10 Year Old Still Drooling

I would do a couple of things here. I'd take him to an ENT and have his sinuses checked. If he has a blockage of some sort, it will cause mouth-breathing, and thus the drooling.

If his sinuses are normal, I'd go to a speech therapist. The reason I suggest this is because his oral musculature (the muscles around his lips) may be weak. She can give you exercises and suggestions about how to strengthen them. I'm not saying that he needs speech therapy - this is about getting him help with his muscles.

I agree with you that it's important to get to the root of it so that other kids won't tease him.

Good luck,
Dawn

My son drooled a lot when he was younger. My feeling was that it was because his nose was always stuffed up from allergies and he was breathing through his mouth. I don't even know if that was why or not, but it's a thought.

Maybe this could be an orthodontic issue? I could be way off but it is something that came to mind.

Dear M.,

I like all of the suggestions below. If I can add one more -- I asked our ped about a similar issue with my son, and she recommended speech therapy. It sounds strange -- speech therapy for drooling? -- but speech therapists apparently deal with this a fair bit -- and they can give your son exercises to strengthen the key muscles. I also agree about following up with an allergist, an ENT, and an orthodontist or dentist, though.