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Hi everyone, and welcome back to Airway First, a podcast

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from the Children's Airway First Foundation. I'm your host, Rebecca St. James.

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I'm excited to welcome back today's guests, Karise LeGair, a registered dental hygienist

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and myofunctional therapist. She is the founder of the myospot, the practice aimed at amplifying

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oral wellness to whole body wellness. Through teletherapy, she helps clients of all ages overcome

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tongue ties, TMJ disorders, sleep apnea, grinding, anxiety, and various breathing and oral facial

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dysfunctions. Passionate about education and self-help, she published, accomplished, how to sleep

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better, eliminate burnout, and execute goals. When not working with clients globally, she spends

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time with her husband and her four kids. You can find out more about Karise at the myospot.com.

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And now let's jump into my conversation with Karise LeGair.

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Okay, perfect. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining me again on the show, Karise. I really

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appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be back. Absolutely. So as I just kind

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of alluded to, you've been on the show before, and I'll make sure that we put a link to the previous

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episode in our show notes. But we were talking before, I'm not sure how I missed this, but you

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have this book, which I will, oops, it's not going to really show us. I will put that in our show notes.

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There we go. Your camera's cooperating. And I'll put this link in our show notes as well. But after

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reading it, I really felt very strongly that I wanted to have you back so we could talk because it

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felt like the precursor to our discussion. And I think it was something important for parents

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to hear, not just for themselves, but for their children. Absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome. All

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right, so let's just jump right in. And the first thing I would like to talk about, because it's

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where you start the book, and it's, it makes sense to me. So let's go ahead and tackle the

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difference between accomplishment and achievement. Okay, so accomplishment is really the

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penultimate when I think about it. So when you imagine that you have a big audacious goal that

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you're trying to get to, something that you're looking to accomplish, you have steps that you

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have to make in order to get there. So I am not a runner. If I wanted to do a marathon, I am going

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to have to actually every day dedicate and carve out time so that I could start getting into shape

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and running. That way I can make a wonderful 26 mile marathon. I can't just get up tomorrow, decide

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that that's something I want to do and get it done and accomplish that goal right away. That

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accomplishment is the prize of all those little achievements I make in making sure I'm getting

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up every day, making that daily run, making it a little further each time those small goals,

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those little achievements all build up to the big accomplishment. Okay, okay, and I'll just

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tell parents they're listening. Hang on, this all ties together. It seems like we're going down a

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very different path, but it all makes sense. So when it comes to accomplishments, you talk about

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that there are two barriers. What are these these barriers and how can they impact your health or

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your child's health? Absolutely. So there's a lot of different barriers that might come up, but I

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like to group it into two big barriers. So there are the psychological barriers. These are the

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things like your mindset, limiting beliefs, trauma, the things that will impact you from being able

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to mentally or cognitively approach any of those achievements as you're working towards becoming

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accomplished. And then there's physical barriers. These physical barriers are the things that's

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actually within you. Structurally, these are the dysfunctions that might present that are going to

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inhibit you from getting to your goals and to your accomplishments. So when we are thinking about it

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from terms of airway, breathing and function, there's a lot and I'm sure we're going to dive into it,

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but there's a lot that goes in psychologically into getting through these barriers. We have to be

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able to regulate our audit and service system, that freight or flight, rest digest system. We're

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going to have to be in an optimal state in order to get to any sort of achievement. And so if there's

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that psychological barrier there, we're already meeting a hurdle or we can almost call it a full

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roadblock where we can't limit that roadblock until we've addressed it. And then the physical

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barriers would be things that are out of our control as far as what we might present with at

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the time that we discovered that there's a problem. That could be craniofacial structure not being

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optimal. So you could have narrow arches, you might have deviated septum, you could have enlarged

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turbinates and large adenoids caught like these things that will structurally impair you from

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reaching your goal. And when you first, and again we'll dig into this a little bit more,

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but when you first meet with a child, how do you start to figure out what these barriers are?

