25/01/2025
It’s time to speak up- again!!
🚨 Parents, Beware of Mouth Taping for Kids 🚨
Mouth taping is being promoted online as a way to improve sleep or stop mouth breathing, but it can be dangerous—especially for children.
Here’s what you need to know:
❌ Breathing Obstruction: If your child has nasal congestion or sleep apnea, taping their mouth could block their airway.
❌ Choking Hazard: Mouth taping can prevent proper response to vomiting or difficulty breathing.
❌ Underlying Issues: Mouth breathing often signals problems like enlarged tonsils, allergies, or nasal blockages that need medical attention.
❌ No Evidence for Kids: There’s little scientific support for mouth taping, and the risks far outweigh any potential benefits.
💡 Instead of risky trends, focus on safe, proven alternatives:
✔️ Treat allergies and nasal congestion.
✔️ Encourage proper nasal hygiene.
✔️ Seek professional advice for mouth breathing concerns.
👩⚕️ If your child breathes through their mouth at night, consult a healthcare professional, such as an ENT specialist or pediatric dentist, to address the root cause.
To highlight the concerns I have, let me share my experiences When I come across people advocating for this, and ask them how they assess for underlying heart disease (which is not uncommon in children that are mouth breathing) and point out how taping the mouth can lead to that heart disease being worsened, they have no idea what I am talking about. They are totally oblivious. This goes to the heart of the matter (pun intended) as to the difference between a trained professional and a well meaning health advocate. The heart condition is called pulmonary hypertension and taping the mouth, you can achieve nasal breathing, but if there is obstruction (which there often is) the nasal breathing is being done against resistance. This is then overcome by increased respiratory effort. This effort also leads to more blood rushing to the heart. If that heart was struggling to start with, then things just got made a whole lot worse.
