4 year old mouth breathing

[Howlongtowait]

My 4 year old has always been a mouth breather in his sleep.

Google tells me this is a problem, and that he should see an ENT.

Does anyone have any experience with this? It doesn’t seem to affect him at all.

My four year old is the same. He was very dribbly until around 3 and a half, and eats with his mouth open, and often snores. It turns out he has absolutely enormous tonsils which can be the cause of all this. In bad cases it can apparently cause sleep apnea. We haven’t yet seen a doctor as apparently the only solution is to remove the tonsils and it’s not affecting him enough for us to put him through that, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on him.

My now 4yo started mouth breathing and snoring a lot about 3 years ago. Nursery brought it to our attention as we didn't know it wasn't normal. When we got her checked out she had enlarged tonsils and adenoids. In her case they have had other effects such as causing frequent ear infections, glue ear (with some hearing loss) and tonsillitis. Luckily things seem to be improving now with time (also helps that she's picking up illnesses less frequently at school). I would get your child checked out just to make sure there are no other effects you aren't aware of (for instance glue ear and hearing loss). Surgery isn't the only option.

My dentist is OBSESSED with the fact that DD1 (3yrs) is a mouth breather. She asked me to book a GP appointment to get her checked, so I did. The GP said she had slightly enlarged tonsils and adenoids but not sufficiently enlarged to warrant a referral at this stage. So for now we are just monitoring. He said if she has any sign of sleep apnea, to record it and go back to him for a referral. So you could make an appointment now for a check up, or see if you can get some footage of him sleeping to show the doctor?

It would be good to have adenoids and tonsils looked at and to have a hearing test. My son did this and turned out to have enlarged adenoids, but not so large that they absolutely had to be removed, and they reduced in size over the years on their own (and his sleep, which was great, became excellent at that point -- it may be affecting him in a way that isn't apparent). Mild hearing loss also isn't always obvious but has an impact at school.

Mine is caused by allergies.

Enlarged adenoids for DS too. Had hearing loss too, hardly noticeable to all but me, but when you watched him in group situations you could tell.

Had the adenoids out and hearing has improved and sleep much better. No more dribbling or mouth breathing.

My 4 year old is a mouth breather at night and think it's due to enlarged tonsils (Dr noted previously) but not anything to be concerned about at this stage apparently. Worth getting checked out if you think it's causing a problem.