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We have to ask really good questions. I want to know a life story. So it really begins with the

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pregnancy and how everything really began in that child's formation. So how did pregnancy go? Was

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that traumatic? Was mom alone? Did she have a support system? Was there a lot of stress,

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strife? Was this a pregnancy that was planned, intended? There's unintended and that has different

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psychological impacts as well, the preparedness, which did the pregnancy go as planned? There's

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so much before the child even gets to being born. We have these images of a mind, you know,

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as a mom, I remember I'm pregnant and I'm ready. I think it's going to go a certain way. I'm going

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to have a labor that's going to go this way. Breast feed is going to be so smooth. It's going to be

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amazing. You have all these wonderful dreams and little by little by little life kind of chips away

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in certain aspects. And that has an impact on the fetus as it's developing. That has an impact on,

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of course, with the mother who is the vessel. But all of this is going to play a role in addition to

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the physical stuff that's going to happen. So birth and labor and delivery, that's its own

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traumatic event. That has its own consequences and impacts on our cranial facial structure.

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If you're delivered vaginally or if you're delivered via C-section, if there's a vacuum

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involved, there's a lot of different pressures or strains that become created in that cranial structure.

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And then how are they fed? And we're looking at the whole story. I need to see everything from

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the very, very beginning, from conception all the way through to where I meet them now,

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what is impacting them. And so when you see them, you're seeing the entirety of their story instead

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of just looking at what's going on right this second. And I love that. And you've talked about

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this before in a previous podcast. It is about holistic. You have to look at everything. It's

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not, let's just, here's what we see. Let's treat it. Let's go deeper. How did we get here? What

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caused this? Let's look at the child as a whole. Exactly. Exactly. It's incredibly important because

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we can't begin to tackle these things. That winds up becoming part of our barriers that we're looking

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to overcome. Right? What are the psychological things that may have impacted on the way and then

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the physical things we'll look at as we go. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, again, this is another step towards

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get away from this mentality of let's just throw a pill at it. Let's just do this quick fix and

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move on. Because when you do that, this is my own personal soapbox. And I realize that when you do

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that, you end up with an adult that is dealing with airway dysfunctions like I am versus things we

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could have handled at the root with our children. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's always our goal

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as parents that we want to have a better future for our children. We want them to have better

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good. And so we're trying to tackle as early as possible. It's just in our nature as parents.

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And so, yes, it's important to look at the whole global scheme of things that way you can address

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all that and prevent them from being where you may be currently. I love that. So as we're starting

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this journey, there's one more piece that may seem odd for people, but it does make sense.

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I want to take a moment to talk a little bit about the Maslow pyramid and how that plays into

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this process. So first, for people that don't know what this is, would you explain it and then talk

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about how it plays into the process? Absolutely. So Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it may come up for

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a lot of you as maybe something you had to unfortunately study during college and then

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go by the wayside after your site class or requirements were done. But it's important if

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you're looking at the grand scheme of things when you're working with complex individuals, which,

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you know, we all are complex individuals. Look at anybody as the same as anybody else. So we have

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to look at what are the different needs that they need to get to the peak. So when I look at that

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pyramid, I look at it as like a mountain almost, right? So we're trying to get to the peak of the

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mountain and at the top of the mountain is self-actualization. That's this wonderful euphoric

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state where we really reached our potential, but you can't get there until you started down at the

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bottom at the foundation of the mountains to start climbing up. So at the very, very bottom, we have

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all of our physiological needs. These are the essentials. We can't function without food, water,

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oxygen. Period. I don't care what you're going through. If you are without water, without oxygen,

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without food, you're not getting anywhere to reach any higher up on the mountain. And that

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winds up being focused and the primary driver for your brain at that moment in time. And so that's

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going to come into play as we start talking about this a little later, especially the oxygen part.

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But then after that is safety. Safety is something that we really, really need as humans. It really

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goes into this whole drive of community and so forth. But really, we just need a roof over our

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heads. We need to know that we are taking care of in that next basic level way so that there is a

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support system somewhere around us. We're not alone in the world. So even if that's just connecting

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another like-minded individual and feeling like, okay, I am not a lone warrior. So safety is the

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next thing. Belongingness, which really all want to belong and feel like we fit in and we're not

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the odd ball and we're not the odd man. And so we need to all kind of come together and understand

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that, okay, this is a journey that many others are going through. And then a steam is going to be

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right before we hit that steam. Is that self-worth? That self-love? That self-acknowledgement?

