Was thinking of bringing my son who is turning seven soon into an orthodontist for an initial consultation to see if everything's all right.. That led me to this forum and mewing (which I did read a lot about before but didn't do because I couldn't get my tongue right... but have since figured out).
Anyway, my son breast fed for a fairly long time, as well as intermittently well into 4/5. So he should naturally have good tongue position correct?
How do I tell? I made him do a upward tongue rest and he's capable of doing it and he showed me with his mouth open but what if that is bad advice and he already has a naturally good resting tongue position? How do you know if he's already doing something correctly and doesn't need any intervention? I don't want to get him to consciously do something that he's already naturally doing himself.
Besides that I think I will encourage and make sure he was good posture too.
Do you mean untill 4/5 years old??
Well that's a lot, I've been breast fed for only two months like my siblings. And my mother wondered why we all used to sleep with the mouth open, envying mothers whose children sleep breathing through the nose.
As long as your son sleeps with his mouth shut ( how he probably does) I think you shouldn't worry too much
"I don't want to get him to consciously do something that he's already naturally doing himself."
That's very smart of you
I think you ABSOLUTELY should not insist on It, but instead turn It into something fun, making weird sounds with the tongue snapping and popping It on the palate for example.
Teach him to chew a lot before swallowing, too
I think a good test would be to see if he can do a cheesy smile swallow. Have him smile, and swallow while holding the smile. If he can do that fairly easily, than he has a good swallow structure in place. Also if he has good tongue posture, there shouldn't be any crowding with his teeth and when he does a normal swallow you should not see his facial muscles engaging too much. Example... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG8Gg4fZHPc
The tongue pop is a good exercise to do with kids... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2nRYF8S7Zo
Here is the cheesy swallow exercises. I assume that it is safe to do this with kids, but I've always wondered at what age Dr. Mew thinks kids should start doing this exercise. If other members here have any idea, please share.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcI8CvoFxfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKaW3zNIuWY
thanks for the advice
@kyte yes... he ate normal food starting around 1/1.5 but he wouldn't stop going after breast milk especially at night. by 3 and a half it was "intermittent" - basically whenever he could work his way to it. myself, i was also breast fed for 2 weeks or something only because my mom had to work but i didn't suffer from any mouth breathing problems but i think i do have a weak jaw and i do snore. my dad has apnea that he's diagnosed for too.
@shakti_om will try the tongue ones for sure... his mom knows a click language like zulu. can use that to make it a bit more fun
- this was last year at age 5
think i'll probably take him into an orthodontist eventually too since i read they should go "as early as age 7" but i wouldn't do anything more invasive than a palate expander.
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