The reason why three-month-old babies drool a lot

After birth, many babies learn to roll over and crawl. However, careful mothers will observe that three-month-old babies drool a lot. Mothers will worry whether this will affect the physical development of their children. In fact, mothers' worries are unnecessary. Let's find out what is going on in the following article.

The saliva secretion function of newborn babies is not perfect, the amount of saliva is less, and they generally do not drool. After 4-5 months, as complementary foods are gradually added, deciduous teeth begin to erupt, the secretory function of the salivary glands begins to strengthen, and the amount of saliva continues to increase. However, since the child's mouth is shallow and the ability to swallow saliva has not yet been formed, excessive saliva will involuntarily flow out from the corners of the mouth, which is commonly known as drooling. This is a normal physiological phenomenon, especially common in children aged 1-2 years old, and parents do not need to worry about it.

Children after two years old gradually learn to swallow, and this phenomenon will disappear naturally. However, diseases such as stomatitis and sequelae of encephalitis can also cause drooling. If a child has ever suffered from such diseases, he should go to the hospital for examination and not let it go on.

Starting from 4 months after birth, the amount of saliva secretion increases gradually due to the development and improvement of the salivary glands. At this time, children cannot swallow the saliva into the stomach, nor can they spit out the saliva when necessary like adults or older children. Therefore, children tend to drool starting from around 4 months old. Some children drool so much that their chins and clothes on their chests are often wet. As one parent said, "My child's chin is wet all day long, I could almost 'raise fish' there."

At the same time, due to excessive accumulation of saliva in the mouth and throat, children can often hear "gurgling, gurgling" or "huffling, huffling" sounds in their throats, whether during the day or at night. The sound may worsen when lying on their backs or when the child's body position changes, sometimes accompanied by a choking cough. Especially when the child is awake and moves his hands and feet around, the "phlegm" and choking sounds are more obvious. These are all normal phenomena. As children grow older and gradually learn to swallow their saliva actively, this phenomenon will slowly improve or disappear. However, the time of improvement or disappearance is different for each child. Some may disappear as early as 8 to 9 months, while others may still be drooling at around 2 years old.

From the article, we learned that 3-month-old babies drool a lot because there are too many secretions in their mouths at this time, and the children cannot control it, so it is easy for them to drool a lot. So mothers don’t need to worry, it will be fine when the children grow up.