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Self-recognition? You have value. You have value as a person and this is something that you need

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to be able to accept in order to really overcome a lot of those psychological barriers, but definitely

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accept if you're going to start chipping away at those achievements to get to that final goal of

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accomplishment. So how does that all play into airway? How does it all play into airway? Yeah.

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A lot of people might take what's up at the top or a problem that they think is up at the top. So

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let's say it's sleep. Okay, not getting great sleep. What can I do? Let's try to address it at just

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where we are at the top here. So belongingness might tell us that, yes, a lot of people are

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getting good sleep. So it's a common problem. And so a steam, I'm going to go and I'm going to get

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myself a nice little new mattress where I'm going to get myself a nice new pillow. And I might just

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buy this thing I saw on this ad on television and that'll help me get better sleep. But we didn't hit

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anything down at the bottom. What's going on with food? How is your nutrition? How is your diet?

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How is that contributing and playing a role and a factor into how your body is able to now process

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and digest and allow you to get into sleep and stay in a good state of sleep? Are you drinking

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enough water? Are you properly hydrated? But then oxygen, our airway, we can go for days without

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water, weeks without food. But not any of us can live but for a few minutes without oxygen. We need

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to be able to breathe. And so our brain, that primary driver, if we are not oxygenating well,

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if there's mouth breathing going on, if we're unable to properly respirate and intake enough oxygen

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and then expel enough carbon dioxide, we are going to have issues where the body now has to

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reprioritize tasks. So now we can't get proper adequate brain cleansing and neurological renewal

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at night when we're supposed to get that. We can't get cell rejuvenation and we can't get our immune

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system to be restarted and to really work harder for us at night when we're sleeping. All of these

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properties are actually supposed to be occurring. But if we're not breathing, our body is like, help,

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help, help, help, help, help. Multiple times at night. But none of that happens. And then you

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when you're groggy, you're tired, and then you wind up addressing it in ways that really aren't

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going to help because we didn't look at the very, very root cause. We didn't start at the bottom

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of the mountain with things. Before we start getting to those things that might be at the top,

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that might help. That may very well help. But we've got to hit this bottom of the hierarchy of needs.

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That way our body can then allow us to get to the next step of safety, belongingness, esteem, and so

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forth. Right. Which again, we're back to you got to look at the root no more band-aids, no more

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let's just throw up hell. You got to get to the root. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Which is at the core.

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And I mean, just to continue on this a little bit more, because you noted two things in the book that

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I don't know. You'd think I'd be used to this now after a couple years of doing this, but every time

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I hear it, it's still kind of astonishing. Make sure I get these correct. Two thirds of us are

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sleep deprived, according to the National Sleep Foundation. And 20% of the population

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suffer from sleep-breeding disorders of some kind. Okay. This is not a small number. This is massive.

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So how did we get here? And how does this manifest in our children? I mean, I know we've talked about

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it before, but I really want to make sure we hammer this home because as a parent, you may be looking

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for the same signs, but a child's not going to have the exact same present in the same way.

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Very true. Very true. Even in my own house, things didn't present the same way. But before I get into

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that, I really just want to double down on the fact that 20% of the American population is 20% of

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over 300 million people. So that's not a number to just like discard and throw away. I think

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when we think the numbers seem smaller, 20% of 300 million is a lot of people. That's a lot of people.

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That's huge. Yeah. So dysfunction manifests itself differently in different people, even people who

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are genetically similar. And I'm sure I told my story before, but we'll just kind of briefly touch

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on it again. But for children, when my son is my oldest, I am the only boy and he had a lot of

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different issues with behavioral impulse control. Very, very difficult to kind of get him to focus

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and just corral his energy into just one specific task. Every sort of clinical sign you can have

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of ADHD, he present here. It was all there. My oldest daughter had every sleep issue under the

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sun. You name it. Every night we were guaranteed to have at least bedwetting, but then there was

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always something else. It was the night terrors, it's sleepwalking, it's the soaring, it's falling

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out of bed, the tossing and turning. It was always something for 10 years in a row, every single night.

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We got no peaceful nights. And then my little two, they were the only ones that were relatively

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similar where they had a lot of upper respiratory issues. They had the sore throats, the frequent

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congestion, the ear infection, on repeat. It was just frustrating, very, very frustrating.

