Pinch Your Kids' Mouth Shut to Help Them Breathe Better
In the 1830s, George Catlin, a Philadelphia Attorney, gave up his job to become a painter, then decided to travel west to be in nature and explore the American Indian.
Although his health was failing, Catlin yearned to be in nature and to capture real depictions of humanity. Catlin spent the next six years traveling the Great Plains, documenting the lives of 50 Native American tribes.
While the tribes varied region by region, with different customs, traditions, and diets. All 50 tribes shared the same superhuman physical characteristics. In some groups, such as the Crow and the Osage, Catlin wrote that there were few men, “at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet.” All seemed to share broad shoulders and barrel chests. The women were nearly as tall and just as striking. (The average American then was 5’8”)
😁Despite never seeing a dentist or doctor, the tribal people had teeth that were perfectly straight—“as regular as the keys of a piano,” Catlin noted. Nobody seemed to get sick, and deformities and other chronic health problems appeared rare or nonexistent. The tribes attributed their vigorous health to a medicine Catlin called the “great secret of life.”
The secret was breathing.
Breath inhaled through the mouth, Native Americans said, sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease.
Breathing in and out through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful, and prevented disease.
👶🏼Healthy nasal breathing started at birth. Mothers in all these tribes followed the same practices, carefully closing the baby’s lips with their fingers after each feeding. At night, they’d stand over sleeping infants and gently pinch mouths shut if they opened.
Through a variety of methods, children were trained to breathe through their noses, all day, every day. They would carry the habit with them the rest of their lives.
Catlin had suffered one respiratory problem after another as a boy. In his early 30s before he went West, these problems became so severe he’d sometimes spit up blood.
After his experience with the Native American tribes, Catlin forced his mouth closed while he slept, and always breathed through his nose during waking hours. Soon, there were no more aches, pains, or bleeding. By his mid-30s, Catlin reported feeling healthier and stronger than at any other time in his life. “I at length completely conquered an insidious enemy that was nightly attacking me in my helpless position, and evidently fast hurrying me to the grave,” he wrote.
George Catlin would live to be 76, about double the average life expectancy at the time. He credited his longevity to the “great secret of life”: to always breathe through the nose.
On the surface, this story sounds less like a guide to healthier living and more like Journey to the Center of the Earth. It smells a bit like a fairy tale.
Until you begin to look at the most recent research on the topic.
😮Did you know that research is demonstrating that the way your child breathes could be affecting their sleep, energy, and even how their face develops?
It’s true! If your child breathes through their mouth – whether it’s during playtime, at rest, or while they sleep – it’s critical to act now. Today, we’re going to talk about:
- why nasal breathing is so important,
- how mouth breathing can negatively impact your child’s health and growth,
- and some simple steps you can take to help them breathe better
Why Nasal Breathing is so Important
Let’s start with the basics. Breathing isn’t just about getting air in and out. It actually plays a huge role in your child’s development. Mouth breathing might seem harmless, but it can cause poor sleep, snoring, and even affect how their face and jaws develop.
When children breathe through their nose, something amazing happens. Their tongue naturally rests against the roof of their mouth, which helps guide proper jaw growth and supports healthy facial development. But when they breathe through their mouth, the tongue drops to the floor of the mouth. This can lead to a narrow, V-shaped jaw, crowded teeth, and even a longer face.
Unfortunately, doctors and dentists/orthodontists do NOT have a good standard of measurement for these things, so they often overlook or fail to address these areas of concern.
It's not the only one, but the most common factor influencing mouth breathing in children is enlarged adenoids and a congested nose. Those with enlarged adenoids may receive an adenoidectomy, but many still end up with continued challenges because they haven't corrected their breathing patterns. In other words, they are still breathing through the mouth, so they will suffer from a number of other life-long health issues.
However, you can go back to an interview I did with Dr. Felix Liao, who is leading the industry to make changes in this area. He is a holistic and airway-centered dentist who is teaching and training other dentists to build awareness and change the way they help their patients.
This continues to be an area of concern as many children are dealing with growing allergies and environmental toxins which affect breathing.
🤔 Also, another area of influence is the changing shape of our oral structures due to our ancestral eating habits (that's a topic for another day!). But if you want to dive into the connection, look at Pottenger's Cat study from the 1930s.
Dental Implications
Dry mouth
Chapped lips
Bad Breath
Abnormal Swallowing Patterns
Misaligned Bite
These can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as allergies, nasal polyps, thumb sucking, excessive pacifier use, insufficient suckling as an infant, and lack of chewing to develop facial muscles. The ancestral eating habits mentioned above also play a role.
