Myofunctional Harmony and Wellness

If your infant doesn't like, or can't keep a pacifier in their mouth, without help

#1 It could very well have to do with the fact that your infant is tied, in which case you want to take baby for an evaluation with a knowledgeable release provider

#2 Please don't force your infant to take a pacifier, as they promote oral dysfunction & prevent proper craniofacial growth and development.

Why is breasfeeding so important?

Breast suckling aids proper development of the jaws which form the gateway to the human airway. Bottle, pacifier and digit sucking deform jaws and airways.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11799699/

If you are a mama, struggling to breastfeed, or a mama who has her heart set on breastfeeding, I am here to set you and your baby up for breastfeeding success

Breastfeeding is early functional jaw orthopedics (an introduction) - PubMed Breastfeeding places beneficial orthopedic forces on the jaws, similar to the forces of Functional Jaw Orthopedics--the newest form of orthodontics. To date most breastfeeding benefits have been attributed to the content of mother's milk. The true orthopedic benefits of breastfeeding, suckling, dese...

If you are a new or expecting mama, please know that colic is not a diagnosis, it is a symptom.

There is a REASON baby is miserable

https://tonguetieal.com/why-does-my-baby-cry-so-much-tongue-ties-lip-ties-and-colic/?fs=e&s=cl

Why Does My Baby Cry So Much? Tongue-Ties, Lip-Ties, and Colic - Alabama Tongue-Tie Center | Dr. Richard Baxter | Birmingham, AL New parents are tasked with figuring out how to care for their new baby with no user manual (well, there are books and Dr. Google, at least). Still, one of the most frustrating aspects of the infant stage is when babies cry for no apparent reason, wake up crying or…

We use to think snoring was benign. If a child did it, it was considered cute. We now know better, thank goodness. It's not benign. It's a symptom of a poor airway. Snoring is your body suffocating while you sleep.

Pediatric sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a general term used for any interruption in breathing while sleeping.

Awareness is key. The most obvious symptom of sleep disordered breathing is loud snoring. Snoring is not a normal behavior. Healthy nighttime sleep breathing consists of quiet nasal breathing with the lips closed and the tongue resting all the way up at the roof of the mouth.

Learn more www.TheBreatheInstitute.com
www.ZaghiMD.com

Is this what your child's bed looks like every morning?

This is the result of restless sleep, tossing and turning all night long. This is an indication that your child isn't getting the quality sleep they need.

Children should be peacefully sleeping, with little to no movement. Well, we all should be sleeping soundly, however, quality, restful sleep is of the utmost importance for a young, growing child, as this is when healing and development of both mind and body occurs most.

Want to know how you can help your child get the quality sleep they deserve? I can help with that!

**Attention Mamas**

Every baby’s mouth tells a story. The shape of their mouth can tell the story of how they’re fed—breast, bottle, and even which bottle!

Does the mouth turn up or down? This tells me a lot about their latch.

See the blistered lips in this photo? Something is going very wrong with the way this baby is feeding.

If you want to learn how to decode what your baby’s mouth is telling you about feeding, and how it relates to tongue and lip ties, I can help!

Breastfeeding mamas, what does the inside of your baby's mouth look like? Does it look more like the picture on the left or the far right?

Are you having a painful and or difficult time trying to feed your baby?

If your answer, to the 1st question l. is the one on the right, and you are finding it painful, and or difficult to feed your baby, I can help get to the root cause of your feeding difficulties and set you and baby on a path to pain free breastfeeding!

Forward growth and 6 more mm of expansion is complete! We are now in the 2nd appliance, which will get her out of class II occlusion without using retractive forces 🙌🙌🙌

Kourtney Kardashian is currently working with The Breathe Institute, a leader in the field of airway and tethered oral tissues (Ties/TOTS), doing Myofunctional Therapy!!

Kourtney Kardashian’s Tongue Therapy Routine with The Breathe Institute | Poosh The Breathe Institute explains myofunctional therapy and the tongue exercises they assigned to Kourt. Read more on the benefits here: https://poosh.com/kourt...

Negative oral habits are a symptom of an underlying myofunctional disorder. Negative oral habits promote dysfunction and poor facial growth and development. Do your children have negative oral habits? Need help getting them to stop? I can help

UN-MINDFUL PACIFIER-ING (see below)
***I posted this last year, and this thought keeps coming to my mind as I continue to see pacifiers hanging out of children’s mouths... If your child is “needing“ a pacifier, there may be an underlying myofunctional disorder that needs to be addressed (such as tongue tie, mouth breathing, low tongue posture, airway issues, sleep breathing issues)***

