mouth breather?????
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| Tue, 05-31-2005 - 7:12pm |
I was wondering, and my dh said that I should post this question, since we don't really know alot of children on the spectrum. But anyway, remember the movie, "Miracle Run", one of the boys had an expression on his face that was similiar to a smile. He would smile with his mouth slightly open and just be sitting there. Nathan does this, all the time. It doesn't matter what he's doing, but he'll have this expression on his face. Then I was reading another board, and the term "mouth breather" was used, and it made me think about this again.
Do any of your kids do this too? I hope I'm explaining this right so that you all understand what I'm talking about! I don't believe he's aware that he does this. But he does seem to breathe from his mouth more than his nose. And this just made me wonder if this is a similiar trait among kids that are on the spectrum.
Michelle

Well, once one of out dentists pointed out that Cait was a mouth breather, and had me get her adnoids checked but it hasn't come up since. I think she probably is at least somewhat. I would have to really watch. Mike sometimes does this wierd breathing thing where he keeps his mouth open but I think it is a stim. K I am bad. I don't really notice these kinds of things so I will have to watch.
Do you think it may be allergies? or adnoids. Cait's were fine btw. I never thought of it as an AS thing (except for Mike's stim) but more a kid thing that some kids do.
Renee
Jesse does this too. On top of that, he makes terrible noises when he's eating because he is also breathing through his mouth at the same time. Now, I have to admit that my own sensory issues cause me to be unusually sensitive to these noises :-) but, I worry about his horrible eating and table manners. It's one of the real "give aways" that something is going on with him.
I think part of it is a kind of stimming. While breathing, he kind of likes to make noises. That's kind of hard to explain - it's kind of like the sound of deliberately pushing the air out while tightening your throat. DH does it too.....
Plus one more thing related to this - Jesse cannot blow his nose at all. Seems I have heard that lots of spectrum kids cannot. So, I wonder if this is somehow all related?
Jackie
Well, I think Nathan is doing it as part of his stimming also. But it's different than his normal stims, because they surface when he's anxious, excited, winding down, etc. But the "smiling" thing happens moreso. I wouldn't say that he is constantly doing this, but probably most of the time.
Nathan can't really blow his nose either. We're still having some problems with this one as well.
And Nathan has picked up this "breathing heavy" thing. He does it at school too. I have to remind him to breathe softly. It seems to be anxiety related. It usually means he is bothered by something when he's doing this.
Michelle
I think you might be able to describe the "breathing heavily" thing as the funny - extra strong pushing that DS and DH do when breathing - it happens lots during stress or when thinking deeply about something (which for an Aspie is lots of times).
So - some similarities here. How about holding breath for a bit and then kid of grunting while finally breathing? Older boy doesn't do this, but I see our youngest (not on spectrum but very sever SID) doing this. However - he is a great nose-blower.
Jackie
Jackie,
No, he doesn't do anything like holding his breath or grunting. But you are right about the deep breathing thing, Nathan also does this if he's thinking intensely about something. He sometimes doesn't even realize he's doing it, because he's so deep in thought!
Hhmmm....that is interesting. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. Making "noises" has always been part of Nathan's stims, as well. I guess this, like many other stims, is just different from person to person. I'm still not sure why he does the "smiling" thing though, probably just another stim or habit. But it did make me think when I was watching that movie, and noticed the one boy doing the same thing. It makes me wonder if there are some typical movements or visual traits that go along with autism. Like how they walk, sit, carry themselves. I have noticed differences in my boys. And definitely noticed similairities with this boy on the movie, as well as with a couple of boys I have recently met that are autistic.
Michelle