What To Do If My Child Only Breathes Through His Mouth?
Breathing through the mouth is not a normal habit for a child. In almost all cases, this is due to airway obstruction, which must be treated quickly. Therefore, many parents ask themselves: “what to do if my child only breathes through his mouth?”.
Breathing is a fundamental process for life. Not breathing correctly has negative effects and produces changes such as sleep apnea, coughing, and drifting teeth, to name just a few of the problems that can occur.
The following information is intended to provide an introduction to this subject so that you can learn to identify the causes that generate this bad habit and what are some of the treatments most recommended by children’s pulmonologists.
My son only breathes through his mouth
The respiratory system fulfills several functions that help to maintain a balance in the body, as its efficient work directly influences us so that we can live and be healthy.
The case of children who breathe through their mouths is special. We start from the fact that eventually aspiration of air by mouth is necessary. This does not affect the body if we do it alternately with nasal breathing.
However, it is a fact that using this pathway as the only way to inhale and exhale can hide specific pathologies and trigger other new diseases along the way.
The process of the respiratory system linked to the movement of air within the lungs is called ventilation. This is done in cycles, in which we inhale to take in air and exhale to discard it. The basis is in an automatic act performed by neurons that, in turn, send orders to the nerves to activate this mechanism.
All human beings are born conditioned to perform the ventilation process, mainly nasal, as assistance.
Thus, it is possible to deduce immediately that, if a child cannot carry out a process that the body does unconsciously, there must be an obstruction in one or more parts of the respiratory system.
Causes of mouth breathing
The reasons why a child breathes through their mouths can be varied. It is possible to start with transient events, such as nasal congestion due to colds or allergic rhinitis, until reaching obstruction problems, such as tonsil hypertrophy.
These are some of the most frequent reasons for the problem:
- Nasal septum deviation or obstructions in the area.
- Problems with hypotony of the muscles of the face.
- Bite problems that cause the child to keep the mouth open.
- Adenoid hypertrophy.
- Tonsil hypertrophy.
- Temporary causes: colds or allergic symptoms.
Consequences
Having analyzed the causes that can create obstructions in nose ventilation, now let’s look at the most obvious consequences of mouth breathing:
- Episodes of coughing and snoring at night.
- Sleep apnea.
- Malformations of the jaw or narrow palate.
- Atypical swallowing.
- Hearing problems.
- Sinusitis.
- Otitis.
- Presence of dark circles.
- Weakness.
- Dry lips.
medical solutions
As can be seen in the previous sections, mouth breathing in children corresponds to several different factors. And some of them, luckily, are passengers.
Once you identify that your child is mouth breathing, you should go to the pediatrician so they can determine the causes and then refer the child to the corresponding specialist. Depending on the case, it could be a pulmonologist, an ENT or an orthodontist.
Another care that the child can receive to eliminate this bad habit is to consult a speech therapist, a specialist in speech and hearing problems. With it, the child can have two types of treatment. The first is called passive and active exercise respiratory therapy, while the second is orofacial myofunctional therapy.
Thus, in the first treatment, the child will do exercises that will allow him to reprogram his brain to eliminate the mistaken breathing pattern. This alternative is based on physical exercise and mental conditioning.
The second methodology, however, is to correct muscle hypotonia and swallowing problems related to occlusal problems.
As a final clarification, it is worth noting that mouth breathing affects children’s health in so many ways that many of them may even have school problems and be unable to exercise, for example.
