05/12/2023
A recently published including 10,000 children followed from birth found a connection between early ear and upper respiratory problems with the development of autistic traits.
The findings are not enough to prove causation, but this link does not completely surprise me.
I think we need to pay more attention to mouth breathing and oral rest posture, early on in life.
The mouth has a very high concentration of sensory receptors, and sensory input and processing will be altered when the mouth rests open, and the tongue sits low. It is my observation that these children are most prone to mouthing fingers, chewing shirt collars, and other objects.
Open mouth breathing will also be accompanied by altered swallowing – and this can contribute to symptoms like sucking and swallowing of air and reflux like symptoms, excessive drooling, difficulties swallowing solids, and poor eustachian function, glue ear, and conductive hearing loss.
This 2-year-old had all the above, and a history of two separate surgeries for grommet insertion, and removal of adenoids. There is ongoing speech delay, disturbed sleep, and symptoms of ASD and ADHD.
I don't really have all the answers to this problem, and not every mouth breather will tick every single symptom.
Regardless, I do think that healthcare needs to look at oral dysfunction as being a root cause of many common symptoms in children, and there is value in greater attention and an integrative team approach to address this early to minimize the compounding of problems.
I look forward to more new research exploring these links to help find more answers for families.
Here is the link to the new study:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/news/2023/ent-research.html
