Two year old mouth open retrognathic mandible

Q: I came into virtual contact with a two-year-old patient not too long ago. Some questions arose due to his breathing. This patient has no tongue tie or lip tie. He uses a sippy cup to drink. His mouth remains open for extended periods of time when relaxed. The mother had some concerns regarding starting therapy with him. She is very eager to get started, but in order to give him the best treatment available, I would like to address some concerns I have.

The patient is two years of age and has a retrognathic mandible. We are unsure whether to start treatment due to his young age and are also unsure how to go through with the treatment. I am asking for your advice regarding whether the treatment should start and if you could give us any manual or visual therapy exercises to help with the patient and get him to start breathing through the nose.

A: As noted in class, even four years of age is young and children require a modified program of therapy at that age. Myo is not for 0 – 3 year olds. Certain speech pathologists deal with some specific problems, but not the ones you noted. It sounds like other avenues should be considered such as medical clearance for any causes for the mouth breathing.

I suggest going to Myo Masters, our Facebook Group and asking them as well since we might have someone among our grads who can answer this question although it does not involve orofacial myology treatment at this time. They might have some other ideas that will help guide the direction you can take with this child. Please keep me posted as I hope you can do something to help him.