# The Hidden Breathing Problem That Can Look Like ADHD

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 22 Sep 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/8770ac34-cb46-48f0-89c9-b4c60021b179/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Your child’s behaviour problems might start with the way they breathe. Dentist Dr Jason Leung joins Justin to explain why mouth breathing can affect sleep, concentration, emotional regulation and behaviour, and why some of the signs can look remarkably similar to ADHD. They unpack the clues parents often miss, including snoring, teeth grinding, waking tired and breathing through an open mouth. Jason also explains why jumping straight to mouth taping, expanders or other devices may not fix the underlying problem, and what parents should check first. KEY POINTS • How mouth breathing can interfere with quality sleep • Why poor sleep can show up as hyperactivity, poor concentration, grumpiness and meltdowns • The possible connection between sleep-disordered breathing and ADHD-like behaviour • Signs to watch for, including snoring and teeth grinding • Why children need to be able to breathe freely through their nose before trying to change their breathing habits • The role of the tongue, lips and diaphragm in healthy breathing • Why mouth tape and airway devices aren't always the answer • When Jason recommends having a child’s breathing and oral function assessed QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “If you don't have good sleep, what happens for a child? They're not concentrating. They're hyperactive. They're waking up tired.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Dr Jason Leung, Oral Myology Perth • Breath by James Nestor ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Notice how your child breathes when they’re relaxed and asleep. • Look for regular mouth breathing, snoring or teeth grinding. • Pay attention to whether they wake tired, grumpy or poorly regulated despite getting enough hours in bed. • Don’t use mouth tape if your child cannot comfortably breathe through their nose. • If you’re concerned, seek professional assessment of their airway, breathing and oral function. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: G'day, this is the Happy Families Podcast. Today, a conversation
[0:09] Speaker 1: that's quite different to what we normally do. Dentistry is
[0:11] Speaker 1: not what we normally talk about here, but stay with me.
[0:13] Speaker 2: Don't go away.
[0:14] Speaker 1: This is very much about parenting. Did you know that
[0:16] Speaker 1: more than half of kids breathe through their mouths? And
[0:18] Speaker 1: most parents have never been told that it matters. In fact,
[0:20] Speaker 1: until a few years ago, I didn't know it mattered.
[0:22] Speaker 1: But then I got right into breathing and read a
[0:24] Speaker 1: book called Breathe or Breath or something like that by
[0:26] Speaker 1: a guy called James Nestor. And it totally changed the
[0:29] Speaker 1: way that I see the way that we breathe. And
[0:31] Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I'm walking around telling my kids
[0:33] Speaker 1: to close their mouth when they breathe and make sure
[0:35] Speaker 1: they breathe through their nose, and my kids think I'm
[0:36] Speaker 1: a little bit militant about it, and it seems a
[0:37] Speaker 1: bit silly. I never talk about it on the podcast.
[0:40] Speaker 1: I've never talked about it in any of my parenting workshops,
[0:41] Speaker 1: but I've come across a dentist by the name of
[0:44] Speaker 1: Jason Long, based in Perth, who explains today what he
[0:48] Speaker 1: sees in children's mouths if they're mouth breathers, things that
[0:54] Speaker 1: we as parents never notice, what it's doing to their sleep,
[0:57] Speaker 1: what it's doing to their teeth, what it's doing to
[0:58] Speaker 1: their face. and how you can tell tonight whether your
[1:03] Speaker 1: child has a problem. Fascinating conversation about your child and
[1:07] Speaker 1: their breathing, and maybe you and your breathing as well,
[1:09] Speaker 1: right after this. Stay with us. Hello, this is the
[1:13] Speaker 1: Happy Families podcast, Real Parenting Solutions every day. It's Australia's
[1:16] Speaker 1: most downloaded parenting podcast. I'm Dr. Justin Coulson, the dad
[1:19] Speaker 1: to six kids who I insist must breathe through their noses,
[1:21] Speaker 1: and they look at me and think that I'm bizarre, strange, weird,
[1:24] Speaker 1: and a whole lot of other things. And I'll tell
[1:26] Speaker 1: you why. No, in fact, I'm not going to tell
[1:28] Speaker 1: you why. I'm going to let.
[1:30] Speaker 2: Dr.
[1:30] Speaker 1: Jason Leung will tell you why.
[1:32] Speaker 2: Dr.
[1:33] Speaker 1: Leung is a dentist. He's based in Perth, focuses a
[1:36] Speaker 1: lot on child development and dentistry. He helps children who
[1:40] Speaker 1: are experiencing sleep issues, behavioral challenges, and developmental concerns by
[1:46] Speaker 1: uncovering underlying breathing and oral function issues that we very
[1:52] Speaker 1: easily overlook, don't even think about when we're talking about
[1:54] Speaker 1: our children's challenging behaviors. Who would have thought dentistry and
[1:57] Speaker 1: challenging behavior could be linked? So today, Dr. Jason Leung
[2:02] Speaker 1: joins me to have a conversation about these questions. Jason,
[2:06] Speaker 1: really nice to have you on the podcast. Thanks for
[2:08] Speaker 1: being here. Let me ask the simplest question that I
[2:11] Speaker 1: possibly can. What's the matter with breathing through your mouth?