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But these children who are genetically similar presented very differently for what was eventually

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the same common group caused. So even in your own household, and I think all of us know with

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multiple children that each child is different and unique, but they're tackling with the same thing,

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not breathing well, the mouth breathing, you know, we're not really getting in oxygen as they should.

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That is very wildly different how it will manifest. Some may even manifest it very, very minimally.

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You might just see one or two little signs and you don't feel like, oh, okay, it's not a big deal.

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But it's all going to compound as they get older and as they age. It doesn't self-resolve.

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And that is the biggest issue you're going to find is that there's no self-resolve. So if we're

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not dealing with it when they're young and when they're easy and malleable and we can get their

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body while it still has growth potential to adjust, that's going to be the biggest issue.

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I think I missed part of the other part of the question unless I'm supposed to answer.

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No, and I'll back up to it, but I really want to hone on when you said that it doesn't self-resolve

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because I can't tell you how many parents I've spoken to. And we did the same thing over again,

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and this is not a Dr. Bash, but they were told they'll grow out of it. Let's just watch it for a

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while. No, because as you watch it, the damage is being done. It's not going to self-resolve,

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so let's not watch it. Let's get to the core of what's going on.

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Absolutely, absolutely. And I've been there, all four of my children,

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quite their different issues, every single one of us told, it'll be fine. The bed wedding,

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that's fine. She won't be doing that when she's 15. Like, oh, we're just supposed to let her sleep

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poorly until she's 15. Right, right. And we'll talk about a little because that's doing huge

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damage to the gray matter in her brain and just, and then her body functions. And, you know, we

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don't wait and see. So the other part of my question was, how did we get here to these

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astronomical numbers of 20% of our 300 million? How did we get here?

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Our world is changing. It's changing so fast. Since the Industrial Revolution, we've had different

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modern, you know, implementations into our life that has made life wonderfully easier. And it's

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kind of made us evolve a bit as far as our structure. So our skulls are changing. We're

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not eating the same foods. A lot of us are having more processed foods. We don't eat like the

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hunters and the gatherers used to. We would have these harder, tougher foods to chew and eat.

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We don't have the natural inclination most times to really follow through with a lot of

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what's difficult for us. So being difficult for us sometimes might be the breastfeeding and then

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we just fed his best, which is true. Fed is best. But sometimes we just not pushing through because

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we're willing to just kind of let it go. And there's a number of bottles. There's a number of formula.

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There's a lot of different things that can absolutely take the place of breastfeeding.

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And so that's going to change our early developmental function. Then you get into sippy cups.

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And sippy cups have no oral function purpose. Zero. The only functional purpose is to not make mom

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mad when there's right all over the floor. Right. Right. functional purpose of a sippy cup.

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Outside of that, it does not help them develop good oral function. I mean,

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that's already problematic is that we have these things that we think are stepping stones,

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the pacifiers, the sippy cups, the little habits that we think are just oh, so the fruit pouches.

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These fruit pouches, I never get a time where I go to an airport and there's not like a seven,

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eight year old with like a fruit pouch in their mouth. Yes. I can actually eat fruit. This is not

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an 11 month old that maybe in your mind, you might be able to justify, okay, they need a pouch

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because we don't want them to choke while we're in the airport. Older children that have teeth,

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they need to be chewing. That chewing actually does stimulate a lot of jaw growth and development.

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And when they're lacking that, that's going to be problematic too. So when we think of,

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and I think a lot of people don't think of this consciously, like why we do this,

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I think they think of it more of a habit. But when we give children teethers, when we know

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that their teeth are coming in, we think that sometimes it's just pursuing or just that's

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what we're supposed to do, you know, there's we give our children teethers. But what we're

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but what we're actually doing is we're encouraging them to chew because that chewing is stimulating

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to get that tooth to erupt through the gums. And that's how we're giving our children relief.

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But we don't think of it like that. What we need to do is actually keep that going. And so there's

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this wonderful book, baby led weeding, weaning, that actually does encourage that chewing, but

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that chewing, we need to keep it going beyond just the tooth erupting through the gums. There is

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functional purpose to chewing. And so we need to keep our children chewing, even after all the teeth

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have erupted, that way they can continue to grow and develop these big broad arches that they're

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going to need. Does it help to prevent the inconvenience of braces? Sure. But what it's

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really doing is it's helping us to develop stalls that allow us to have optimal upper respiratory

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space, which back to Maslow, we actually need air in order to do anything else. And so having

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proper development while we're young isn't just to prevent braces. It's to actually help us to

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thrive as we go on throughout life because we need oxygen more than anything else.

