My son turned 2 at the end of September and about a month ago or a little longer he has been drooling a lot. I am not sure if this is normal or not, but by the end of the day the collar around his shirt is soaked and if he doesn't have a shirt on he will grab his blanket and wipe off his tummy. From what I have noticed is that it seems to get worse throughout the day... my husband and I think he may have poor muscle tone in his mouth but I wanted to ask all the other moms what they think... should I go ahead and have him checked out just in case or would you say this is normal? (by the way he is not teething). Thank you!
Thank you everyone for responding. Before I posted this question we had already made a doctor's appointment to check on this, well actually we called the doctor to see what he thought and he wanted to go ahead and see him. So after our visit yesterday afternoon, we do infact have to take our son to a Speech Pathologist for an assesment, the doctor noticed that what may be causing this is that first his bottom jaw is smaller than his upper jaw so this may cause the drooling and then that he is not using his mouth muscles much when he talks, so he is trying to overcompensate when he talks by the way he moves his lower jaw, so he thinks the Speech Pathologist can help him learn to basically use what he has. After he pointed this out it dawned on me that my husband told me when he was a child his mouth was so small that they had to pull several teeth because they would not all fit, I mentioned this to the doctor and he said we may have to deal with this when our son is older too. So we will see what happens, thank you again and hope you all have a wonderful holiday!!
He could be getting his two year molars. Our three year old has always been a drooler. He still does it but it is getting much better. When he was a little over two it got REALLY bad, soaking collars and such, like you said. It even gave him a rash on his chest. My brother in law, the dental student found the culprit...two year molars. Once they broke through his drooling was MUCH better.
You should google Oral Motor Disorder. This might point you in the right direction
My son is almost 2 and drools all day.
He has a pacifier so I chock it up to having that blasted thing in his mouth all day.
If he start kindergarten and is still drooling...I'll worry.
Other than that...I'll just keep extra shirts with me.
Smiles to you hun. Have a great day.
I'm sure it's just the 2 year molars like the others have said. Perfectly normal. you could have him wear terry cloth bibs that have a rubber backing on them. That way his shirts wont get soaked but you would have to diaper pin them on because they do try to get them off and most of them only have velcro to fasten them on any more rather than tie.
Lonie
my 4 yr old was a bad drooler and it got better in small incremints. there are still days that he can soak a collar. LOL but if it is a new development, i'd get it checked out to be on the safe side.
Just wanted to pass on some info to you from a friend who is going through this same drooling problem. I was a SLP major in college, so I remember studying these same things. It can be a sign of weak muscles in the face. Some things you can try at home are switching to sippy cups with straws. This will help build muscle tone and take away a paci if you can. Also, you can put thick liquids in the sippy cup to make the sucking a little harder. My friend went last week to a speech pathologist and they confirmed that the excessive drooling was due to weak muscle tone. They gave her some exercises to do at home and also recommended using a straw when possible. Hope this helps!
Ditto 2 year molars! I bet that's it?!? Even though you cant see them?? Maybe it is?