[2:14] Speaker 2: So mouth breathing basically can cause decay, gum problem, and
[2:21] Speaker 2: dry air through breathing through the mouth can cause the
[2:24] Speaker 2: enlargement of the tonsils and the adenoids if there's not
[2:27] Speaker 2: due to allergy. And most likely it will cause eating behavior,
[2:33] Speaker 2: whether they're eating very slowly or eating very fast. Without
[2:37] Speaker 2: breathing through the nose, it will cause the turbulence or
[2:40] Speaker 2: the silence to be inflamed because there's no airflow through
[2:43] Speaker 2: it to kind of clean the mucus in there.
[2:45] Speaker 1: So gum disease, decay, inflamed sinuses, adenoids, tonsils, just to
[2:50] Speaker 1: name a few. Most people would never have known that
[2:53] Speaker 1: mouth breathing was that serious. We all We all breathe
[2:56] Speaker 1: through our mouths, right? But you also argue that, or
[2:59] Speaker 1: in fact, you cite evidence that if you're breathing through
[3:02] Speaker 1: your mouth, that it can be related to our children's
[3:05] Speaker 1: behavioral problems. And there's some evidence linking mouth breathing to ADHD.
[3:10] Speaker 2: Tell me more. ADHD behavior is more to do with
[3:14] Speaker 2: if you don't have enough sleep. So when someone breathing
[3:17] Speaker 2: through the mouth, what happens is the tongue collapses into
[3:21] Speaker 2: the airway and then they're more likely to not have
[3:24] Speaker 2: a very good sleep. That means they can't get into
[3:26] Speaker 2: a deep sleep. And a good sign will be snoring
[3:30] Speaker 2: or grinding their teeth because grinding means they are moving
[3:32] Speaker 2: their jaw to kind of open up the, pushing the
[3:35] Speaker 2: lower jaw forward to kind of open up the airway.
[3:38] Speaker 1: My dentist always asks me if I'm grinding my teeth.
[3:41] Speaker 1: And that's why, right? Because my tongue might be blocking
[3:43] Speaker 1: my airway and I'm not breathing through my nose.
[3:45] Speaker 2: Yes. Correct. And so if you don't have good sleep,
[3:50] Speaker 2: what happens for a child? They're not concentrating. They're hyperactive.
[3:54] Speaker 2: They're playing up. They're waking up tired. They're waking up grumpy.
[3:58] Speaker 2: they just not going to cooperate with you. They're not
[4:02] Speaker 2: well regulated in their nervous system. They have meltdowns. So
[4:07] Speaker 2: behavior issue is quite common on the children that I see.
[4:11] Speaker 2: In fact, in America, some states, not all states, some
[4:14] Speaker 2: states require sleep study to be done for children before
[4:21] Speaker 2: they can diagnose ADHD because the presentation is very similar.
[4:27] Speaker 1: Our kids are just sitting there at the table. They're
[4:28] Speaker 1: breathing in and out through their mouths. Then they're going
[4:32] Speaker 1: to sleep and they're sleeping and breathing through their mouths
[4:34] Speaker 1: the whole time. They're potentially creating a whole lot of psychological, physiological, dental,
[4:40] Speaker 1: emotional challenges that are completely happening invisibly. We've got no
[4:44] Speaker 1: idea that it's got to do with their breathing.
[4:46] Speaker 2: No idea. I think we've been neglecting because as a parent,
[4:50] Speaker 2: you have so many things to look at.
[4:52] Speaker 1: Okay, so after the break, when I was reading James
[4:55] Speaker 1: Nestor's book a couple of years ago, I remember reading
[4:58] Speaker 1: about how American Indian mothers would, if they saw their
[5:03] Speaker 1: children breathing through their mouths as they slept, they would
[5:06] Speaker 1: pinch their lips closed to force them to breathe through
[5:09] Speaker 1: their noses. I want to talk about that. We've got
[5:11] Speaker 1: to talk about mouth tape. And how do you train
[5:14] Speaker 1: a child to breathe through their nose if they're a
[5:17] Speaker 1: mouth breather and they're potentially doing this damage to themselves?
[5:21] Speaker 2: All that and more.
[5:22] Speaker 1: A million questions right after this.
[5:31] Speaker 2: We're back.
