16 month old still dribbling

[theduchesse]

My DS is almost 16 months and still dribbles constantly. It doesn't matter if he's teething or not, it is all the time. All the other babies I know have stopped and I just want to know if it's still within the bounds of normal for him to be doing it at 16 months.

He has tended to be a late developer for anything to do with his mouth - he didn't really get the idea of chewing until he was 7 or 8 months, he didn't get his first tooth until he was 9 months and still only has 6. He babbles and has a few words but seems much more interested in learning to understand what I say than saying anything himself.

None of that concerns me and I know he is on track with all of his other development and to be honest the dribbling didn't concern me either until my DHs family started going on about it. They also think I should be toilet training him so I know they're not exactly clued in and I should just ignore them but I would feel so much better to hear other people say their child still dribbled at this age.

DS is 22 months and still dribbling...(not potty trained yet either!)
Ignore others not so helpful comments!

Sorry Lunatic I didn't mean to start you worrying. And thankyou both for your replies. Sounds like it is perfectly normal. I should have known that like everything else they all do things when they're ready.

Mine is the dame age and still dribbling like a tap - I put it down to teething
Background undercover covert teething as still no sign of the actual teeth.

Tongue tied kids often dribble a lot. Could it be that? Did you breastfeed or try to? That often is a good place to start identifying ties.

Any other problems like reflux, poor sleeping, fussy eating, allergies/intolerance, snoring etc? These are common too with tied kids.

I was going to suggest tongue tie too

DS1 was a big dribbler even after all his 2 y.o. molars had come through by 21 months. At 2y10m a speech therapist identified restricted tongue movement (but said he didn't have a tongue tie) so we took him to a private dentist who specialises in tongue tie revision and he diagnosed both a tongue & lip tie. We had them cut and the dribble has stopped now. :)

Go with your instinct. If something made you think there was a tie, there's a good chance that there is.

My eldest dribbled loads until part way through Reception year at school. He was checked out at the ENT outpatients at hospital and they couldn't find anything wrong. They thought he simply forgot to swallow excess saliva and suggested sucking sugar free mints to 'remind' himself to swallow. They ago said that peer pressure would probably make him stop - no kid wants to be singled out! Anyway, all of sudden he just stopped doing it. He still seems o av a lot of excess saliva but its no longer an issue.

Don't worry about it for now OP. :-)

Agree with mawbroon. Some issues do resolve themselves but that doesn't necessarily mean no TT. eg DS1's early bf issues sorted themselves out without intervention, but I now know they were caused by tongue tie.

Thing is although they appear to sort themselves out, what really happens is that the baby learns to compensate and work round the restriction. Compensation is never really a good thing.

My nephew dribbled for ages. It eventually stopped about 2 and a half. The only problem it caused was it was gross (I am very squeamish, sorry probably unreasonable) and my sister in law got through a lot of clothes.

haha I've just read the bit about toilet training

AngelDog, how did you find the dentist? DS still dribbles excessively at 26 months and I'm interested in getting to the bottom of it as we think it might be exacerbating his constipation.

In the interest of disclosure, I've spoken to you many times under different name changes about bf'ing and sleep as a hopeful tandem feeder (ds2 due in seven weeks). How is your new one doing?

Not neccessarily Lunatic. Posterior ties affect the back of the tongue and can leave plenty of protruding tongue which some people can use to touch their nose if they feel so inclined .

There is so much variation with tongue tie and some are impossible to spot unless you know what you are looking for. That's what makes it so difficult for parents of tied children vs health professionals

Malcolm Levinkind in North London is your man.

oh andthe tongue tie babies support group on facebook

I would just ask your HV whether she thinks there's any possibility he has Dyspraxia sometimes unkindly known as 'clumsy child syndrome'.

I only say this because a friend's child had/has it and the first thing that drew attention to it was excessive dribbling.

Gosh - just seen your comment about your tongue - friend's son can do this and can even touch his elbow with his tongue!

my DS is 2.8 and has been constantly dribbling for the last 6 months, but fingers crossed it appears to be getting less now.

My brother was the same at that age and apparently my dad was the same to so a family trait.

Someone i know had an excessive dribbler and he had enlarged tonsils so had to have them removed.

Thank you all. Some interesting things to think about. He took to breastfeeding really easily so its unlikely he has a tongue tie but if he's still doing it when he finishes with his molars I'll look in to that a bit more.