Episode 309: 5 Airway Health Tips for Children with Hallie Bulkin, MA CCC-SLP, CMT®, CPFT™

Hello friends. Hallie Balkan here and welcome to episode 309 of the Untethered Podcast. I wanted to dive into a topic today that I think is super important. I know we've talked about this topic in the past, you know, on the podcast, but because we have new people joining us all the time and I know you guys are not going to go digging through things or go like way back when to listen to certain episodes. I wanted to dive into like the top five Airway Health Tips Tips for children. Why? Because whether you are a provider listening to this, somebody who works in the Pediatric Feeding MYO airway taught space, or you're a parent, maybe you're an educator in another space, this is information that is helpful for all of us. We can also apply to ourselves, you know, as adults. This really, truly is appropriate for all of us. But I'm going to really hone in on pediatrics and early intervention in a a couple of our points today, so let's dive in. Quick Disclaimer all information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Holly Vulcan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all of getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional Therapy, airway, tethered Oral tissue and Pediatric Feeding Therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide. If you've been around since June 2019, thanks for being a loyal listener as we jump into today's episode. Remember to listen with correct oral rest posture, tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart, breathe through your nose. Let's get started. Foreign. Are you an slp, an ot, a pt, a dental hygienist, or a dentist looking to elevate your practice? Imagine confidently assessing orofacial myofunctional disorders, setting realistic goals and expanding your client base all from the comfort of your own home. Introducing the MYO Membership Maybe you've heard about it, maybe you haven't. But doors open soon, so listen up. This is a monthly virtual CEU event and study club designed for both aspiring and practicing orofacial myofunctional therapists and each month you're going to gain access to 3 and a half hours of new content equivalent to 0.35 Asha CEUs if that's important to you. And they'll be focused on MYO airway and tethered oral tissues, especially across all age groups, but mostly for those myo ages, right for four plus. So you're also going to have access to past CEUs, ensuring that you never miss out on valuable learning opportunities. This is led by a group of certified myofunctional therapists. But I'm Hallie Balkan. I am a certified myofunctional therapist and founder of the MYO membership. And I want to tell you this community one of our favorite things about it, and this is what all of our members say. The community offers a supportive space to enhance your skills, build a referral network, and stay updated with the latest research. So whether you're exploring mayo, you're currently treating patients, you're seeking to sharpen your expertise, the MILE membership is tailored to meet your needs. Don't let uncertainty hold you back. Next week we're going to open doors to the MYO membership from March 10th through March 14th. So get on the waitlist now at the myomembership.com so you can join over 400 professionals who have transformed their practice within the MYO membership. Again, go to the myomembership dot com to join the waitlist today so you can get ready to take the next step in elevating your MYO game. Okay, so our top five airway health tips. I'm going to tell you all five right now, like, very quickly, and then I want to kind of dive into each one a little bit. So number one, encourage nasal breathing. That is always number one. Number two, promote proper tongue posture. Number three, watch for sleep and breathing issues. Number four, encourage healthy chewing and oral development. And number five, get early airway and orthodontic evaluations. All right, let's dive into this a bit further. So number one, I mentioned encourage nasal breathing. This is going to be challenging if there was an actual, like, physical obstruction and nasal breathing cannot be achieved. But sometimes a child who may be used in nasal breathe but no longer does, maybe they had a cold and their habit just shifted. And maybe they don't have enlarged tissues or, you know, structures that are blocking their nasal breathing. So it's worth trying. If a child seems to struggle with this, that's when we pump the brakes and we go, okay, something greater is going on. We can encourage it, but we can't really, you know, you can't force it, especially if it's not physically possible, or it's really challenging. A lot of times what's going to happen is path of least resistance. Our body is going to figure out what's easy, it's going to compensate. And so, you know, encourage nasal breathing. But that's why I say encourage. Right. You can't force it. So you want to try to encourage your child to breathe through their nose, not their mouth. Okay. And when I say your child, this could be a child you're working with. Maybe it's not your actual own biological child or your. Your familial child, but it's a child you're working with. Or maybe if you're a caregiver, this is your child. Just wanted to say that because oftentimes I say you are. