How to stop child breathing through mouth

Mouth Breathing In Babies: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Young babies don't develop the reflex to breathe through their mouths until they are 3 or 4 months old. Studies show that mouth breathing while the baby sleeps may be due to some blockage in the upper airway, including the throat and nose. The blockage could be due to a stuffy nose, an allergic reaction, or a more complex condition, resulting in mouth breathing.

Mouth breathing can result in long-term health consequences if left untreated. In many cases, it’s a symptom that indicates airway restriction. Your baby will resort to mouth breathing as an adaptation to help them get enough oxygen.

Causes of Mouth Breathing in Babies

You’re more likely to notice mouth breathing in your child while they sleep. In other cases, it could be a regular habit even when they’re awake. Regardless of when it happens, mouth breathing is a risk for young and developing brains.

The primary reason why mouth breathing happens has to do with the jaw. Ideally, your child’s jaw should be U-shaped and wide. However, it’s now a common occurrence for jaws to be smaller, leading to overcrowding of the teeth and crooked smiles. They also lead to slack-mouth overbites, and bites that seem to be out of position. The result is V-shaped jaws that cause a high and narrow palate. Such jaws also lead to obstructed nasal passages, which can lead to:

Sleep apnea. If your child snores while sleeping, it's not because snoring is normal. Sleep apnea means that your baby’s upper airway is blocked in some way. This could be because of adenoids or enlarged tonsils. Other symptoms that accompany snoring include: coughing, pauses in breathing, choking, and restlessness.
Mucus. When your child’s nose is stuffy or blocked with mucus, they may breathe through their mouth out of necessity.
Anatomical problems. One of the most common anatomical problems that lead to mouth breathing is a significantly deviated septum. This means that the cartilage and bone separating your baby's nostrils from one another are in abnormal positions. The result is breathing difficulties that cause your child to breathe through their mouth instead.‌

Your child is also at risk of mouth breathing if:

They stop breastfeeding before they are three months old. There are many instances when babies stop breastfeeding early or they self-wean. However, even a single feed a day can help your child reduce the risk of regularly breathing through their mouth. Breastfeeding promotes nose breathing and makes the child’s mouth and tongue muscles engage. The pressure on the child’s palate also enhances bone growth of the jaw, causing it to widen. This leads to a more open airway.
They have a tongue-tie. If your child’s tongue frenulum is tight, they’ll have trouble latching and breastfeeding properly. In the long-term, this can also lead to problems with eating, swallowing, and speech in some cases. A tongue-tie also prevents orofacial development, which can potentially lead to partial airway blockage at night.
Thumb-sucking and prolonged use of pacifiers. The pressure your child causes on the palate when sucking their thumb or pacifiers forces the jaw to stay narrow.
Enlarged tonsils. Inflamed and swollen tonsils can partly block the airways. This will cause your child to breathe through the mouth when sleeping.
Allergies. Undiagnosed allergies can create breathing difficulties for your child, causing them to breathe through the mouth.

Signs That Your Child Breathes Through the Mouth

When your child is repeatedly breathing through the mouth while they sleep, it is a sign that they have this condition. Additional signs include:

Snoring loudly
Mouth breathing when awake
Grinding their teeth while asleep
Snorting when they cry
Silent breathing
Having problems with concentration or behavior at school

Health Complications of Mouth Breathing

Everyone should breathe through their nose for good health. As air passes through the nasal path, it is filtered to remove toxins. It also reaches the lungs at optimal pressure, a factor that helps in oxygen extraction and nitric acid release for proper circulation.‌

When your child breathes through their mouth, fewer toxins are filtered, which can inhibit circulation. This affects the transfer of oxygen throughout the body, impacting your child's wellbeing by causing:

Oral health problems such as dry mouth, which reduces saliva and causes bacteria to stay longer on the teeth. This increases the risk of gingivitis and tooth decay.
General health problems like high blood pressure, sleep disorders, and allergies
Orthodontic problems due to poor jaw development, leading to teeth crowding
Poor facial development
Speech problems because of the forward thrusting of the tongue
Sleep disorders like apnea and snoring.

Treating Mouth Breathing

If you notice mouth breathing symptoms in your child, make an appointment with their pediatric dentist. You will get a referral to another professional for proper diagnosis and treatment. The options include:

Breathing retraining and proper tongue posture to teach your child to breathe through their nose
Management of allergies, thumb sucking, and infections
Orthodontic treatment that involves fitting braces to guide jaw and teeth movement
Surgery to remove the physical obstruction like adenoids, deviated septum, tongue-tie, or enlarged tonsils

Why It Happens & How to Stop It

Mouth breathing is a real problem.

