Interventions for Drooling

 Prompts:
o Teach on wet/dry and prompt child to wipe his own mouth/chin
o Prompt child to “hide your lip and swallow” or smack his lips/slurp
o Work on breathing through the nose instead of the mouth (particularly during fine-
motor or attending to another task)
o Books, social stories, songs

 Rule out medical issues:

o Teething
o Tonsils/adenoids
o Allergies (seasonal or food-specific)
o GERD/reflux
o Medication side effects
o Specific dysfunction of glands
o Overbite or other structural differences that affect closing the mouth/managing saliva

 Blowing toys:
o Whistles
o Pinwheels
o Blowing a cotton ball with a straw
o Bubbles
o Blowing a ping pong ball across the table

 Sucking activities:
o Use a straw to move pieces of paper or M&Ms by sucking
o Drink thick liquids with a straw (applesauce, pudding, yogurt, smoothies, jello, Frosty,
mashed potatoes…) – try doing ½ c. food a day that way
o Start with a wide, short straw and progress to a narrower, longer one

 Oral awareness/oral motor:

o Z-vibe, vibrating teether, vibrating toothbrush, NUK brush
o Facial massage
o Lip closure
o Jaw strength/biting exercises to promote closed-mouth positioning
o Sour candy spray and adding sour/spicy flavors to food
o Crunchy, chewy, or icy snacks
  Complementary interventions:
o Core strength/postural control
o Supportive seating and good posture during fine motor/focused tasks
o Feeding/oral motor (as above)

 Modalities and referrals:

o Kinesio taping
o Salvatory patch (work with doctor to make sure it is a proper dose)
o Botox
o MORE program
o Hands-on methods to stimulate a swallow
o ENT/other doctor
o Speech and language pathologist (additional outpatient therapy)

 Further reading:
o "The Use of Overcorrection as a Means to Control Drooling" by Trott and Maechtlen,
AJOT, October 1986.
o "Decreasing Drooling with Oral Motor Stimulation in Children with Multiple Disabilities,
August 1990.
o Super Duper Publications has this handout "All About Drooling".
https://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/183_Drooling.pdf
o Book, Pam Marshalla, How to Stop Drooling

Ideas compiled by the Pediatric Occupational Therapists group on Facebook