DD aged 6 mouth breathing at night

[maysheep]

My youngest DD (age 6) is a mouth breather. I don’t notice it as much in the day but often when I go in at night she’s breathing through her mouth when asleep.

She doesn’t have allergies as far as I’m aware. For a while she struggled with glue ear which resulted in some mild hearing loss but that seems to have resolved itself now. We did see an ENT who said that he wouldn’t recommend surgery for the glue ear unless the hearing loss was persistent over the longer term.

I can’t stop worrying about it because I know that mouth breathing is not good for jaw and face development, I don’t have great jaw alignment myself and I was hoping to avoid the same for my children. Does anyone know what I can do or who I should see to encourage her to breathe correctly?

I’m curious about this too as both my kids are the same, and me too. I’ve read a bit and freak myself out but not sure how to help.

I’m 65 and have always been a mouth breather at night , I have snored from a young age , but nothing worse than that ( asthma and hay fever sufferer , probably relevant )

It’s hard not to worry isn’t it. All the advice seems to be to try to encourage them not to mouth breathe…but how on earth are you meant to do that? Especially when they’re asleep!

have a look at myofunctional therapy. There will be videos on YouTube/ instagram. Some offer advice (mouth exercises etc) to encourage proper jaw development in kids. Depending on where you live you might also have a myofunctional therapist near you, although they are not common. Are her teeth crowded?

No, not crowded at all - but she still has many of her baby teeth.

To be honest (and I fully accept I am her mother and therefore biased 😉) she is absolutely beautiful - lovely smile and her jaws currently look perfect. But I am worried that things can change as they grow. I was similar in that I was a very cute child, but my face didn’t develop that well as a teen.

I mouth breathe

Simply because I can't breathe through my nose most of the time. So not just at night

My jaw and face are fine mind

Actually it’s not the jaw stuff I’m most worried about - sorry I don’t want to worry you more! But it’s stuff I’ve read about it increasing the likelihood of inattentiveness and adhd type symptoms - presumably through disrupted sleep? My eldest is prone to respiratory infections too and I presume the dry throat and mouth from this doesn’t help.

Oh gosh really? Well that’s something else to add to the list then 😭 🤣

Have you come across any solutions?

Is there something causing it? I was like this until I had my tonsils and adenoids out at 6. Been fine since.

Not as far as I know. I remember reading about tonsils and adenoids when she had glue ear as they can be connected but the ENT never mentioned any issues with them.

I’ve done a bit of research on the effects of mouth breathing so now use these mouth tape pieces (called beauty sleep). It has a little while in the middle of the tape. My sleep has improved massively since using it. I don’t know if they’re recommended for kids or whether they would even wear them.

My 8yo DD sleeps with her mouth open but during the day she mostly has her mouth closed. I would have thought that the issues around jaw development won't affect kids whose mouth is closed during the day so much as kids who mouth breathe all the time.

There is very little information about associated problems from reliable sources so it's really hard to decide whether it's something that actually needs dealing with or whether it's just another way for people to make money selling exercise programs through Facebook etc.