my 13 month old son has no saliva

[mcmommyof6]

I have a 13 and 1/2 month old son who has no saliva, his teeth are starting to erode and his tear ducts are blocked.

I have seen his doctor and he didn't seem too concerned since he is "thriving". He walks and talks and has no developmental delays. We saw a dentist and he seemed to be more concerned and we will be going back to him in the next month.

I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what it could be. He is not dehydrated. I had a kidney stone attack when I was 30 weeks pregnant with him. In the hospital they gave me to shots of Toradol and then switched to Fentanyl. This was for less than 24 hours that I was in the hospital.

I read up on Toradol and found that it can cause some problems with baby in the third trimester. Could there possibly be a link?

Thank you for any suggestions.

[elke]

Did your son have these problems at birth, or are they new?
Can your son produce tears?

Depending on these answers, some things you may want to look into are Sjogren's Disease and congenital/structural problems in the head and neck region.

It sounds like your son's doctor is not taking this very seriously. Maybe they can refer you out to someone (such as ear, nose, throat?). Or maybe you need to get a new doctor who is concerned that your son's teeth are getting ruined by his illness.

I hope you find help soon.

[mcmommyof6]

His tear ducts have been blocked since birth. There is no visible opening where they should be on his eyelids.

The saliva issue I never really noticed as much until he cut his first tooth at 6 months. I didn't even realize he was teething because the telltale drooling was not there. I took him to see his dr. right away and was told not to worry.

He can produce tears but they just run down his face because his ducts are blocked and they have no way to drain away.

[Monsterlove]

Please find a new doctor; I believe you need several specialists, too. Shame on your doctor. I think you need an opthalmoligst and maybe a geneticist, in addition to a new pediatrician.

[elke]

If he can produce tears, it makes Sjogren's much less likely.
I think he needs to see a pediatric ENT doctor (or maybe geneticist?) to see if he has a tear duct opening inside his nose. This will determine if he has no tear duct at all, or only part of his duct (that you can't see).
The medical term for tear duct is "nasolacrimal duct".
No tear duct at all would be "nasolacrimal agenesis", and part of the tear duct would be "nasolacrimal atresia" (I think- you might want to double check this), if you wanted to do a search for these things either on the internet or through Pub Med (the place to search the "official" medical literature).
It sounds like there is some kind of structural problem- perhaps during development something occurred that caused both the tear duct thing and the salivary gland thing. Maybe your son actually does have salivary glands, but they are blocked, too. (?)
I tried looking at Pub Med to see if maybe there's a syndrome with both things linked together, but I couldn't find it, but you probably have more time to do a more careful search than I do. I did not try an internet search- this might be your best bet.
I think that salivary glands are important and that the dentist is rightly concerned for your son- it might predispose him to a lot of dental caries down the road, so it should probably be taken seriously. Cavities are expensive!

Good Luck finding the right help.
Best Wishes.

[aquila]

Elke has nailed it already, but you also may want to know that the medical term for blocked tear duct is Dacryocystitis.

[Lori Williams]

my 20 month old has the same problems and we have been to many specialist without an answer. She also has dry nasal passages, (her nose never runs) dry skin and excessive thirst for water.

[taniaaust1]

i dont have a clue what your sons issue is.. but i too think you need to change doctors due to him not taking things more seriously. Just not really caring.