What is Jaw Play?

At KIDS we are able to assess your child’s jaw and facial development from a young age. We are able to identify incorrect rest posture and/or swallowing patterns from infancy. This age is too young for us to carry out an OM program as it relies on your child’s cooperation and compliance. However, we believe that addressing these issues early may support healthy development as they grow.

How can we help?

Proper growth and development are facilitated by the parental provision of good and appropriate feeding and mouthing experiences. To help you, we can provide some fun and simple strategies for you and your child to implement at home. That way you have an understanding of what to look out for as they grow. You may even find the strategies apply to other members of the family as well.

We recommend coming in for 3-monthly visits so that we can help to monitor your child’s development and incorporate new activities as they master new skills. This supports us in tracking developmental milestones and providing appropriate guidance for mouthing skills to support healthy development.

This can be carried through until approximately 4 years of age when they are then able to progress onto further treatment (if required). This allows us to monitor their development during those important years of growth.

What else should I know?

At KIDS we believe that prevention is important. We recommend that you:

• Breastfeed at least through the first year where possible
• Have tongue and lip ties assessed early – if revision is recommended, discuss the benefits and risks with your clinician*
• Do daily tummy time for at least 15 minutes per session
• Limit pacifier use – by 4 months old, only allow pacifier use during bedtime, and discontinue by an appropriate age as advised
• Encourage babies to chew (as long as safe) while teething – this may assist with developing a mature swallow
• Use ONLY straw-based sippy cups or preferably use an open cup
• Monitor your children for chronic nasal congestion, treating as needed to reduce the risk of mouth-breathing habits

*Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding, you should seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner.

To be clear, while bottle-feeding does influence orofacial myology, disorders are more likely due to long-standing, excessive pacifier use, thumb-sucking, and chronic nasal congestion especially due to untreated allergies. Sometimes no cause can be found. Genetics and nutritional deficiencies may also be contributing factors.

We’re here to support your child’s development. Call us today to book an appointment for your little one.