Popular children’s entertainer and host of the ABC’s Giggle and Hoot Jimmy Rees, a.k.a Jimmy Giggle, this week withdrew from Dancing With The Stars, after his seven-week-old son Mack faced complications following a common medical procedure.
Rees and wife Tori welcomed twin boys Mack and Vinny in early February, just weeks before Dancing With The Stars began. The couple also have a three-year-old son named Lenny.
On Monday, Rees announced that he was withdrawing from performing so he can be with his family, after a “main blood vessel” was cut during a routine procedure on Mack last week, forcing the infant to be on a ventilator in hospital.
What was the procedure performed?
From the information provided by the couple in social media posts, the procedure Mack probably had is known as a ‘frenectomy‘. It is usually performed when a patient is ‘tongue-tied’; a condition which the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) describes as “when the thin membrane under the baby’s tongue (called the lingual frenulum) restricts the movement of the tongue.”
WATCH: Jimmy Rees talks about needing to be with his family. Post continues after.
The ABA further explains, “In some cases the tongue is not free or mobile enough for the baby to attach properly to the breast”, which is the main reason why a frenectomy is suggested as a treatment.
Being tongue-tied can also result in issues affecting speech as a child develops.
The ABA also reports that the condition occurs in 4-11 per cent of newborns and is more common in males. A tongue tied baby cannot remove milk from the breast effectively enough to always obtain sufficient nourishment, and its poor sucking motion can cause trauma to the breast nipple.