That’s a heavy statement, but it’s one that needs to be said up front, because too many parents just ignore mouth breathing as a funny or odd-but-harmless quirk that their child will eventually outgrow.

I’m sure you want your child to grow up to be healthy and good looking – which parent doesn’t? Mouth breathing, though, puts those goals in jeopardy. If your child breathes through their mouth regularly, it tells you that they aren’t breathing or swallowing correctly.

That can lead to short and long term health issues, and even disrupt the development of your child’s facial structures. It all adds up to poorer health, decreased confidence, and lower quality of life overall.

What’s causing your child’s mouth breathing?

Just to be clear, when we talk about mouth breathing here, we’re talking about persistent mouth breathing that isn’t the result of your child having a stuffed up or runny nose.

In those cases, you should just keep an eye on your child and make sure they go back to breathing through their noses once their nasal passages are clear again.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some of the main reasons why your child might be breathing through their mouth.

Problems with Mouth and Bite Structure

The shape of your child’s jaw and mouth might be preventing them from closing their mouth correctly, which would encourage mouth breathing.

Blocked Nasal Passages

Your child’s tonsils and sinuses might be limiting airflow through their nostrils, making them feel more comfortable breathing through their mouth.

Bad Habits

Breathing is second nature – or at least it’s supposed to be. Your child’s mouth breathing might just be a bad habit that you can help them unlearn.

Mouth breathing affects every stage of a child’s development.

Being proactive about oral health from a young age makes a lifelong difference!

Mouth breathing can begin from a very young age – as early as the time when a baby begins to use a pacifier or bottle.

Those things, along with habits like thumb and finger sucking, can set the stage for mouth breathing to occur, as can environmental factors like allergens or dust that cause a child’s nose to frequently become congested.

From there, mouth breathing can become a major disruption to a child’s development, as you’ll see in the following section…

Why is mouth breathing so bad for children?

Because of where they are developmentally.

Childhood is such an important stage – it’s when so much essential growth takes place in mind and body, and mouth breathing stops both from progressing the way they’re supposed to.

Mouth breathing harms a child’s physical development.

As time passes, mouth breathing shifts your child’s facial structures, potentially leading to:

Crooked teeth and overcrowding
Uneven face and jaw symmetry
Noticeable deformities
Overly visible gums
A narrow mouth
Persistent pain

Mouth breathing harms a child’s mental development.

When your child can’t breathe properly, their brain can’t function properly either. The result is:

Difficulties with concentration and problem solving
Development of sleep disorders like insomnia
Disrupted emotional and social development
Misdiagnosis of issues like ADD and ADHD
Slower cognitive development
Poor performance at school

How can you identify mouth breathing?

Playing video games? A perfect opportunity to covertly check up on your child’s breathing patterns.

Your child probably isn’t aware that they’re breathing through their mouth.

If they’re breathing through their mouth when they’re awake, they probably think it’s normal. And if they’re breathing through their mouth when they’re asleep…well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.

All in all, that means it’s up to you, the parent, to look for signs of mouth breathing in your child.

But you can’t (or shouldn’t) just sit them down in front of you and ask them to breathe. That’s going to make them think about their breathing and potentially change from mouth breathing to nasal breathing.

Instead, you should observe them during their day-to-day activities for a period of time, watching our for some of the following signs:

Symptoms of Mouth Breathing in Children

Snoring
Noisy eating
Difficulty speaking
Bad breath or strong mouth odor
Frequent cavities and tooth decay
A dry mouth and/or dry, cracked lips
A persistent slightly open-mouthed look
Crying or problems with sleeping at night
Trouble concentrating at school or complaints about “brain fog”
Tiredness and irritability even when they’re getting plenty of rest

Stopping your child’s mouth breathing: What can you do?

The first thing to do is to look for the signs of mouth breathing in your child.

Remember – you’re looking for regular, ongoing symptoms. Stress or a stuffed up nose, for example, might cause your child to breathe through their mouth temporarily.

Once you’re feeling confident that your child may have trouble breathing through their mouth, you’ll want to schedule an appointment with your family doctor or dentist.

For instance, here at Lawson Family Dentistry, we’ll ask you and your child about their breathing, sleeping, and concentration, and we’ll also examine their mouth for other signs of mouth breathing.

There’s no single reason behind mouth breathing in children, so – likewise – there’s no single treatment either.

That’s why it’s better to get a medical professional’s opinion – even if your child’s mouth breathing is as “simple” as being a bad habit, there’s reassurance in having that verified by a qualified expert.

How will your child’s mouth breathing be treated?

Removable appliances like Myobrace are comfortable and easy for children to get used to.

While there are several ways for mouth breathing to be addressed, they generally fall into one of the three categories I’ve expanded on below.