[5:32] Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. Okay, Jason. So how do
[5:35] Speaker 1: you train a child? to breathe through their nose? Are
[5:37] Speaker 1: you constantly saying, stop breathing through your mouth? Is it
[5:41] Speaker 1: constantly just reminding them? Like those Indian mothers, they would
[5:43] Speaker 1: just pinch their children's mouths closed so they would have
[5:45] Speaker 1: to breathe through their nose. What's the solution here? Is
[5:48] Speaker 1: mouth tape the right way to go?
[5:50] Speaker 2: Those Indian mothers started when they were very, very young.
[5:54] Speaker 2: So it creates a habit. What we want to do
[5:56] Speaker 2: here is also creating a habit. It has to start
[6:00] Speaker 2: from whether they can breathe through their nose if their
[6:02] Speaker 2: nose is blocked. Structurally, whether we're going to make sure
[6:05] Speaker 2: that they can or not. So imagine you have a
[6:08] Speaker 2: blocked nose and you close that person's mouth. They're not
[6:10] Speaker 2: going to let you close it for a very long
[6:13] Speaker 2: period of time. They're going to suffer and they will
[6:15] Speaker 2: pull the tape off if you're mouth-tapping and they want
[6:18] Speaker 2: to breathe through their mouth. It's part and parcel of survival. Right.
[6:21] Speaker 2: So if I've got.
[6:22] Speaker 1: A cold and I'm all sinus-y and snuffly, then I
[6:25] Speaker 1: can't breathe through my mouth. So I shouldn't worry if
[6:27] Speaker 1: I've got a cold.
[6:27] Speaker 2: Just breathe. Breathing matters more than not breathing, right? Absolutely. Correct. Absolutely.
[6:33] Speaker 2: What we want to do is when they can breathe
[6:35] Speaker 2: through their nose, then we want to kind of change
[6:38] Speaker 2: their habits. So how we do it is by giving
[6:40] Speaker 2: them tools and exercises that practice at home, making sure
[6:44] Speaker 2: that the tongue is sitting right onto the palate or
[6:48] Speaker 2: the top of the roof of the mouth. and lips
[6:50] Speaker 2: sealed together and breathing. Breathing is almost an art. It's
[6:56] Speaker 2: not just breathing through the nose. You can be breathing
[6:58] Speaker 2: through your nose and still chest breathing. We want to
[7:00] Speaker 2: breathe through your nose and using our diaphragm to breathe.
[7:04] Speaker 2: So breathing is almost like you need to practice. And
[7:08] Speaker 2: the other thing about it is if you are a
[7:11] Speaker 2: chronic mouth breather, what happens is your body is not
[7:14] Speaker 2: used to that kind of breathing. So it takes time
[7:16] Speaker 2: to get used to that breathing.
[7:18] Speaker 1: Okay, a quick personal question. I've noticed because I've been
[7:22] Speaker 1: really concentrating my breath for a number of years now,
[7:25] Speaker 1: when I'm doing a podcast conversation, when I'm giving a
[7:28] Speaker 1: keynote speech in front of an audience, if I'm not speaking,
[7:32] Speaker 1: like while I'm listening to you, my mouth is closed
[7:35] Speaker 1: and I'm breathing through my nose. But when you're speaking
[7:38] Speaker 1: or when you're singing, when you're vocalizing, it's all mouth breathing.
[7:42] Speaker 2: Is that okay?
[7:43] Speaker 1: Is this the sort of thing that we should worry about?
[7:45] Speaker 1: Are we supposed to stop what we're doing, inhale through
[7:47] Speaker 1: our nose and then start talking again? Am I overthinking it?
[7:52] Speaker 2: Probably. When you're functioning, when you're running, for example. Right.
[7:56] Speaker 2: If you can, I think most athletes actually try to
[7:59] Speaker 2: breathe through their nose when they run. 100%. For elite athletes. Yep.
[8:03] Speaker 2: It's part and parcel of training. It's almost like going
[8:06] Speaker 2: to a high-attitude training.
[8:08] Speaker 1: There seems to be a growing industry around children's airways.
[8:13] Speaker 1: You go into a pharmacy, you jump online, there's appliances,
[8:18] Speaker 1: there's ways of expanding airways, there's courses on getting kids
[8:21] Speaker 1: to breathe.
[8:22] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[8:22] Speaker 1: How do you know whether your child needs any of
[8:27] Speaker 1: this sort of stuff?
