Airway Health: Mouth Breathing and Nose Breathing are not the same.

Until our son, Finn, was 6 years old, he had not slept through the night… We thought we had tried everything, and we were tired. It never occurred to us to look at how he was breathing.​

Take a look… is your child breathing through their nose or mouth?

It turned out, Finn was a mouth breather. We had no idea his mouth breathing habit led to nasal congestion. We learned that an open mouth posture makes it harder to get restorative sleep. Sleep quantity is not necessarily restorative unless it is quality.

He was a restless sleeper. Tossing and turning, he would repeatedly call out through the night for help. His breathing was labored, he was sweating profusely during naps and at night. He suffered from nightmares and dark circles under his eyes. Despite waking up tired and yawning, he had an abundance of energy throughout the day. He developed eczema on his face and was congested to the point of trying to clear his nose and throat several times a minute. He was clearly in distress.

Was it Physiology? Allergies? Diet?

After years of doctor appointments and medications, we were still no closer to finding the root cause. Until a conversation with a dentist. The dentist explained how the nose filters, warms, purifies and humidifies the air coming into our body. Mouth breathing doesn’t do this but instead can lead to nasal congestion and enlargement of tonsils and adenoids. The first step to resolving his fragmented sleep and disordered breathing was to transform Finn’s breathing habit from mouth breathing to nose breathing.

This was the beginning of our journey to helping our son sleep and breathe better, but it was a very crucial first step. Our intent is to spread the word that how we breathe matters, and with a focused approach you and your little one can become super nose breathers.