UN-MINDFUL PACIFIER-ING
I was just in a restaurant, and there was a couple there with this adorable little baby sitting on the mom’s lap facing outward, facing the person across the table. The baby was sucking on a pacifier. All of a sudden the baby smiled hugely at the person across the table, and the pacifier fell out of the baby’s mouth. It was an adorable, huge smile. A beautiful social interaction. The mother, who was not facing the baby, without even thinking, reactively placed (or should I say “shoved”) the pacifier back in the baby’s mouth. The smile ended, the baby started sucking the pacifier again, and the social interaction was over.  The mother did this as a reflexive type of action. This was the use of a pacifier for no particular need. The baby did not need any soothing. The mother, inadvertently, changed some very important things without even realizing: she ended a social interaction, she ended gestural/oral communication, she ended the opportunity for verbal communication (babbling, cooing), she caused the baby to lower the tongue and begin a parafunctional sucking pattern that was completely unnecessary. I just want to caution parents to be aware when they are putting a pacifier in a baby’s mouth, is it really necessary??? There is research that shows that pacifier use can negatively impact speech and language skills (and can also lead to increased ear infections). The tongue needs free movement to imitate speech sounds. Social interactions such as smiling cannot be accomplished when a foreign object is placed into the mouth. Also, when a foreign object is placed into the mouth, the oral cavity can adapt to the size and shape of the foreign object (this can lead to a low tongue posture, narrow palate, tongue thrusting, dental malocclusion, etc.).
JUST BE MINDFUL!

Myofunctional Harmony and Wellness updated their info in the about section.

While sleep bruxism/grinding is quite common, it is not normal, especially in growing children. It is 1 of the many symptoms of disordered sleep breathing, which is typically multifactorial in nature.

Does your child grind, mouth breathe, snore, toss and turn throughout the night, suffer from enuresis, suffer from night terrors, sleep walking/talking, wake up not feeling rested, despite more than 8 hrs of sleep?

If you answered yes to any of these symptoms, I can help with finding the right providers to help get your child on the path to having quality, restful sleep

A study done by The Breathe Institute on sleep bruxism

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fabs%2Fpii%2FS1389945720304998%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3WT7wkyXh-c2M07tbrPj5M2_nhzZTWxbz2KyLnc6WN-y-gns1xi_W-o7g&h=AT0Ly0pWsELoG9-1tCLr3vxdfnlT6RAn2nrLy_z0efYS0i5iFoC_6ALafE_rD9kGM1LWa66J2OKJM3_jE-KSYo_KJXDa1qwejLUbp0EtXHiBWKwElrzqT6SWQN3xwIZQg-ni2qL1CqKKAIdV_3U&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT2ZvsS7-wYZVhL9oGmVuktShMFbcJXiq9Rb6ky-tMMJAUbF-6cqk40JL0ncbw2hCPT-poJZ26J_cvCEoEtRhOA35DunWFS00F7I-b6MpVFrN1O91SlTQFiY4po7Lqpnx260sIKPSlDUty928HIy-DBf4Aa3Ph3ZtYw_Upt1kCjV5aU

My daughter's new appliance. This is the 1st of 3 appliances, that she will be using, over the next 18 months.

It is not a typical/traditional expansion appliance. It is a growth guide appliance, and it's going to help make so much more room in her palate, which will then allow her to comfortably house her tongue, while also creating more airway space.

Unlike your typical/traditional expander, a growth guide appliance not only widens your palate, it also helps create forward facial growth.

Typical/traditional palatal expanders only add horizontal width, no forward growth, and more often than not, it's never enough to comfortably house your tongue.

On our way to this little lady's orthotropics provide. He might be 6 hrs away, but opening up her airway, thru widening and forward growth of the jaws, so she can get restorative sleep, and stop suffering from sleep disordered breathing, is absolutely worth it!

While many people are aware of the immunity benefits of breastmilk, many are unaware of the most important benefits of the act of breastfeeding, paving the path for proper craniofacial growth and development.

How?

Breastfeeding helps establish proper oral rest posture, along with the suck, swallow, and breathe pattern. Proper oral rest posture and nasal breathing are essential for proper jaw growth. Without proper oral rest posture and nasal breathing, the jaws will be underdeveloped, causing crowding and or malocclusion, along with other health and dental issues.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314493754_Evidence_of_a_Preventive_Effect_of_Breastfeeding_on_Obstructive_Sleep_Apnea_in_Children_and_Adults

There is no gene for crooked teeth. If you or your child/ren have crooked teeth, consider seeing a provider who is focused on airway as soon as possible.

Even if your teeth are straight, the chances of having an airway issue are still high, due to numerousfactors. Grinding, restless sleep, daytime sleepiness, snoring, and mouth breathing are all symptoms of sleep disordered breathing/apnea

https://doctorstevenpark.com/is-there-a-gene-for-crooked-teeth -12390

Is There A Gene for Crooked Teeth? It’s commonly accepted that your face will look like your parent’s faces. The same goes for your teeth. So if you have crooked teeth, then it’s assumed that your parents must have given you their genes for crooked teeth. However, In this blog post, I’m going to argue that there’s is no gen...

Here's a picture to help visualize proper resting tongue posture and how it affects airway, especially when sleeping.

On the left, you can see that the tongue is up in the palate and the airway is nice and open. On the right, you can see that the tongue is down and compromising the airway.

