A sleeping baby is one of the quietest sites for new parents. If your little one is at rest, you can examine these little fingers and toes. You can enjoy their sleeping eyes and a twisted nose. You love all these little grunts, snoring and their cute open mouth.
But wait – maybe you want to concentrate more on this last function. Oral breathing during sleep can be a sign of certain higher breathing problems and can cause health complications if it is not treated.
Here is more why your baby can sleep with your mouth, what you can do to help and when you have to visit your pediatrician.
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What it may mean if your baby’s sleeping with their mouth open
The newborns breathe almost exclusively in their nose, unless their nose passage is in one way or another. Young babies – up to about 3 to 4 months – have not yet developed the reflex to breathe in the mouth. (In other words, unless they cry.)
Source of researchers explained that oral breathing during sleep can develop in response to a certain type of blockade in the upper respiratory tract, such as nose or throat. It can be in itself from something very innocades, such as a blocked nose with a cold or allergies. Or this can come from other more complex circumstances.
Over time, breathing through the mouth can become a habit that is difficult to break.
The fact is that oral breathing is not as effective as the breathing of the nose – especially with regard to the absorption of oxygen in the lungs. And breathing through the nose also helps to filter bacteria and irritating substances from entry into the body.
The potential causes of oral breathing include the following elements:
Mucus
Oral breathing is also a sign of sleep apnea, which essentially means that the upper airways of your baby is somehow impeded. With babies and children this is generally due to enlarged almonds or adenoids.
Other symptoms are things such as snoring, restlessness during sleep, breaks in breathing and coughing or suffocation.
Read Also: Milk comes out baby’s nose, When to call a Doctor
Deviated septum
Sometimes oral breathing can be caused by an anomaly in cartilage and bones that separate your baby’s nostrils. This may have difficulty breathing through the nose and can be common in people who also have a narrow superior jaw (also associated with oral breathing).
Habit
And some babies can just make the habit of breathing through their nose after the disease or for another reason.
Treatments for your baby sleeping with their mouth open
If your baby seems to have problems or has other symptoms with oral breathing, don’t forget to make an appointment with your pediatrician. Your child’s doctor can help exclude disorders that can block the airways, prescribe medicines for each infection or order additional tests.
Otherwise you could try the following things at home to eliminate congestion:
• humidifier. Adding moisture to the air can help the blocked nose. A fresh fog loft is most suitable for babies and young children to prevent the risk of burns. If you don’t have a humidifier, you can consider sitting in the bathroom with your baby while running a hot shower to make steam.
• lamp sprayer. Even a small amount of mucus in your baby’s nose can make it difficult to breathe. You can suck it with a basic sprayer of the lamp or one of this fantasy, such as the Nosefrida. Be soft to not hurt your little one. And clean your syringe with each use to prevent the formation of harmful bacteria.
• Wash Salin. Some sprays of a saline solution (salt water) can help slim and loosen the mucus before they suck it. As your baby becomes a bit, you can even try a Neti pot or a salt flush. Make sure you cook tap water and cool or use distilled water for safety.
• Stay hydrated. Make sure your baby drinks a lot of breast milk or formula to prevent dehydration and allowing the mucus to flow.
When to see a doctor
Baby is no longer suffocated? If you always notice the breathing of the mouth during sleep, bring it to your pediatrician. Amygdals and enlarged adenoids hinder the upper respiratory tract and will not respond to home treatment. In some cases they can be infected. In others they can be bigger because of genetics.
Anyway, your doctor can advise you on each test (such as a night’s rest study) or the next steps you need to take.
Medicines, such as Flonase or Rhinocort, can help with the implementation of allergies or in softer cases of sleep apnea. In other cases, your doctor may recommend an operation to eliminate almonds and / or adenoids or to correct other problems, such as a different septum, that cause breathing problems.
Treatment options for sleep apnea include things such as the pressure therapy of the positive airways with CPAP and BPAP machines. These devices work slowly by blowing a mask that your child is wearing asleep. The air helps to maintain the airways of your toddler.
As your child gets older, there are also some knots and other oral devices that may or may not help. Rest assured that the need for this type of intervention for children is rare.
Possible complications if your baby continues to sleep with their mouth open
You may not think that breathing from the mouth would have major consequences during sleep. But dentists and doctors say that there are a certain number of potential discomfort and other problems that can develop if it continues in the long term.
Side effects include:
• Swollen Agadelles
• dry cough
• Flamed tongue
• Tooth problems, such as cavities
• Foreign breathing
• Gingivitis
There are also potential complications, including a long face syndrome. This means that the lower facial lines of your child can extend disproportionately. The functions that you can notice are things like:
• Kin larger
• Gingival Smile “Gummeux”
• Open bite
• Global narrow face
These characteristics can be corrected surgically.
Oral breathing can also lower the oxygen concentration in the blood. Over time, this can lead to everything, from heart problems to high blood pressure.
And then there is sleep. Babies and children who breathe in their mouths during sleep often do not sleep as deeply as those who breathe in the nose.
There is actually a source of connection between mouth breathing and symptoms that are generally associated with attention deficit disorders (ADHD).
In fact, some children with the ADHD diagnosis can rather deal with the problems of lack of sleep due to – the true – mouth. The signs of the two disorders are similar.
So if you can determine that your child has a lack of sleep due to oral breathing, you can better tackle the underlying problem.
Related: 14 Signs of hyperactivity disorder with attention deficit
The takeaway
Cute, sure. But your baby’s mouth that breathes during sleep can also be an essential index of their health.
There are many things you can do to help your baby breathing more easily if they are just congestions. If the problem continues, it is worth bringing it back to your pediatrician or a health care dentist.
Once you have treated obstacles or other disorders, you can both sleep a lot deeper at night.