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Yeah. And I think this is the part of this podcast that comes up every time. So

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for every mom out there, me being one, let's all just take a deep breath. It's okay.

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You didn't know what you didn't know. We all goldfished and fruit pouched and sippy cupped our

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way through it. Hey, here's where we are. And now let's just move forward. So it's okay.

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Mom guilt. Just let's just park that over here for a while.

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You're listening to airway first with today's guest,

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Carice Legeur. You can find out more about the Children's Airway First Foundation and our mission

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to fix before six on our website at Children's Airway First.org. The CAF website offers tons

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of great resources for both parents and medical professionals. In our parents portal and clinicians

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corner areas, you can find educational and informational content, including videos, blogs,

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00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:30,840
our recommended reading lists, comprehensive medical research, podcasts, events, parent support,

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and educational opportunities. Parents are also encouraged to join the Airway Huddle,

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our Facebook support group, which was created for parents of children with airway and sleep

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related issues. You can access the Airway Huddle support group at facebook.com-groups-airwayhuddle.

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Are you a medical professional or a parent that is interested in being a guest on the show?

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Then shoot us a note via our Contacts page on our website. Or send us an email directly at infoat

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childrensairwayfirst.org. As a reminder, this podcast and the opinions expressed here are not

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a medical diagnosis. If you suspect your child might have an airway issue, contact your pediatric

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airway dentist or pediatrician. And now, let's jump back into my interview with today's guest,

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Carice Legeur.

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All right, so now that we kind of have this baseline, let's talk a little bit about when

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you're doing your evaluation with children that come in.

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And I found this really fascinating because I've been reading so much lately about the

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vagus nerve.

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It's everywhere.

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We're all talking about it.

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So you start your evaluations with this cranial nerve symmetry, and I'd like to talk about

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why you start with that and then how does the vagus nerve, especially with kids, come

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into play?

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Absolutely.

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The cranial nerves are important for us just for daily function.

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These are the 12 nerves that are really running a lot of what goes on in our body.

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They fire in sequence, and if there is a dysfunction somewhere, that's going to affect the rest

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of the chain.

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And so I always start my cranial nerve exam because I have to know what's going on with

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them just on basic biological function, right?

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What's going on there?

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Cranial nerve 10, okay?

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So almost at the top of those 12, if you've got dysfunction below, that's definitely going

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to affect the top.

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But cranial nerve 10 is the vagus nerve.

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The vagus nerve is a very big responsible nerve.

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You want to think of that as like the big guns of all the nerves.

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This is our organ.

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We're definitely doing a lot of the soft palate, the oryferinjial space.

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It is like the guy that is running things.

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Big daddy.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So we love the vagus nerve.

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But the vagus nerve is actually pretty complex.

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When we think of it, we can actually divide it to the polyvagal theory.

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Divide it instead of just into two, parasympathetic and sympathetic, where we might know as

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sympathetic being our fight or flight and parasympathetic being our breast and digest.

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It actually divides it into three, where the sympathetic still exists there as like mobilization,

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that fight or flight.

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But then there's the two areas of the parasympathetic.

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So the ventral vagus and the dorsal vagus, and they're going to have different impacts

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as well.

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So there's three different states we can be in.

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So when you're in high skin tone, you're going to find that you've got a lot going on.

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You're in that heightened blood pressure is pumping.

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Like you're in a heightened state of awareness.

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You're ready because you have to mobilize.

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You have to engage.

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You're either running or you're fighting.

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Like your body is in that state where it really needs to be on high alert.

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We don't want functioning like that.

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That is not the optimal state that we want our children to be functioning in.

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But then we're going to look down and when we look down into our ventral vagus, our ventral

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vagus system is going to be more of that safety, social engagement.

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So we're able to engage.

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We're able to interact with those around us.

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We're able to learn and intake information because we're not on high alert.

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We're not ready to fight.

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We're here.

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We're present.

