Bad breath is a condition that affects people of every age and gender.  Yes, not only teenagers and adults are inflected by it, but infants too fall victims to bad breath.  In fact, hundreds of parents nowadays are asking and looking for some ways to cure their child’s bad breath, and it is nice to know that infant bad breath is curable and preventable only if you invest extra effort and time on finding the right solution.

Infant bad breath can be a distressing dilemma for both the child and the parents.  Certain theories have revealed that infant bad breath is basically caused by certain infections in the mouth, throat or sinus of the child.  However, there are much deeper causes of infant bad breath, and some say that it’s all about the child’s thumb sucking habit and chronic mouth breathing.  Well, let’s take a closer look at these two major causes of infant bad breath.

a) Mouth breathing:
Mouth breathing is basically the same condition that produces the snoring sound.  Infants undergo this condition as soon as they fall asleep.  During this stage, the muscles in the mouth relax and the production of saliva falls.   Once the saliva production drops, the mouth tends to dry, allowing the growth of bad breath-causing bacteria.  Note that the longer the child sleeps the higher the bacterial count in the child’s mouth increases.  This is the condition actually that results to the so-called “morning breath”.

Infants who frequently breathe through their mouth might have been affected by sinus infections, colds, enlarge tonsils blocking the nasal passages, or allergies.  Given this fact, it is then best to visit your child’s physician if you’ve noticed this kind of condition to your child.  The physician may help you solve whatever problem your child is suffering from, be it a sinus infection, colds, allergies, or a chronic infant bad breath.

b) Thumb sucking:
In almost all infants, thumb sucking is very common. Reports depict that there are no permanent problems related with thumb sucking in childen. But, still you should try to maintain limits in your child's habit. Some experts believe that if thumb sucking continues beyond the age of four or five, the things do not turn out to be in the favor of your child's development. Thumb sucking can signify lack of self-confidence and emotional immaturity in your child. The other bad consequence can be infant bad breath. You must be wondering as to how does thumb sucking cause infant bad breath. The answer to this is very simple! When a child keeps sucking his thumb, the mouth remains dry, allowing the bacteria to accumulate and cause bad breath.

As given, infant bad breath is usually caused by mouth drying.  So to prevent or cure infant bad breath, the main goal is to lessen the number of mouth bacteria and increase saliva.  One way to decrease the bacteria is to teach your child the proper brushing technique.  Make after meal brushing a habit as this will help eliminate the infant bad breath-causing bacteria present in your child’s mouth.  And, if the case appears to be serious, don’t hesitate to call a doctor and find out the real problem.