Importance of the nasal breathing in children

Babies are nasal breathers and do not know how to breath through the mouth when they are born.
At birth, human babies are obligate nasal breathers.

Breathing through the nose enables adequate facial growth and proper positioning of the teeth. It also leads to calm and restoring sleep.

Noisy breathing or snoring is not normal in children. The commonest cause of nose block is allergic rhinitis. A child with blocked nose leads may have bad breath and suffer with sinusitis more frequently. Also these children are less interested in eating as they cannot smell food and hence enjoy it.
Another common cause of mouth breathing in children is Adenoid hypertrophy or Adenoid enlargement. These are lymphoid tissues like tonsils in the space at the back of the nose. The size of adenoids is usually confirmed with a nasoendoscopy.

Breathing through the mouth can cause the following

• Unexpressive face; 
• Changes in positioning of the teeth; 
• Dental caries; 
• Aesthetic facial alterations (elongated face, hypotonic lips);
• Gritting or grinding of teeth (bruxism); 
• Sleep disorders (superficial or restless sleep); 
• Attention deficit or learning disorder; 
• Mood swings.

Read more on allergies,sinusitis and adenoids in the following links:

http://sheelusrinivas-entpractice.blogspot.in/2013/01/allergen-avoidance-is-it-worthwhile.html

http://sheelusrinivas-entpractice.blogspot.in/2017/01/sinusitis-in-children.html

http://sheelusrinivas-entpractice.blogspot.in/2015/05/removal-of-adenoids-and-tonsilswhich.html