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, I think it's important to understand why we even want to do this. Right. Mouth breathing can lead to improper facial development, poor sleep. That wreaks a whole havoc of other issues. You know, wreaks havoc on our body, our brain, our behavior, all kinds of things. Right. And then ultimately it just. Mouth breathing leaves. Leads to other health issues, even in children. So if the child is struggling with this, then my recommendations are to check on allergies, maybe see if they're congested and. Or see if they have enlarged tonsils and. Or adenoids. Right. That's. That's kind of going to be your next step there. Okay. But that's number one, nasal breathing. If we can accomplish it. Amazing. Now, in doing so, this kind of goes hand in hand with number two. Where should our tongue be? Well, we want to promote proper tongue posture. Our tongue should be resting on the roof of our mouth. Okay. Not on the floor of our mouth. We want it on the roof. This is going to help support proper jaw growth. It's going to prevent crowding of teeth. It's going to help keep our airway open and make it easier to nasal breathe. And so if a child is struggling with this, if their jaw is not growing the way that we desire, if there is teeth crowding, right. Their tongue is laying on the floor of their mouth, any or all of the above, that's where we want to look at the child's age and kind of figure out what's the next best step. If they're at least four years of age or older, cognitively, okay. Not just chronologically, not just four years old, celebrated their fourth birthday, but cognitively, like the way that they think, then myofunctional therapy might be an Appropriate evaluation and therapeutic intervention as well. Okay. Um, if they're younger than that, you're going to want to find a, like, speech pathologist or occupational therapist who is trained in pediatric feeding, but who also has training in myo, teal tissues, airway. Right. And so this is, this is what I teach in my programs because this is extremely important, the way that we approach it in these different ages, same similar goals, different approaches, similar outcomes, but it's a very different way of treating it. Okay. It really falls under pediatric feeding therapy when we're talking about the littlest ones. And then over age four, cognitively, that's when we go into, like, the myo side of things. Okay. Because our goal is ultimately to strengthen tongue and facial muscles. But there could be other things going on too, and you need the proper licensure to address these things. Okay. Number three, watch for sleep and breathing issues. So if the child has frequent snoring or any snoring, restless sleep. And let me go back, I said frequent snoring or any snoring, they have audible breathing. That is something to note that we don't want to hear a child breathing. They should be so silent when sleeping that you're like, are they, are they breathing? Like, I can't hear them? If they're restless sleepers, if they have night sweats, if they are bedwetting. This. These things can all indicate airway problems. Okay. So signs like an open mouth posture during the day or difficulty falling asleep or even staying asleep, those are some of those, like, red flags that we want to pay attention to. And in this case, we may want to, you know. Yes, maybe an evaluation like we've talked about is necessary, but maybe we also want a pediatric airway specialist, like maybe an ent, or maybe there is a orthodontist or dentist who's in the early expansion space. Maybe they can help identify these concerns. Because there's different types of scans that, that can be done, which we'll talk to, we'll talk about in a moment. So hold your thought there. So that's number three, watching for sleep and breathing issues. Number four, we want to encourage healthy chewing and oral development. Okay, so best tip here. Give children firm, textured foods like raw vegetables, meats, nuts, things like that to help strengthen jaw muscles. Our jaw is super important, and so are the muscles that are connected to the upper and lower jaw. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about strengthening those jaw muscles. Um, we want to limit soft, processed foods that don't require a Lot of chewing. Because if we're not using those muscles, there is a use it or lose it kind of thing going on here. And so it may be fatiguing for someone who's lost those skills or who never had them. And we have to habilitate them like from the get go. Right. So just something to keep in mind, it might be tricky, especially if a child has been on softer processed foods for an extended period of time. It's going to take work to get them to using more, you know, or not using, but chewing more firmer and textured foods. And in that case, you may be working with a pediatric feeding specialist who can help you introduce these new foods, but also make sure the child has the proper sensory, oral motor skills to accept these foods, to work on them, to add them into their diet more regularly. Okay, A little tip here too. With like healthy chewing and oral development, you want to avoid prolonged pacifier use, thumb