Mouth breathing 5 year old

[BuildaClaire]

My 5 year old little boy has consistently breathed through his mouth since I can remember - he is able to breathe through his nose but he will only do it a few seconds and he starts mouth breathing again and complains that it’s difficult to breathe through his nose. Have rang drs and brought it up at another appointment but they just say “he’ll grow out of it” and “any treatment would mean he could get Covid and that would be worse”
I’m really worried about it everything online seems to imply it needs treating early and can cause all kinds of problems but my drs don’t seem to care in the slightest has anyone else had any experience with mouth breathing being treated?
Even without the worry of it causing any more serious problems his breath smells because of it and he does look rather silly because of it and don’t want to have another reason why he might potentially get bullied - he already has accidents at school quite a lot (another thing the drs aren’t remotely bothered about and say “he will grow out of it”

I think a lot of children and adults do mouth breath, I've never personally come across anyone who has been bullied for it, although obviously it's not ideal. If his breath stinks, has he been checked by the dentist?

What kind of accidents is he having at school?

I know this is an old thread but OP, did you ever get it sorted? How is your son doing now? I’m worried about similar issues.

He’s nearly 7 and honestly not really any better at all.. the dr we’ve seen before told me it can’t be his adenoids as his hearing is fine so not willing to look further into that and also can’t be allergies as he doesn’t have a runny nose.
A more recent drs trip the dr was more helpful and actually agreed to look at his nose and said it is inflamed but that can’t see any real issues so nothing they can do.
he is still also having accidents but never at school just occasionally at home, and he is still dribbling quite a lot as well.

Thank you fo replying. Sorry to hear it’s still bothering him x

sometimes the tubes at the back of the nose are a bit less perfectly shaped. An ear nose and throat doctor could put a camera in to check this.

sometimes this leads to the sinuses getting infected a lot.

I’m surprised a gp said allergies must involve a runny nose. Mine just block it.

you can ask for a referral, I would.

Absolute rubbish that it can't be adenoids.
They can't know for certain unless they investigate under anaesthetic but it completely sounds like it could be.

Does he snore at night? Does he ever have apnoeas at night?

He needs an ENT referral

My daughter has had adenoids and tonsils removed.
In fact she's had her adenoids done twice now as they grew back bigger than before.
She never had hearing or ear problems, but constant noisy, obstructive breathing and significant apnoea overnight. I sent the GP videos and they were quite quick to refer us.

Could you afford to see someone privately?

Another saying to push for an ENT referral. Mouth breathing can impact so many parts of life that you don't even realise.

We had mouth breathing, drooling, snoring, lots of ear infections….
Have health insurance….so took him to an ENT who suggested tonsils, adenoids to be taken out.
we only did adenoids.
since then…..all the above have gone….still gets the odd ear infection, but much better
for reference he just turned 4 when he did the op.

@Caps0218 thank you that’s interesting.

I would push very hard for proper investigation. Apart from anything else, mouth breathing can negatively affect his appearance.