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We're engaged.

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We're learning.

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Then our dorsal system, that dorsal system is kind of like a deer in headlights is what

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I like to like in it too.

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You see a deer in headlights and it's frozen and it's there and there's danger coming,

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but it's not doing anything completely immobilized.

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That's what mobilization is that dorsal vagal central.

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So when you have to know where our body is functioning in with this very big daddy of

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nerves, where's our body functioning?

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Because if we're in immobilization and if we're in or if we're in, I should not say

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and it's for or if we're in that right light, we're not going to be able to make any progress.

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We're going to struggle.

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These are going to be the kids that we can't get through to do these high compliance programs

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like myofunctional therapy where I need you to engage.

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I need you to actually working on the steps.

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I need you to be in taking the information.

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We need to create neurofunctional change.

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We can't do that when the body's not in the optimal state for that.

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So the vagus nerve is the big guns.

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I need to know what's going on and what state we're in.

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That way I can get to where we need to be so we can make our steps towards progress.

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We can't get any little achievements if we're stuck here.

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Right.

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We're back at those barriers that we talked about in the beginning.

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Exactly.

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We're right back there and it's a big roadblock.

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That one is a big roadblock.

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So I have to start know where we're at.

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That way I know where we're going.

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So where would, because along with ADHD, another one that we see a lot is a child that has

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anxiety.

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So where does that fit in here when you're presented with a child that, you know, that's

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one of the main signs we're seeing.

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Those anxious children, a lot of the times they're in high sympathetic tone.

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So high sympathetic tone, fight or flight, they're really trying to brace their body

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for whatever the mobilization is going to be.

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So whether it is us going into, you know, we've got to go into a fight or we're going

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to flee and get out of this danger, the body is just ready.

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It's in the state of hyper anxiousness.

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Okay.

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Got it.

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And let's talk a little bit more about some of the psychological signs of this A&S state.

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I mean, first, you explain it better in the book, let's just kind of touch on what that

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is a little bit.

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And you know, I understand why it's so important to identify this and why it's so important

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for the journey, but could we just talk a little bit more about, you know, what this

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is and how you identify it.

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It's an interesting, coming to identification of it requires a lot of self-awareness.

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As a parent, it's very difficult for us to see our child in any way other than as our

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amazing, beautiful, wonderful, amazing child, right?

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As you see every day.

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Yeah.

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There are certain things that we'll see and we'll see without problem in our children.

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And you know, I, no one knows their child better than their parent, but to really come

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to that awareness of it, it takes a lot of, you know, self reflection and, you know, where

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is this coming from?

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Where is it stemming from?

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And then you start to feel guilty about certain things.

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So I don't want it to be oversimplified as in like, you know, you're going to see these

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things and these things definitively mean that this is absolutely where they are and

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don't take, right, right.

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Don't take it there.

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But what we can say is that you can notice certain signs.

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So if we're in immobilization and your child is not able to really interact well with

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others, so a lot of social anxiety or maybe unable to really develop quality friendships,

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have engaging conversations, that's probably going to be a good sign for you that your

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child is in a dorsal state that they're not able to really engage with others.

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So social engagement may be your social butterfly, your academic achiever, the person that is

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really actually thriving and doing really well.

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But then your high sympathetic tone might not be able to adequately verbalize certain

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things to you, might have a lot of difficulties with impulse and behavioral control issues.

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Being able to, yeah, because they're in that fight or flight.

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So that's where, you know, the control issues come in.

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I remember that with my son, that was one of our biggest, biggest things.

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A kid might say something to him on the school bus and immediately he's going into

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violence.

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Like, you know, somebody just said something and kids say things all the time.

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How they react to that is a big indication of where they are.

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Are they able to engage verbally?

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Some of them are just not able to really engage and you'll kind of be able to know where your

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child is based on how they interact with others around them.

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And impulse control can also go into, I don't believe it was the Dunn-Even story, the research.

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The marshmallow, I remember they put the marshmallow out and when they're not the kid would take

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it or the cookie and those are all, that's a different kind of impulse control.

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Can you put something in front of them and they can reframe from it so it can present,

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again, in different ways?

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It's not always an emotional.

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You can see it.

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It could be something as simple as you gave them a cookie, you turn around, there's four

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gone because they just couldn't stop.

