Toddler with high palate

[GingersnapBiscuit]

My daughter is 26 months. When she was 8 months she had a late tongue tie division after significant problems weaning onto solids - the doctor also mentioned she had a very high palate.

I’m now wondering if she may still have some oral issues 18 months later. Whenever she eats anything claggy like bread she gets tons of it stuck in her upper palate - it forms a large compacted blob she can’t seem to clear with her tongue (presumably because her palate is so high and her tongue possibly still more constricted than some). Often we have to help pull it out.

She speaks a fair bit but can’t pronounce ‘c’ or ‘g’ sounds which would engage the back of the palate. She is obviously still young through.

Has anyone else had these kinds of issues and they’ve just resolved themselves? I’m thinking of taking her to the GP but don’t know if there’s actually much to be done and it’s just the sort of thing they grow out of?

Yes DS had a high narrow palate as well as severe tongue and lip tie. We had the TT cut as a baby and it grew back and needed to be done again at 6. He had numerous speech issues too.
A lot of this was linked to having a severe underbite (malocclusion) and we successfully treated it with orthodontic treatment to expend his palate and move his teeth and it’s made such a huge difference to his speech, eating and how his entire facial structure looks. He can also breathe better. We are London based and happy to recommend a couple of orthodontists if helpful?

Thank you, we are London based too so any recommendations would be amazing!

PM sent

DD1 has a very high palate and we were recommended to go to Toothbeary in Richmond for myofunctional therapy by our dentist. Our dentist said for our DD it would be best to try around age 5-6 so we havent been yet but we will do by next summer. She may need braces as well when older, but we will see what Toothbeary say first.

When she started primary, she was also referred to SALT. From my memory of the appt, C or G sounds are not a worry until 3.5y onwards, but might be worth asking nursery (if your DC goes) to keep an eye out. School referred DD1 before Oct half term and she had her first appt by christmas (we are in Merton). They gave us some resources to practise with at home and I personally feel her speech is getting much clearer (she is 4y 9m now)

Im not sure whether the GP would be more useful or try the HV service instead? My experience of our HV (who is amazing though) is that she is much more plugged into which service is best to go to first.

DS1 had the high palate/food-storing issue - in his case it's turned out to be part of his dyspraxia.

It's also caused minor issues with breathing (ie. noisy breathing when he sleeps - but nothing really worth treating - and he's a teenager now).

I can't remember issues with his speech, although he was a late speaker, and I vaguely remember other people not being understand him when I could.

No dental issues, no speech issues now, but he does still have the habit of just stuffing his mouth full of food and then working through it inside his mouth, rather than taking smaller bites (that may also just be being a teenage boy though)

Toothbeary are also excellent, we just swapped to Happy Kids as Toothbeary was a two hour journey for us.

Interesting @GiantTeddyIsTired DS stores food like that and is constantly being considered for dyspraxia.