As I mentioned before, there’s no one-size-fits-all fix – the right solution for your child depends on the underlying reasons for their mouth breathing.

Behavioral Changes

Your child might be given conscious nasal breathing exercises to practice during the day, and/or recommendations for a sleeping posture that promotes nasal breathing.

A Dental Appliance

If your child’s tongue or jaws are causing their mouth breathing difficulties, a nightly dental appliance like Myobrace or HealthyStart can be recommended to resolve the issue.

Surgical Corrections

While invasive options are generally avoided for children, sometimes they’re the only option. For structural issues in the tonsils and sinuses, surgery may be required.

Worried about mouth breathing in your child?

My team and I have spent years assessing and resolving breathing disorders in children. It’s something I’ve been especially vigilant about with my own family – and it’d be my pleasure to extend that vigilance to your family, too.

Take it from me: a family without mouth breathing is a happier, healthier family.

Using myofunctional therapies like Myobrace and HealthyStart, we’ve helped countless children across Des Moines correct their breathing, swallowing, and tongue positioning for better breathing and – most importantly – healthier development.

If you’d like to find out more about myofunctional therapy and how it might be able to help your child sleep better, learn better and just feel better, visit our Myobrace page.

Entrust Your Oral Health To Dr. Jessica Lawson

Recognized across Des Moines for her compassionate, holistic approach and unwavering patient commitment, every treatment performed by Dr. Lawson is guided by over a decade of experience and specialized training.

The child breathes through his mouth - what to do

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Correction of bite Dentistry for teenagers

08/30/2021

Mouth breathing in children is not uncommon. This happens when there is not enough air coming through the nose.

There can be many reasons: a runny nose or inflamed adenoids, etc. The air passage is completely blocked or noticeably narrowed, and the body is forced to rebuild - for this, the mouth is involved. nine0004

Is it acceptable for children to breathe through their mouths? Yes. This breathing is not physiological - it is a "reserve airfield" for a cold. A week or two of such a regimen will not do harm. But if there is no runny nose, and the mouth is constantly open, this is already a cause for concern.

If a child breathes through his mouth all the time, a whole cascade of changes takes place.

Firstly, the width of the airways is still not enough for a normal supply of oxygen, hypoxia develops, which affects the general condition of the child: he becomes irritable and capricious, gets sick and tired more often, there is no success in sports, academic performance decreases. nine0004

Secondly, there are noticeable metamorphoses at the physiological level: the lower jaw goes down and goes back, followed by the tongue.

Even posture suffers: the head is pulled forward, the person unconsciously begins to stoop. So the body tries to cope with the lack of oxygen. And it is completely useless to say "straighten up!". Correction must begin with a visit to the ENT doctor.

What happens to the bite when a child breathes frequently through an open mouth?

When breathing through the nose, the tip and front third of the tongue are in the correct position in the mouth. So the upper jaw receives the necessary stimulus for development. nine0004

But if the baby breathes deeply through the mouth, the tongue falls down along with the lower jaw, and the upper jaw does not receive enough pressure, does not develop and remains narrow. In this case, the lower part of the chin moves even more back. This is how the distal bite is formed.

In turn, the lips do not close and do not exert the necessary pressure on the dentition. As a result, the front teeth deviate forward. It looks ugly and increases the risk of injury.

All these changes are reflected in the appearance: the face is stretched, the chin is shifted back, a “second chin” appears, not associated with excess weight. nine0004

If the child began to constantly breathe through the mouth, dry mouth makes itself felt, and saliva ceases to protect the teeth. Therefore, in children with such a problem, caries spreads instantly.

How to wean a child to breathe through his mouth?

To solve this problem, it is important to work in a team with several doctors. The ENT corrects the patency of the nasopharynx, the osteopath corrects the posture, the dentist eliminates the foci of infection, the orthodontist expands the upper jaw and sets the lower jaw to a standard position. The speech therapist retrains the tongue to lie back where it is supposed to - at the top, restores the weakened tone of the lips and shows exercises for differentiating nasal and oral breathing. nine0004

Only an integrated approach will enable a child to grow harmoniously, be energetic and healthy.

If you notice that your son or daughter has begun to breathe through his mouth for no apparent reason, be sure to contact a specialist in time.

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Memo to Parents - about croup syndrome in children

03/25/2019

Memo to Parents - about croup syndrome in children
(developed by specialists of the Federal State Autonomous Institution "National Medical
Research Center for Children's Health

In children of the first years of life, false croup occurs quite often, so parents need to be aware of this particular disease. Timely recognition of the symptoms of croup will help to cope with this condition faster.

What is false croup?