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Yeah, so it's, again, it's back to that presenting.

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And you touched on this.

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I want to back up to this because this is really important because we talk about mouth

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breathing a lot, right?

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And if you're on our website and if you haven't been, we totally encourage parents, check

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out the Parents Portal.

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Right there's images of kids, you know, playing video games, just, we've all seen that.

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Snoring, we all know now, snoring is not cute.

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You know, so you think we talk about mouth breathing, it's easy to see.

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But in your book, this just, this really struck me.

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It isn't always obvious.

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So I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about that because on the surface it seems

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like, well, yeah, it's obvious you're going to see it.

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00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,840
What, you know, what did you mean by that?

410
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:45,840
It's not always obvious.

411
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:51,200
I mean, not everybody that has their mouth open is necessarily mouth breathing.

412
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,960
Sometimes they are still respirating through the nose.

413
00:37:53,960 --> 00:38:00,600
They just haven't, they have an inability to close their lips and facilitate lip closure.

414
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:02,760
But sure, exactly.

415
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:09,960
So it's not always easy though, in that, you know, sometimes it is an issue where the

416
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,080
body is just on the backup system because of the congestion.

417
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:17,720
And so it's not necessarily a mouth habit.

418
00:38:17,720 --> 00:38:20,280
It's a mouth breathing necessity.

419
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:26,920
And we can't just jump to now, okay, well, they're mouth breathing and we haven't rooted

420
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:28,520
the source of such.

421
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:33,080
And therefore now we're going to start doing things like lip taping or whatever.

422
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:38,160
We don't want to get into all of that until we know what's physiologically stemming and

423
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:39,880
causing that to happen.

424
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:44,280
So there are people who would have it, not congested, can totally breathe through their

425
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:45,280
nose.

426
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,200
It's how they respirate is through their mouth.

427
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:49,200
That is it.

428
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:50,360
And there's nothing else.

429
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:56,840
But there's other people who it's physiologically, that's the way they just have to, to live

430
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:01,640
and get through so that they can keep breathing because we need that oxygen.

431
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:02,880
You have to breathe.

432
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:03,880
Right.

433
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:07,120
He has that backup source for that purpose.

434
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:11,120
So kind of coming to the conclusion of why the mouth breathing is happening or if the

435
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:16,840
mouth breathing is happening and it's not just like an open lip posture with nasal breathing

436
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:18,200
is a big thing.

437
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:23,440
But the key for me as a myofunctional therapist is the tongue posture during all of it.

438
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,120
I want that tongue to be there, stimuli, that nasal breathing and so forth.

439
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:30,720
So even with your mouth closed, your tongue might not be where it's supposed to be.

440
00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:32,840
And you're still not breathing properly.

441
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:33,840
Right.

442
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:34,840
And it's funny.

443
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:39,840
I read that I felt like, gosh, I wish I could go back over the last two years and apologize

444
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:44,320
to every parent whose child I stared at and aligned because I was thinking, do I tell

445
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:45,640
you your child's a mouth breather?

446
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,000
You should go see an alfantanal therapist or an aerodentist.

447
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,200
What in fact, they could have been breathing normally.

448
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:54,480
They just had an open posture.

449
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:55,480
Yeah.

450
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:57,080
So, so tricky.

451
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,080
It's so tricky.

452
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,840
And this again, you touched on earlier.

453
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:07,800
And we've heard this from so many people, you know, Dr. Moraleo, Kevin Boyd, I mean,

454
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:13,560
just everybody, just because it's common does not mean it's normal.

455
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:17,240
It just, that, that just to me, that's, well, there you go.

456
00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:20,360
There's your answer.

457
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:27,880
And in your book, you cite that the C.C. actually calls insufficient sleep a public epidemic.

458
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:32,720
So knowing that great sleep, it's very personal to all of us, you know, what's great sleep

459
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:35,520
for you might be different for me.

460
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:37,320
But breathing is the most important.

461
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:46,040
So when it comes to our kids, how do we turn this ship and help them with their long term

462
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:48,720
health span?

463
00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:52,360
First step is to really seek out and advocate for them.

464
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:58,120
So seek out, aerodentists seek out a myofunctional therapist, not always the easiest thing to

465
00:40:58,120 --> 00:40:59,240
do.