[8:28] Speaker 2: I think the main thing is breathing is a function
[8:32] Speaker 2: and it's not just structural. So when you look about expanding,
[8:36] Speaker 2: looking at airway, you're just expanding the structure of it
[8:39] Speaker 2: or making it bigger it's like a straw you're just
[8:42] Speaker 2: using a bigger straw to it is easier but doesn't
[8:46] Speaker 2: mean that you're drinking it properly you're still scowling it
[8:49] Speaker 2: you're still sucking it very so so for us what
[8:53] Speaker 2: we do here is work on the function of it
[8:56] Speaker 2: the habits the muscles is there any compensation is there
[8:59] Speaker 2: the proper use of the muscle the tongue and breathing
[9:02] Speaker 2: whether it's reading through the diaphragm or not What I do,
[9:05] Speaker 2: I think it's very simple. Our goal is to have
[9:08] Speaker 2: tongue in the roof of mouth, lips together, breathe through
[9:11] Speaker 2: a nose, breathe through a diaphragm. It sounds very simple,
[9:14] Speaker 2: but we've seen so many children that can't do all
[9:17] Speaker 2: that or some adult as well.
[9:19] Speaker 1: Last couple of questions.
[9:20] Speaker 2: Sure.
[9:21] Speaker 1: What age would you want children to be assessed and
[9:23] Speaker 1: looked at for the way that they're breathing?
[9:26] Speaker 2: For me, I work with a lactation consultant, so as
[9:30] Speaker 2: young as a baby. because they start breathing then. And
[9:34] Speaker 2: also they use their tongue to suckle then because breathe, suckle,
[9:39] Speaker 2: swallow is a function and is a complex coordination. For
[9:47] Speaker 2: me personally, in my clinic, I would like to see
[9:50] Speaker 2: children around three to four for a couple of reasons. One,
[9:53] Speaker 2: I can't do anything when they're too young because they're
[9:56] Speaker 2: not able to follow instruction. And I'm... therapy, exercise therapy
[10:01] Speaker 2: based treatment. So as long as they're not able to
[10:05] Speaker 2: sit there and follow instructions, it's going to be very
[10:07] Speaker 2: hard to kind of coach them. So three, four years
[10:10] Speaker 2: old is probably where I will start seeing them. And
[10:14] Speaker 2: we start very, very slowly in terms of the program
[10:16] Speaker 2: that we have.
[10:17] Speaker 1: Jason, this conversation is just on my eyes so much.
[10:20] Speaker 1: I'm so glad we've discussed this. You can literally look
[10:23] Speaker 1: into a child's mouth and probably an adult's mouth as well,
[10:26] Speaker 1: and you can tell whether they're a mouth breather.
[10:28] Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely.
[10:29] Speaker 1: And then talk about the associated challenges that they're probably experiencing.
[10:32] Speaker 1: My final question is this. What would you say is
[10:35] Speaker 1: the biggest myth in your field right now? There's a
[10:38] Speaker 1: lot of people who are out there who are all
[10:39] Speaker 1: about optimization and maximization and trying to make sure that
[10:42] Speaker 1: we're all living the best lives possible and maximizing our
[10:44] Speaker 1: children's potential as well. What's the thing that you're hearing
[10:47] Speaker 1: about the most that you think is actually a myth
[10:49] Speaker 1: that's overstated that people are getting wrong?
[10:51] Speaker 2: I think for me, it's a lot of people are
[10:54] Speaker 2: focusing on structural stuff. Like, you know, like you said before,
[10:58] Speaker 2: you know, the palate expander, the mouth expander, the taping.
[11:03] Speaker 2: For me, those are... tools but sometimes they they may
[11:09] Speaker 2: not be the right timing for them buying things and
[11:12] Speaker 2: buying tools for me in my industry is the it's
[11:16] Speaker 2: it's the greatest myth buying something to to do something
[11:19] Speaker 2: is probably not the right thing i think for us
[11:22] Speaker 2: if we need guidance just like going to the gym
[11:24] Speaker 2: you say all right let's do some deadlift you don't
[11:26] Speaker 2: start doing 100 kilos You start making sure your form
[11:31] Speaker 2: is correct, your technique is correct before you do the exercise. Otherwise,
[11:35] Speaker 2: you will hurt yourself. And that's what we are thinking.
[11:38] Speaker 1: If people want more info, Jason, where can they go
[11:40] Speaker 1: to get it?
[11:41] Speaker 2: If you want more info, go to my website. It's
[11:43] Speaker 2: called oralmyologyperth.com.au. Great.
[11:47] Speaker 1: We'll link to that in the show notes. I'm going
[11:49] Speaker 1: to walk around the house tonight and put my fingers
[11:51] Speaker 1: on each of my children's lips and close their mouth
[11:54] Speaker 1: to make sure that their nose is breathing. Really fascinating conversation, Jason.
[11:58] Speaker 1: So grateful for your time. Thanks for sharing your knowledge
[12:01] Speaker 1: and insights.
[12:02] Speaker 2: Thank you, Justin.
[12:03] Speaker 1: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Rulon from
[12:06] Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds provides our admin and other support.
[12:08] Speaker 1: If you want more info, we will link to Jason's
[12:10] Speaker 1: website in the show notes. And you can get a
[12:14] Speaker 1: whole lot more about making your family happier at happyfamilies.com.au.

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