Open mouth and weak muscle tone in a five-year-old

Our son Theo (5 years old) has had problems with his oral muscles since birth. As a baby this showed in the fact that he had to make a great effort when drinking and mostly kept his mouth open. Even today his mouth is still open very often and his tongue sticks out a little. However, the open mouth and protruding tongue are not due to mouth breathing, but are caused solely by the weak muscle tone throughout the whole mouth area. I then ordered the FaceFormer for my son on the advice of our osteopath.

Theo has already been receiving occupational therapy for about a year. Alongside this, I also consulted an osteopath to find out whether there were any blockages etc. in the mouth or head area. Fortunately everything is fine, and Theo’s task now is to train his oral muscles. This is also relatively easy to fit into everyday life, for example by drinking through a straw or chewing gum. However, as soon as he is not paying attention or is daydreaming, his mouth hangs open and the tip of his tongue pokes out.

Theo has been using the FaceFormer almost every day for around two weeks – it is meant to strengthen and train his oral muscles. I also hope that it will give Theo a different awareness of his mouth area. He often does not even notice himself that he does many activities with his mouth open.

Since Theo has been using the FaceFormer, he can distinguish more clearly between an open and a closed mouth. It is already clearly noticeable that the tongue position he practises with the FaceFormer is becoming automatic and often already stays behind the incisors. I think and hope that this will also carry over to the mouth area!

So we are sticking with the FaceFormer exercises and hope that the targeted, focused training will soon pay off.