Does your child constantly breathe through the mouth? Why the problem may begin inside the nose, not with the mouth
Because of the obstruction, surgery may be discussed, if the child is struggling to breathe or sleep. Parents often notice it first at night. The mouth falls open during sleep, there is a little snoring, the child wakes up with a dry mouth, or seems to breathe noisily. Some children also spend much of the day with their lips apart. It is easy to dismiss this as a habit. But children generally do not choose to breathe through their mouths when the nose is working comfortably. More often, mouth breathing is the body’s way of finding an easier route for air when nasal breathing has become difficult. A child who sleeps with the mouth open, snores regularly, tosses and turns, sleeps with the neck stretched back or seems to work harder to breathe deserves a closer look. Some children may also have pauses in breathing, gasping or frequent awakenings. These can be features of sleep-disordered breathing and should not simply be put down to being a restless sleeper. Not every child who snores has sleep apnoea, but habitual snoring and persistent mouth breathing are worth discussing with an ENT specialist. A child may wake up tired despite spending enough hours in bed, complain of a dry mouth or morning headache, or seem unusually irritable and inattentive. In some children, disrupted sleep may show up as changes in behaviour or concentration rather than obvious sleepiness. Finding enlarged adenoids or tonsils does not, by itself, mean that a child needs surgery. Some children have enlarged adenoids and breathe perfectly well, while others struggle with nasal blockage, snoring or disturbed sleep. The treatment really depends on what is happening with that particular child. Sometimes the nasal blockage settles with treatment for allergies or inflammation. If mouth breathing has become a daily pattern, particularly when accompanied by persistent nasal blockage, snoring, restless sleep, recurrent ear problems or noisy breathing, it is worth finding out what is making nasal breathing difficult.