Ah, that tongue!

It's almost bed time. The girls are fast asleep. I tip toe over to their beds for one last g'night kiss. And then I see it - the tip of AngelicA's tongue is sticking out, one of those common things in kids with Down Syndrome. Very gently, I put it back into her mouth and usually at this point she retracts it. It makes me smile - that little tongue. In fact, I quite love the way it sticks out when our babies laugh or flash that impish grin.
It's another matter that I am not so happy when every therapist that we see invariably asks me if she always keeps her mouth open and sticks her tongue out. She doesn't. At home, she usually keeps her mouth closed but when we're out, her mouth is mostly open. It's probably because she is distracted and so is not conscious of it.

Each of her therapists have given me a few suggestions to address the protruding tongue. Her speech therapist suggested, among other things, that I should put my thumb into her mouth and press down on her tongue. I think I was too naive, or rather too foolish, to think that a toddler will be very sweet and open her mouth and let her mama fiddle around. AngelicA didn't appreciate it one bit. In a fraction of a second, she clamped down her razor sharp new teeth on my finger and wouldn't let go. The memory still makes me wince.

Anyway, now that she is a little older she understands when we ask her to close her mouth and promptly closes it or if we just remind her about her tongue and she will push it in with her little fingers just as we do.

There are few resources on the net to address this protruding tongue and here's a great article which has loads of exercises to help tone the tongue - Tongue exercises. I will try some of these with Angel. Until I read this, the only exercise I would get Amy to do is by making her funny faces. I would stick my tongue out and then she would do the same. Then I would wag my tongue from side to side and then she would copy me. But now, I'm glad I have a few more exercises for her.

The other thing we do is we give her foods that she needs to lick - like Nutella, honey or chocolate syrup. This is something that her therapist suggested but we haven't been doing it too often.

I used to massage her mouth with a Nuk brush, dipped alternately in the juice of a lemon and some honey. Angel hated it so I stopped.

One more suggestion from the therapist that I need to work on immediately is using a Jiggler for oro-motor stimulation. I had used it when Angel was very young and it was quite effective in reducing her drooling. I guess it might improve overall sensation and tone in and around her mouth.

It's just been a few weeks since she has figured out how to drink with a straw. Her speech therapist says that this should help improve the tone of the tongue muscle. I plan to give her some more viscous drinks - like a smoothie - with a straw. That might be even better.

My little Angel is slowly getting the hang of it and is able to control her tongue movements a little so I guess in time we'll lesser and lesser of her little tongue, except maybe when she gives us that naughty smile. And that I wouldn't want to change.

Thanks for reading,
JD