Toddler Talking Out of One Side of Mouth

Show it to the Dr just to find out.. But,is there a chance he is teething and chewing the inside of his cheek to relieve some tension in his jaw? Or maybe hes sucking on his tongue on that side,, just a habit maybe? When he eats, does he chew more centered? Give him a cup and see how he drinks. Is it off to the side, or full mouth? My grand daughter chewed the inside of her cheek for a while. She had a big pimple/bug bite on the outside and I think it was sorta itchy inside and she was scratching it,,I dont know, it just seemed like thats what she was doing. It went away and she doesnt do it anymore.

Okay, not trying to be scary, because kids do all kinds of quirky things that turn out to be normal for that kid and that do pass... If your child ALWAYS talks out of one side of his mouth, ask your pediatrician about the possiblity that your child has had a small stroke at some point. The question came up for me as a adult (when I was being seen for migraines) because all of my facial expressions tend to pull to one side. As it turns out, there was no evidence inside my head that I'd ever had a stroke - I just have quirky facial muscles that do pull to the left more than the right.

Hi S.,

All kids are different, but my daughter, Marlee, did the same thing, for MONTHS. She probably stopped at about two or maybe a little after. It almost looked as if she was trying to tell you a secret out of the side of her mouth. It was cute at first, but then we got worried too. She was our first, so she didn't have the delay of talking that you get with a second sibling (my one year old is going through that now...)

Anyway, Marlee is almost three and a half and she speaks more eloquently then some adults I know..lol. However, when she gets overtired or is trying to convince us of something, like a reason why she should get a second happy meal to get a toy for her sister, (yeah, right, it's for your sister), she talks with that side mouth thing.

I think it is a good idea to talk to the doc at his second year appt. but I wouldn't get worried. I heard you really only need to test further if they are only saying mama and dada by two. Otherwise, they are just fine.

Good luck and try not to worry,
L.

Saw Kelsey's mom's response about teething - when Marlee's teething stopped, that was about the time the side-talking stopped...never put the two together...

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My son was doing this.at 2 and 3, and had all the same concerns as mentioned by others. We found out that his muscles in his cheeks and or jaws were not strong enough. So we worked with him on blowing bubbles and blowing toy whistles which strengthened these muscles. Over a couple months, the side talking is almost gone. He was a preme baby, and the facial muscles are one of the last to develop. It took a lot of patience to get him to blow, but bubbles and the whistle noises were enough reward to motivate him to keep trying.

My 3.5 year old just started doing this & was diagnosed by his pediatrician as having bells palsy, which was ridiculous b/c he has full use of both sides of his face, he just intermittently talks out of the side of his mouth. I took him to a pediatric neurologist today who confirmed it was not bells palsy & told me it was more than likely just a behavior & that I should ignore it. He said bells palsy is the COMPLETE weakening of muscles on one side of the face, so just the mouth rules that out. Also, my son can smile & symmetrically so it is unlikely a brain tumor, which would cause loss in lower facial muscles all the time, not intermittently. Bottom line- go to a neurologist if you are in doubt. The neurologist said if I thought it was getting worse in anyway to bring my son in right away & they would do a CT scan.
Oh- & he also said some people just naturally have slightly weaker muscles on one side of the face... He went on to explain that the human face is far from symmetrical, but our minds eye can sometimes correct what we see so it appears symmetrical. In my sons case he also believes the muscle group on the left side has always been weaker (he looked at past photographs & videos).