Did you know? Dental health is influenced more by whether you breathe through your mouth or nose than by whether or not you are brushing.
As dentist Raymond Silkman says,
‘The most important orthodontic appliance that you all have and carry with you 24 hours a day is your tongue.’
The way your child breathes can have a lasting impact on their airway size, teeth alignment, and overall health. And here’s the good news – these challenges can often be prevented or even corrected by promoting proper nasal breathing early on.
Sleep Implications
Asthma-related challenges, Tongue ties, Snoring or resistance in their breathing, and apneas.... Sleep disordered breathing is highly overlooked.
When there is sleep apnea present in children, it looks very different from adults with this same challenge. Adults may have daytime sleepiness, but children end up having overactivity during the day, attention and behavior challenges, poor academic performance. Many times these children end up with an ADHD diagnosis... but are we addressing the root cause of the attention challenges here? 🤔
How do you help your child unlearn bad breathing habits?
Let’s break it down into three simple steps.
First, watch for the signs of mouth breathing.
These signs all could indicate your child is mouth breathing during sleep, at rest or during play.
Step two is encouraging nasal breathing.
Start with gentle reminders during the day to keep their lips closed and breathe through their nose.
You can also make it fun! Practice taking slow, deep breaths through the nose together.
For younger kids, you can even turn it into a game by pretending to blow up a balloon with your nose or smelling a flower. Your Breathe Respiratory blend or Eucalyptus essential oils can come in handy as well. Encourage them to breathe right out of the bottle with their nose or breathe the drop in their cupped hands.
If your child’s nose is often congested, it’s important to address that too. A saline rinse, steam inhalation, or even a simple Buteyko exercise can help open up their nasal passages and make nasal breathing easier.
MyoTape Mouth Tape for Kids is designed to improve sleep quality, support healthy teeth and airway development, reduce behavioral and learning disorder symptoms, and enhance speech and auditory processing in children. MyoTape helps gently restore breathing through the nose.
This brings us to step three – using the Buteyko Breathing Method. These simple daily lifestyle changing exercises are designed to help children build confidence in nasal breathing and improve their overall airway function. One great exercise is the ‘Nose Clearing’ technique. Here’s how it works:
Sit comfortably and take a gentle breath in through the nose and out through the nose.
Pinch the nostrils shut and hold the breath.
Gently nod the head up and down or sway side to side while holding the breath.
When you feel the need to breathe, release and take a slow breath in through the nose.
This exercise can help decongest the nose and encourage better nasal breathing.
Now, if you are on board with all of the things we've been discussing about how to breathe, but you don't know where to start to help retrain your breathing (or the breathing of your loved one), then you will want to check out our Buteyko Restorative Breathing Clinic. This very special clinic takes you step by step through the process to retrain your breathing. Bonus: The Buteyko Clinic is designed for busy moms like you, juggling everything while trying to stay healthy and strong for their families.
This doesn't just help those with sleep challenges; it's also for dealing with other respiratory challenges (think of asthma). It will even help you deal with stress, anxiety, and, I know this sounds crazy, but it will help you get a good grade on your dental report card.
Here’s what’s included below:
I also want to take a moment to reflect on the beauty of breath from a biblical perspective. In Genesis 2:7, we’re reminded, ‘Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.’ Breath is a gift from God – it’s how He gave us life.
And in Proverbs 22:6, it says, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’
Teaching your children how to breathe well is a gift that will stay with them for life – helping them grow strong, healthy, and confident.
It’s never too early – or too late – to start encouraging healthy breathing habits. By teaching your kids to breathe through their nose, you’re not just helping them sleep better or feel more energized. You’re setting them up for a lifetime of better health, proper development, and confidence.
Kids' Sleep Hygiene Poster
When your kids wake up in the middle of the night or if they struggle to fall asleep, this will become their go-to reference.
Each reference includes a picture so your kids can know what to do without reading.
After you print out the poster, go over each reference, teaching your kids how to do the simple exercise. Next, place the poster in a space where it can be seen at night.
It includes reminders like using an eye mask to block out light, listening to calming music, unblocking their nose if it's stuffy, using essential oils, and asking God to help them get to sleep.
Download yours here: https://www.3LifeEssentials.com/kids-sleep-hygiene
Rather watch the timestamped video version of this blog post? 🎥 Watch below:
