Question for Speech Therapists and OTs

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Forum -> Children's Health

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amother

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 11:40 am

My 20 month old DD has been heavily drooling throughout the day since she's about 4 months old. The pediatrician said it should stop by the time she turns two and I shouldn't worry about it. He is kind of laid back about therapy in general. She has most of her teeth already and it doesn't only happen occasionally so that I could blame it on teething. She says a lot of words and just started putting two words together.
Would this be a speech issue or muscle tone issue?

Dimpled

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 1:52 pm

speech therapists treat muscle tone. My MIL is a speech therapist and specializes in feeding.
Although OT's strengthen muscle tone, they do not work on the mouth.
Definitely a ST.

amother

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 2:13 pm

Speech Therapist here - the question definitely lies in our domain. Like dimpled said muscle tone is also a speech related issue. See if you can talk to a local speech therapist - meanwhile easy things to do at home that sometimes help improve muscle tone are things like drinking thick liquids (yogurt, etc) through a straw.
Good luck!

MamaBear

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 3:58 pm

My oldest was like that til age 3, which is really late. It was a way above average amt of drool, too, but it went away on its own. He had no speech delay or any issues whatsoever. My other kids stopped drooling by 18-24 months.

amother

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 8:53 pm

Op here. Thanks so much for your replies!

Amother who is a speech therapist, Ill definitely give her yogurt and the like to drink with a straw. I heard somewhere that it's counterproductive for the child to use bottles and pacifiers. Is that true or is it just not helping the issue?

Mamabear, will it just stop one day or slowly stop?

MamaBear

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 10:10 pm

Maybe it took a month or so to slow down but really one day I just noticed his tshirts weren't wet from his neck til his belly. He wasn't a thumbsucker or anything, everything was normal. He was just a massive drooler. I really wouldn't worry at this point unless you had some other oral concern, like a lax mouth/tongue, or speech issue.

sped

Thu, Nov 17 2011, 11:21 pm

How are her eating skills? Is her speech clear, relative to her age? Those are also signs of muscle tone issues.

amother

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 1:37 am

thanks mamabear.

Her eating habbits are ok. shes not such a big eater in general but I attribute that to Dh side of the family who are also small eaters. what do u mean by her speech being clear? She doesn't really have the "r" so more sounds like mo. other than that most people can understand what she is saying even if it's not the correct word. botty is otty, but abba is abba. Don't know if this matters but instead of the "f" sound she says the "sh" sound. Like phone is shone.

Dunno what is normal or not.....

Thanks for your help!!

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