Dribbling 3 year old!

[mumof2pixies]

My 3 year olds dribbling has become quite excessive! Hes now got a rash on his chin, and today I had to change his top as he was soaking! Ive mentioned it to my HV but she hasnt a clue. A friend mentioned taking him to see a speech therapist, but Im not sure how that relates, as his speech seems fine. Im sure its just a case of laziness and hes just not swallowing...anyone have any tips?

chiropractor or cranial osteopath? Could his jaw be slightly out? Or very late teething for molars - DS1 is 2.3 and just cut his back 4 molars - he was dribbling and chewing his hands like a 4 month old for about 3 weeks

Does he use a dummy, sucky thing of any sort or bottle still?

When sucking these things the tongue forms a shute down which dribble can slide and it is directed out of the mouth.

Lax mouth and tongue muscles can also be a cause which is why your friend suggested seeing a speech therapist - there are often particular sounds and mouth exercises which can help to tone up tongues!

It won't be laziness - swallowing saliva is a reflex not a conscious movement.

The tips I have heard are to do with always wiping his mouth so as to direct the dribble back towards his mouth to increase his awareness of it (does that make sense?) as we always tend to wipe away from a mouth.

Any sppech therapist like to give their opinion?

I hadnt thought about his jaw being out! I take dd to the cranial ost so i'll ask her about it.

Hes never has a dummy, but hes always sucked his thumb, which hes been doing quite alot lately. Maybe I should take him to see a speech therapist...do you have to be referred through gp or hv??

Has he always been a big dribbler? My ds would soak several tops at day at age 3 - had dribbled since he was tiny. He ended up having his tonsils and adenoids removed (he had other problems too, sleep apnea, chronic glue ear) and the dribbling stopped.
He was assessed by speech therapist (referred by HV) as sometimes dribbling is caused by oral dyspraxia (muscles round mouth not working well), and we were also told to keep reminding him to swallow and to wipe the dribble so he could feel the difference (although in our experience, wiping the dribble meant that he was much more likely to get a sore chin)

DS1 had excessive dribbling up to about 3 1/2 in the end I took him to an ENT guy who told me that he'd had glue ear as a baby and his tubes were blocked up, he diagnosed half a spoon of Piriton every night for three weeks and the effect was amazing, it was virtually gone by the end of the first week. However, he does have Dyspraxia and every so often he does tend to dribble even now at 5 1/2, but nowadays we just have to remind him that he's doing it and he sorts himself out.

Enlarged Adenoids is a big cause of dribbling in older toddlers, definitely go get him checked out. My friend's DD had this problem and went to cranial ost who sorted it out pretty quickly.

I have adribbler as well (in fact my first post on MN was asking about dribbly DC) and mine is now 3.5 andslowly improving. He slobbers if he has a cold but otherwise he is doing it less now.
My other tip is: buy some bandannas for him - less babyish than bibs and less hassled than having to change wet tops every day.

A cranial osteopath can sort out enlarged adenoids? how does that work?

By the way, my 6 year old still often has a line of saliva below his lower lip...

Peaches I might be wrong - I will check with my friend but I am sure it was a cranial ost!

A cranial osteopath can't fix enlarged adenoids. A good one might be able to spot that there is a problem with the adenoids and send the patient back to his/her GP (an ordinary osteopath spotted that a friend of mine had a major spinal disc problem, stopped the osteopathy and sent her back to the GP as an emergency: osteopaths are, by a long way, the most sensible and reputable of alternative therapists ie they actually tend to have a clue...)