Anyone else have a toddler that drools excessively (but has all teeth)?

[lynniep]

Thats it really. My 3 year old drools a river but when I ask him if it hurts he says no, yet he's chewing on his hand a lot. He definately has a full set of gnashers and has had them for a long time now. I asked the GP about it, but she didnt take me seriously - I realise its not a serious problem but theres definately an excess saliva issue!

He's always been a drooler - he started at 10 weeks and pretty much for the first year, then on and off as teeth popped through. But the last tooth came through at least a year ago if not longer. The thing is its not constant, but lasts for weeks then stops for a bit then starts again.

[bosch]

Ds1 drooled for england and I think it was related to his blocked nose - he ended up on nose spray to help get rid of his blocked nose (mild steroid) and more recently (age 8) I think his nose has just got bigger so it's not so sensitive/inclined to get blocked up and then the mucus membranes get over sensitive and wouldn't calm down again. Anyway, while ever he was really snotty, I think he was producing too much saliva or wasn't swallowing it as he was always breathing through his mouth rather than his nose, so he drooled a lot.

His 17 year old england still has a virtually permanently blocked nose and is inclined to be very 'saliva-y' although at least he doesn't still drool...

[sunshineandshowers]

There was somrthing on the TV about this the other day...I was only half listening...5 year old had excessive dribbling...the ENT Specialist said tongue tie and tonsils. So sould be one of these? HTH

[lynniep]

Hmm - he had some tongue tie at birth actually, but he bf ok so no-one mentioned it again until I said to the GP about his dribbling (I told her about the tongue-tie and asked if it could be the cause - she said unlikely without even looking) But she did say if it carries on the I could see the ENT people, but that I should wait until he was older, although I'm not sure how much older!

[Again]

It was on Embarrassing Bodies a couple of weeks ago. The little girl had a combination of tongue-tie, very large tonsils and I think he also had large adenoids. I'd go to another GP.

[Bellagio]

My friends little girl was like this and she needed grommets, can't remember the exact diagnosis though.
Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

[ApplesinmyPocket]

Here's the page about excessive dribbling in children on the Channel 4 site, related to the Embarrassing Bodies - Kids episode mentioned above.

[lynniep]

thanks folks. I will try another GP because she didnt actually look in his mouth to check either tongue or tonsils. On that page it says by the time they reach four, so I think I'll wait until then unless it gets ridiculous. I'll also keep on at him about closing his mouth!

[Again]

I think it's probably best not to make him conscious of it. My cousin also drooled constantly from very young and it turned out to be his teeth being large. His mouth just grew to fit them.

[joeypotter]

Oh no! My DS is super dribbly and I was hoping that when all his teeth were down it would end. He's got 4 more to go. But I noticed he seems to drool when he's concentrating and it doesn't always tie in with teething and after reading this thread I think he's going to be one of those 5 yo dribblers

[DorotheaPlenticlew]

DS is 2.10 and dribbles loads. He has a permanent rash around his chin/mouth. Def has all teeth though.

It really bothers me, esp the rash so maybe I'll make a GP appt too. Have previously assumed they would brush me off.

[orangina]

ds is 3 and dribbles for england. He also has all his teeth. Definitely worse when he has a cold or blocked nose. Am assuming he'll grow out of it eventually.....

[LoveJules3]

My dd2 is nearly 5 and dribbles a lot when she cries. She has enormous tonsills and is a mouth breather, but it's improving as she gets bigger. There's just nowhere for the drool to go if the tonsills are too big.

[hanbee]

My sons dribbles a lot and has his mouth open a fair bit. I took him to a local Speech and Language Therapy drop in clinic (they have them at SureStart centres). They said low muscle tone in the mouth was the cause and gave us some fun exercises to do with musical instruments, straw and bubble blowing to help improve the muscle tone. If you have a drop in locally, it might be worth popping to see what they say.

[roadkillbunny]

Hi, I know this thread is a month old but I came accross it while poking around as I am new to MN. I am the parent of the child who was featured on embarrassing bodies kids who had the dribbling problem. I would recomend that if you are concerned you see your GP and really push for en ENT referal. With Hemmie there were allot of issues going on some we knew about, others we didn't and we didn't know any of them were related until we saw the ENT consultant. Hemmie has speech problems, she never babbled and didn't use more then two words together until she was 3, she started pre-school and her speech exploded but no one could understand her but family. Hemmie was also snored terribly since she was two weeks old, we joked and said she was just like her Dad and then were horrified when the ENT said she hed air way was so narrow due to massive toncils and adernoids that when it relaxed when she spelt it was stopping her from breathing giving her sleep apnioa. Hemmie also had issues with repeat infections and trouble swollowing certain textures.
Had her problems been limited to dribbling the route that was planned was medication that reduces the amount of saliva (the medication has its own problems so it is something you have to give much thought to).
Hemmie has been so wonderful since she had her tongue tie cut (she had conplete tongue tie undiagnosed, so angry with our GP and her speech therapists over this), her toncils and adernoids out, she barely ever dribbles, even when she has a cold, the apnia has gone, she can eat potato and meat for the first time ever, she hasn't had a single infection and very very slowly her speech is improving (although there are still issues due to her tie being so bad she still can't lift her tongue even after surgery). So please please if your child is having problems see the GP and get and ENT referal, don't leave it, if a problem is there it needs treating sooner rather then later, if Hemmie had been treated earlier she wouldn't be stuggling so much with her speech nor would she be the smallest child in her class (all her energy was going on trying to breath rather then grow, she grew almost 20cm in the first few months after surgery). All the best, Jen

[Doingarunnerquick]

Just found this topics after starting my own: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/behaviour_development/1689463-2-5yr-old-Excessive-dribbling-breathing-through-mouth-Help?watched=1

Any other thoughts/pointers/help??