sucking, you know, any of these oral habits, as we like to call them, because that can alter oral and airway development. Now, if your child sucks their thumb, if they're using a pacifier, you know, if they've been, you know, I recommend pacifier out by six months. But if they've been using it well past. This is not to shame you. This is just to tell you, hey, that might actually be interfering with healthy chewing and oral development. So it's just something that we want to be, you know, aware of so that we can help them. Your child may also, or the child. Right. May also be using a pacifier to advance their lower jaw and open their airway. They may be thumb sucking for the same reason. So sometimes I don't want to just cold turkey, take it away. They may need that. They may, that may be a, a compensatory strategy for them and it might be really, really helping them. So before we take it away, we need to figure out what's going on and what we can do to replace that so they no longer need it. Right. Children are smart, our brains are smart, our bodies are smart. They're using it for a reason. We have to figure out what that reason is and then replace it with something, maybe a healthier option or a healthier habit, if you want to call it that, that's going to support their overall health. Okay. So just wanted to put that one out there. Okay, Last but not least, number five. Right. So we've talked about encouraging nasal breathing, number one. Number two, promote proper tongue posture, number three, watch for those, the sleep and breathing issues, number four, encourage Healthy chewing and oral development. And number five, go for that early airway or orthodontic evaluation. Okay. Or that early airway focused orthodontic dental evaluation. There are a lot of air, airway friendly dentists, airway centric dentists and orthodontists, right. That can basically look at and assess jaw growth, breathing, sleep patterns. Some of them are doing this as young as age two when the two year molars are in. Others are maybe close age five, you know, but either way, if you can get in there earlier than your traditional ortho, which is like 7, 9 years of age and so on and so forth, that's going to be so helpful to the child's airway. Palatal expansion and myofunctional therapy can happen at earlier ages and can support better airway function. And that is super, super critical. So do not wait for all the adult teeth to come in. That's like old news because the earlier intervention that you do can prevent bigger issues later. And look, if you're past that point of early intervention, please still go for that, you know, assessment and have the airway dentist or ortho assess all the things and make a recommended treatment plan. You're not a lost cause as an adult. The child's not a lost cause if they didn't get early intervention. But when it's possible, let's start focusing on that early intervention piece. And if we're outside of that early intervention window, I still encourage you to do it because it's going to make such a difference, such a difference in airway health, in overall health, systemic health. Okay? So a little bonus tip, but if you can keep your child's nasal passages clear, whether that's with like saline rinses, maybe they have allergies and you're doing something to manage their allergies to help them breathe through their nose, then that would be really, really beneficial. My kids, you know, they don't do it every day, but they do most days, like a saline nose rinse and helps keep their nose open. It gets rid of the junk that might be hanging in there. You know, when they're sick, we might do it twice a day, morning and night because it helps open up the airway. They can nasal breathe better instead of mouth breathe. And that's helpful in trying to overcome a virus or, you know, illness. So anywho, keep those kiddos nasal passages open to the best of your ability and definitely seek help. As we've discussed, you know, in reviewing these, these five tips, you know, to airway health for our littlest kiddos. And really, like I said, it supplies across the board. So use these tips for yourself. Use these tips for the kids that you work with or your own child. I hope this is helpful. As always. You can always reach out to me on Instagram at Hallie Balkan and tell me what topics you want me to talk more about. Somebody had recently asked me like, what are some of your top tips for like airway health? Like, I hear that airway health is important, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. So so that's what prompted this episode. I love recording episodes and answering your all's questions, so please reach out to me. You can always email us@supporteedthepedes.com if you're someone who wants to be featured on the podcast and you are in the, you know, myo Airway Tots Pediatric Feeding space. We welcome guests on the podcast as well. Hope this is helpful and I will talk to y' all next week. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more of these Myotots, Airweight and feeding related episodes, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode on your social media platforms. You can access free resources and all I offer@halibalkin.com or pop over to Hollybulcan on Instagram to get all the latest updates.