466
00:40:59,240 --> 00:41:05,480
But there are resources, plenty of spaces and upon which you can, you can seek out this

467
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:06,480
information.

468
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,200
AF is a wonderful one.

469
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:14,280
It is a primary step, though, to definitely advocate for them.

470
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:19,520
There's going to be a lot of steps that you make along the way where maybe you're not

471
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:24,520
at the right source and you may get dismissed or it may be like, yeah, they'll be fine.

472
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:26,200
They'll grow out of it.

473
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:33,120
It's imperative to push through that and to continue to advocate until you get to the

474
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,200
start of your journey.

475
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:39,320
Start of that journey is absolutely with the airway dentist or myofunctional therapist,

476
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:43,400
though they're going to be able to guide you on the best way for your particular child.

477
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:47,960
Because we have to look at everybody as a complex individual, the best way for your

478
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:49,280
child to start.

479
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:54,280
So it might be starting right away with some expansive treatment and structural intervention

480
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:59,840
or it might be starting with functional intervention and myofunctional therapy.

481
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,360
Yep, everyone is different.

482
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:09,320
So and we did this in our last episode, but at the end of every episode, I'd like to

483
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:13,880
completely hand the floor back to you, our guests, because you are the experts and let

484
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:23,720
you have the last word, be it for parents or our medical community that listens or both.

485
00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:27,160
First thing I can say, be very, very alert.

486
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,320
Start to implement a nasal hygiene routine.

487
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,520
I think that that is like key.

488
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:37,560
We focus so much on cleaning all other parts of our body and again, breathing winds up

489
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,280
being the most prominent thing.

490
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,600
So cleaning out that is essential.

491
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:48,760
Make sure that you are taking that first step actually before you even seek out anyone.

492
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:52,640
Just start implementing nasal hygiene as a part of your routine.

493
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:56,840
You can thrive on routines, adults require routines too, but that's a conversation for

494
00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:57,840
a whole other type.

495
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,760
You can thrive on routines.

496
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:07,520
So nasal hygiene, implement that into your routine and just get the ball rolling on good

497
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:08,520
oxygenation.

498
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:09,520
Perfect.

499
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:10,520
Perfect.

500
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:14,920
Thank you again for coming on.

501
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:18,880
I really appreciate it and I really, really encourage any parent that hasn't read the

502
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:20,380
book.

503
00:43:20,380 --> 00:43:21,380
Get it.

504
00:43:21,380 --> 00:43:26,720
It's not a fast read, but it is packed with so much information that can help your child

505
00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:27,720
as well as you.

506
00:43:27,720 --> 00:43:30,560
It just, it will change your thinking.

507
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:31,560
Thank you so much.

508
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:36,920
I've enjoyed being here and yes, the book is a very quick read and it was intentional.

509
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:38,840
I want the information to really sit.

510
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:42,800
I don't want you to have to go through 300 pages to kind of source out where is the good

511
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:43,800
stuff.

512
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:45,640
It's all, it's all good stuff.

513
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:46,640
It's all good stuff.

514
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:47,640
It's all good stuff.

515
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:54,280
Thanks again to Carice LeGair for sharing her medical insight into each of you for listening

516
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:55,280
to today's episode.

517
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,320
If you're new to our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe.

518
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:03,640
And if you enjoyed today's episode, leave us a review or comment telling us about what

519
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,200
you enjoyed most.

520
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:10,960
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521
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:15,160
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522
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:20,480
Please can also join us via our Facebook Parents Support Group, the Airway Huddle, at facebook.com

523
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,400
backslashgroups backslashairwayhuddle.

524
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:28,760
You can also find tons of great content for parents and medical professionals alike via

525
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:33,440
the parents portal and clinicians corner on our website.

526
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:37,480
If you'd like to be a guest or have an idea for an upcoming episode, shoot us a note via

527
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:45,080
the contact page on our website or send us an email directly at infoatchildrensairwayfirst.org.

528
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:49,040
And finally, thanks to all the parents and medical professionals out there that are working

529
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:53,120
to help make the lives of kids around the globe just a little bit better.

530
00:44:53,120 --> 00:45:11,520
Stay safe and happy breathing everyone.