Child's Mouth Open All the Time

[spud912]

Sooo, random question. Have any of you had this problem with a dck: his or her mouth hangs open all the time? I have a 2 1/2 year old boy whose mouth is open, tongue hanging out and drool all over the place.....ALL.THE.TIME! I keep telling him to close his mouth, but not even 2 seconds later it's open again. He even sleeps with his mouth open. There is always a puddle of drool on his pillow after nap. I would expect this of a teething 8 month old, but this boy is 2 1/2 and has all of his teeth. I'm beginning to question if he has problems breathing out of his nose. There is always slobber all over the place because he doesn't keep his mouth closed. Plus, I worry that one of these days he is going to trip and bite off his tongue. Any suggestions??? Besides duct tape (JUST KIDDING OF COURSE !!).

[drseuss]

Does he have allergies that keep his sinuses blocked?

[KiddieCahoots]

Could even be food allergies. Had a child that did that the exact same thing. He supposedly had a slight allergy to wheat. The family was trying to give wheat to the child in small increments to boost his tolerance.
As soon as I cut out wheat, his drooling stopped, and he was able to shut his mouth.

[Play Care]

My almost 4 yo dcboy has low muscle tone in his lower lip/chin. In his case it was affecting his speech. He has to use a straw to drink because it works those muscles to make them stronger. He was diagnosed around 2 1/2, and it has improved a lot, though he is still "droolier" than the average child his age.

[Heidi]

Is his speech impaired or hard to understand?

My 21 yo did this, and although his vocabulary was advanced, he was almost unintelligible to most people. He could not say letter that required closed lips, such as "M" or "B". So Mama sounded like Nana, for example.

Many years of speech therapy followed. He also had hypotonic muscle tone; kind of "floppy", in general.

[sharlan]

I would say some type of sinus issue.

[KiddieCahoots]

I had a dcb2 that had this too, or something similar. Reversal tongue thrust. She couldn't pronounce "B" either. EI had her using straws too, and I had to repeatedly remind her to close her mouth in order to strengthen her jaw muscles, but she didn't have excessive drooling like the child with food allergies.

[NightOwl]

Once had a 7yr old boy at my center do this for months. Everyone started noticing a foul smell around him too. Turns out, he had stuffed some kind of foam up his nostrils and over the course of time, his skin was growing around it and becoming infected. This was so weird! So does mom take him to a Dr to have it removed? Nope. She goes up there herself with a pair of tweezers and yanks it out. Apparently, there was massive amounts of blood and an extremely sore nasal cavity after that. I don't know which route I would've taken if it was my child.

So long story short, is there a foreign body in his nose?

[Cradle2crayons]

My daughter did this before hey took her tonsils and adenoids out.

Opening her mouth was the only way she could breath.

I'd have mom ask her pedi for a referral to an ENT.

[TwinKristi]

I have a DCB who does this and he does have muscle tone issues, slow to talk and I suspect he has a gluten/wheat allergy as well.
I have large adenoids and tonsils and was scheduled to have them removed when I was a kid but my mom didn't want to put me through it... Now I have to live with it because I surely don't want another surgery!! But anyway, I don't walk around with my mouth hanging open and CAN breathe through my nose, but I do sleep with my mouth open.

[KiddieCahoots]

Once had a 7yr old boy at my center do this for months. Everyone started noticing a foul smell around him too. Turns out, he had stuffed some kind of foam up his nostrils and over the course of time, his skin was growing around it and becoming infected. This was so weird! So does mom take him to a Dr to have it removed? Nope. She goes up there herself with a pair of tweezers and yanks it out. Apparently, there was massive amounts of blood and an extremely sore nasal cavity after that. I don't know which route I would've taken if it was my child.

So long story short, is there a foreign body in his nose?

::::::...........kids can be so gross, ! My mom tells me, I put milk duds in my nose.

[SquirrellyMama]

::::::...........kids can be so gross, ! My mom tells me, I put milk duds in my nose.

I had friend in 2nd grade who put red hots up her nose I've told that story so many times through the years.



Kelly

[itlw8]

also common with children that have breathing problems such as enlarged adenoids or even tonsils.. even some asthma kids.

[SignMeUp]

I have a four-year-old dcb who has this issue. It's a combination of low muscle tone and allergies, for him. He is in speech therapy because of the effects of the low muscle tone.
It's like having a St. Bernard puppy :: But he is the sweetest kid

[Caring]

Mom

Please find another occupation. Telling a 2 1/2 year old to keep his mouth shut and then comparing him to an 8 month old suggests that you are not cut out to care for toddlers.