as they learn new movement patterns. Many have been compensating for their restriction for weeks or months, and simply releasing the restricted tissue does not mean every compensatory pattern immediately disappears.
This is where a collaborative care team can be especially valuable.
Bethany can help with feeding mechanics and positioning. A qualified provider performing the revision can evaluate the oral restriction and procedure itself. We can assess areas of tension and movement throughout the body. Each provider brings a different area of expertise.
Why Chiropractors Are Part of the Tongue-Tie Dream Team
The tongue-tie journey is rarely about one single issue or one single provider.
It is about looking at the whole baby.
A baby may have a restricted frenulum, but they may also have tension through the jaw, neck, shoulders, or body. Compensatory movement patterns may have developed over weeks. Feeding may be taking incredible effort at every single session.
This is why collaboration is so important.
At Flow of Life Chiropractic, we believe families deserve a team of providers who understand their individual roles and work together to support the baby and the family.
For Dr. Rachel Franco, this work is also deeply personal.
The Story Behind Flow of Life Chiropractic
Rachel and her husband, Tony, opened Flow of Life Chiropractic in Plainfield, Indiana, in 2018. Only eight months later, Rachel became a mother for the first time.
Her first child experienced significant oral restrictions, and navigating tongue-ties, revisions, feeding, and recovery as a new mama was one of the hardest things she had done. Through her child’s journey, she saw firsthand how important a collaborative approach could be. With appropriate tongue-tie revisions combined with gentle chiropractic care, she witnessed an incredible improvement in her child’s ability to release tension and recover more efficiently.
That experience made the connection between oral restrictions, body tension, movement, and feeding deeply personal for Rachel. It also strengthened her desire to provide gentle, specific care for babies and families navigating similar challenges.
Before having children, Rachel personally struggled with headaches and migraines. Finding gentle, specific chiropractic care was incredibly important to her, especially as she thought about the kind of care she wanted for her future family. Those personal experiences helped shape her passion for working with pregnant women, babies, children, and families.
Today, Flow of Life Chiropractic provides gentle, neurologically-based chiropractic care for families, including prenatal and pediatric care.
Motherhood was never meant to be navigated alone, and neither is the tongue-tie journey.
If you are noticing body tension in your baby alongside feeding challenges, connecting with a chiropractor and a feeding specialist can be a powerful first step toward building your care team. Learn more about what a feeding evaluation with Bethany includes, and read more about how body tension shows up in babies in Baby Arches While Breastfeeding: What It Means and When to Act.
About Dr. Rachel Franco
Dr. Rachel Franco is a chiropractor and co-owner of Flow of Life Chiropractic in Plainfield, Indiana. Her practice specializes in gentle, neurologically-based chiropractic care for pregnant women, babies, and families. Her passion for pediatric and prenatal care is rooted in her own experience navigating oral restrictions and feeding challenges with her first child.
Instagram: @flowoflifechiropractic Website: goflowoflife.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a chiropractor help a baby with a tongue-tie?
Yes. Tongue-tie chiropractic care can support a baby by addressing tension and restricted movement that may be contributing to feeding challenges. A tongue-tie does not only affect the tongue. Babies often develop compensatory patterns in the jaw, neck, and body, and gentle chiropractic care can help reduce that tension and support more functional movement patterns.
When should I take my baby to a chiropractor for a tongue-tie?
Many providers recommend chiropractic care both before and after a tongue-tie revision. Before a procedure, the goal is to assess and support areas of tension that may be affecting feeding. After a revision, chiropractic care can support the baby as they learn new movement patterns, since compensations developed over weeks or months do not always resolve on their own after a release.
Is chiropractic care safe for babies?
Pediatric chiropractic care uses very gentle, specific techniques adapted for an infant’s developing body. Providers who specialize in pediatric care, such as Dr. Rachel Franco at Flow of Life Chiropractic, are trained in techniques appropriate for newborns and young babies.
What does tongue-tie chiropractic care look like for a baby?
A pediatric chiropractic visit for a baby with a tongue-tie typically involves a gentle assessment of the jaw, neck, spine, and cranial structures. The chiropractor looks for areas of tension or restricted movement that may be contributing to feeding difficulties and uses very light, specific adjustments to support improved mobility and function.
How does body tension affect breastfeeding?
Body tension can affect how a baby positions at the breast, which side they prefer, how long they can sustain a feeding, and how efficiently they transfer milk. A baby carrying tension in the neck or jaw may latch better on one side, fatigue quickly, or struggle to maintain a deep latch. Addressing that tension through gentle chiropractic care is one way to support the whole feeding picture.