• Croup is difficulty in breathing due to constriction of the larynx. To feel where the larynx is, you can put your hand on the front of the neck and make any sound the larynx will vibrate under your hand. nine0003 • True croup is called inflammation of the larynx in diphtheria, when the lumen of the larynx is blocked by dense films. Fortunately, thanks to mass vaccinations around the world, this formidable severe disease is extremely rare these days.
• False croup - a condition in which it becomes difficult for a child to breathe due to swelling and narrowing of the airways. The reason is a viral infection, which leads to swelling of the mucous membrane not only in the nasopharynx, but also in the larynx and trachea. The most common cause of croup is the parainfluenza virus. The mucous membrane becomes inflamed under the action of the virus, swells, and although films do not form, as in diphtheria, the result is the same - it is difficult for the child to breathe. nine0003 • Part of the airway in the larynx is quite narrow, and if the mucous membrane swells, it can completely block the lumen of the larynx, and air will not enter the lungs. In children under 5-6 years of age, the airways are narrower than in adults, therefore, croup against the background of a viral infection usually develops in the first years of life, not occurring in older children and adults.
If a baby with a cold has a cough that becomes “barking”, and the voice is hoarse, breathing becomes noisy and difficult, it can be assumed that he is developing croup syndrome. nine0004

Can false croup be prevented?

• Not all children get croup. But one or two false croups at a younger age is a common situation that does not cause concern about the future.
• What predisposes to the development of croup? Obviously, there are children with peculiarities of the anatomy of the larynx, respiratory tract, who are more prone to this disease. Often, one of the parents of such babies also had croup in childhood. On the other hand, there are viruses that cause croup more often than others. Therefore, meeting with these pathogens increases the likelihood of developing a false croup. nine0003 • In most cases, false croup develops no more than once or twice in a lifetime. But there are children in whom almost every respiratory disease is complicated by croup.
• With age, the likelihood of developing croup decreases, and after 6-7 years this condition usually occurs only in special cases; in children with malformations of the larynx and trachea or in children with allergic reactions (swelling of the larynx is associated not with a viral infection, but with an allergy).

How does it all begin? nine0003 Usually, the usual symptoms of an acute respiratory infection appear first, that is, a runny nose, cough, and a fever is possible. The first signs of the proximity of a false croup arise or intensify in the evening and early morning: this is an increasing dry “barking” cough and a hoarse voice. Then the breath becomes "noisy" - at first only during crying or anxiety, that is, when the baby breathes deeper and faster. After a while, if left untreated, these symptoms persist even in a calm state. nine0003 With croup, it is difficult for a baby to inhale, that is, the inhalation turns out to be noisy, with effort, and the exhalation remains normal. During inhalation, you can notice how the jugular fossa (depression in the lower part of the neck between the collarbones) is drawn inward. This symptom appears only with severe swelling of the airways and is a reason for immediate help to the child.

What to do with false croup?

• So, the main three signs of the development of false croup in a child are hoarseness, a rough "barking" cough (you can't confuse it with anything!) and noisy breathing. In a child with a viral infection (with a runny nose), these symptoms usually appear suddenly at night or in the early morning. nine0003 • If this happened to your child, first of all, you need to calm yourself and the child, because with excitement, crying, the muscles of the larynx are compressed, and it becomes even harder to breathe.
• Call an ambulance!
• To alleviate the condition, you can apply cold to the front of the neck. You can open a window. Steam inhalation may help somewhat.
• However, these remedies do not work for everyone and besides, the procedure can waste precious time!
• If you have experienced this condition before, you most likely have a nebulizer at home, inhaled budesonide, and clear instructions from your pediatrician about the sequence of your actions. nine0003 • If this is not the case, and the situation is new to you, call an ambulance, do not waste time watching the child.
• Usually, with croup, the doctor prescribes special inhalations with a hormonal drug. Do not be afraid of the word "hormonal", because this drug acts only locally - in the respiratory tract, eliminating inflammation, and no other medicine for false croup will not be so effective.
• In severe cases, the doctor will give the child a hormonal drug (prednisolone or dexamethasone) intramuscularly. Don't worry about side effects because short courses of hormonal treatments are safe and life-saving in these situations! nine0003 • If you are offered to hospitalize your child, do not refuse, because after a temporary relief of breathing problems may recur!

What if not cereal?

Even if you are an experienced parent who knows how to deal with false croup in your children, you need to remember that there are conditions that can be confused with false croup. These include, for example, inflammation of the epiglottis (cartilage that closes the larynx when swallowing). This disease is called epiglottitis: the child's temperature usually rises above 39‘C, sore throat worries, mouth opens with difficulty, salivation appears (problems with swallowing). In this case, hormonal drugs will not help. The child needs to be urgently hospitalized, and it is necessary to transport him in the presence of medical personnel, in a sitting position, without causing any discomfort, in order to reduce his excitement.