Drooling

[jhipsher]

Does anyone have suggestions to help decrease the amount of drooling in their Angelman child? I've heard that there may be some type of laser surgery and I just recently came across some Chin-up strips that help people with sleep apnea.

Any help is appreciated.


Jason Hipsher

[Magster's Mom]

I think it really depends on how old your child is and how often the drool occurs. Maggie drooled and mouthed a lot more when she was younger. She`s largely outgrown it. Now she only drools when she is very tired or having seizures.

An angel mom has created a bib called the Hipper Bib (you can find it by googling) that is like a snapped kerchief to catch drool. When Maggie wore these, we found it caught the drool well. When she was little, we used beanie baby keychains and zipper pulls (little stuffed animals on zippers or key chains) that we attached to her clothes. She`d chew on them and that caught the drool.

Another angel mom invented something called a Dapper for older children. Maggie uses this at school. Its just a square of absorbent, quilted felt on a common retractible cord. It clips onto her waistband or on to her wheelchair and is always available to wipe drool.

Many medications, like clonazepam, can worsen drool, so you`d want to rule out the severe drooling as a med side effect. With Maggie, we find drooling is a symptom of poor seizure control.

Some kids only drool heavily when concentrating. They can often be taught to close their mouths and swallow their saliva.

There is medication like Saltropine that will help dry up salivary ducts. The only issue is that drool can serve many positive purposes and you don`t want to prevent that too much. Drool helps keep tooth decay in check. There is also surgery to clip the glands that permit drool and there`s also botox injections into the salivary glands themselves. I think it really depends on the child, their age and how or when they drool to know what is best.
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Erin Sheldon, mom to Maggie, del+, DOB 8/14/03 and Ella DOB 8/19/06. www.sheldonhickey.com

See Maggie star in her movies on YouTube: http://ca.youtube.com/user/magstsersmum