Why does a newborn baby keep sticking out his tongue?

Many newborns always like to play with their tongues, often sticking them out or pressing their tongues against the roof of their mouths, making their mouths full of saliva. Some mothers find this very strange, worrying that this is a disease and that this habit will cause adverse effects. In fact, this is generally normal behavior for newborns. So why do newborns always stick out their tongues? Here are a few reasons that you can refer to based on your baby’s situation.

Possible causes:

1. It is a habit; then we need to pay attention to help children correct their habits from time to time.

2. If the baby's body temperature is slightly high or the baby has too much saliva, sticking out the tongue will lower the temperature in the mouth and reduce some saliva, making the baby feel comfortable. Then you don’t need to drink more water on purpose;

3. The body may have low water content and the mouth may be too dry, making the child uncomfortable and causing the baby to stick out the tongue frequently. Then you need to increase your child's water intake and breastfeeding appropriately.

1. The most common thing is that some healthy and happy babies will stick out their tongues with a smile when they are happy. When children see delicious food, they will also stick out their tongues to lick their lips. These are all normal phenomena. This tongue sticking out will not last long and will soon return to normal. If the baby develops well and is not physically or intellectually backward, then the condition is not pathological and the child will no longer stick out his tongue as he grows older.

2. If your child often opens his mouth, sticks out his tongue, drools, and has an enlarged tongue, and the symptoms do not improve with age, you should pay attention and ask a pediatrician to give your child a comprehensive health check.

3. There are pediatric diseases in which sticking out the tongue is a symptom. For example, "cretinism" among endocrine system diseases is characterized by the child developing a special facial feature 2-3 months after birth, with a big head, flat nose, wide nose wings, big tongue, short and thick neck, enlarged thyroid gland, tongue often sticking out of the mouth, and being abnormally quiet. As children grow older, they will show signs of growth retardation, rough and dry skin, sparse hair, low muscle tone, and a large abdomen.

Among hereditary diseases there is "congenital idiocy". Children with this disease also have special facial features: wide distance between the eyes, upward slanting eyes, flat nose, small ears, narrow hard palate, and half-open mouth. Physical development is slow, the tongue often sticks out of the mouth, and there is excessive drooling. For some children, the symptom of tongue sticking out of the mouth will be alleviated as they grow older, but the tongue will become enlarged and cracked.

The above-mentioned tongue-sticking problems are not diagnosed solely based on whether the tongue is stuck out or not. They may also manifest as abnormal intellectual development and physical retardation.

The main reasons why newborns often stick out their tongues are the above-mentioned situations. Mothers should observe whether there are any abnormalities in other aspects of their babies. If there are some special symptoms mentioned above, they should go to the hospital for treatment in time. Generally speaking, this is a habit of young babies. If this situation still exists after one year old, mothers should correct it appropriately to avoid forming bad habits.