An open airway is essential for restful, good quality sleep.

Early intervention is key

There is a conversation today that continues to be tragically ignored. The evidence is written in our teeth.
​
​Today our younger generations are suffering from a problem never experienced by humans throughout our history.

Our jaws are shrinking, and we facing an immediate problem.

If you look at the anthropologic record, we don’t see dental disease in any shape or form until very, very recently.

In this light, the rate is alarming.

For the time that we uncover human records, the modern degeneration of the jaw is so recent, you could barely mark it if you were to draw it out to scale.

Let that sink in for second, our kid’s jaws are collapsing and shrinking.

Crooked teeth in 7-12 year old’s happen when milk teeth fall out to give way to adult teeth. In this time the jaw is undergoing huge developmental issues that depend on nutrients, breathing, and function.

You can pick up functional bite issues earlier, like open bites, tongue thrusts and cross bites (upper teeth inside lower teeth).

A big sign is mouth breathing. Open mouth posture during the day and loud, disrupted breathing at night is a sign the airways are not supported.

Snoring is the more severe version of this, which can present with teeth grinding, but can also lead to ‘pauses’ in breathing of up to a minute.

The cause comes back to diet. When we change our diet, our jaws show the consequences.

Since the 60s we have seen a dramatic rise in orthodontic treatment, that has been fuelled by low fat dietary recommendations. Low fat, high sugar foods are devoid of fat-soluble vitamins that are critical for calcium balance in the body, and also hormonal bone growth. Testosterone for example is a key factor in jaw development, and is dependent on vitamin D levels.

These problems can be fixed, but they’re not easy. An investment into our children’s future may mean that their children do not experience such growth issues.

Are you up for the challenge? Let’s redirect the trajectory of crooked teeth in future generations. It starts today.

Leave a comment with our thoughts and ideas below.

One of the main goals of myofunctional therapy is to get you back to nasal breathing.

Think about what it would feel like waking up and actually feeling rested

My daughter's mouth breathing story and a little about our journey to get her the treatment she needs.

Shannon Moczygemba - Mouth Breathing Awareness

Mewish Khan's story about her child is like that of many moms, including myself, who have to fight to get our children the help they need because their sleep disordered breathing/apnea is being dismissed and ignored by doctors.

It shouldn't be this hard and our children deserve better!

Myofunctional therapy plays a key role in addressing the symptoms of sleep disordered breathing/apnea





https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=37q7ZY9iVvQ&feature=youtu.be

Interview with Mehwish Khan - Mouth Breathing Awareness May is Mouth Breathing Awareness Month! That means over the next month, I'll posting on social media every day, trying to spread the word, and I've asked my ...

Myofunctional Harmony and Wellness updated their website address.

It's not just what you breathe with, it's also HOW you breathe.

How to reset your breathing: Functional breathing and Buteyko tips guest star Dr Dan Hanson Part 1. by The Munch Bunch Myo podcast • A podcast on Anchor In this very special episode we have guest star Dr Dan Hanson joining us from Australia. He runs Myofocus and invented the Sleepystrip mouth tape. He is a Buteyko breathing specialist. Today he is teaching us about tapping into our own nervous system to reset our breathing and change our need for ox...

You shouldn't ignore the snore, nor an open mouth

This is a picture of MRI scans of the brain. The bits in colour- they are the parts of the brain that were damaged in kids with sleep apnoea.
Don’t ignore the snore!

Please, learn about this condition and use that knowledge to help a child! The book “Snored to Death” ships worldwide!

www.fb.me/snoredtodeath

The habits we develop in our youth, inevitably translate to behaviors later in life. By training the muscles in the face, to act in their optimal biological way, muscle memory can keep the teeth and jaw in alignment as we grow and develop. This is what myofunctional therapy is all about

Snoring in children isn't always like that of an adult, in that it's loud and obnoxious. If your child's breathing is audible, it's a sign that something is affecting their airway.

A myofunctional assessment can help get your child to the appropriate providers and begin therapy, to help get your child on the right path for proper development

Button battles are definitely a favorite myofunctional exercise in our house.

It helps strengthen the lip muscles while having fun at the same time😁

This story hits home on so many levels and it's still really hard not to be mad at myself for not being a better advocate for my daughter and fighting for answers sooner, rather than later. My daughter is actually the reason I started my journey to become a myofunctional therapist.

If your child presents with any of these issues, myofunctional therapy can help them.

https://airwaymatters.blog/2018/10/15/my-kids-were-ignored-heed-my-warning-dont-let-doctors-ignore-yours/

My kids were ignored, heed my warning: Don’t let doctors ignore yours It took 10 years and a pediatric dentist for me to realize that I was a terrible mother. I fell into the trap of taking the pediatrician at her word. She said they would grow out of these problems,…

Another myofunctional therapy course in the books! Such an honor and a pleasure to have met these 3!
The infamous Sarah Hornsby from Myomentor and Dr's Dan and Donny from Myofocus, who came all the way from Australia!!!