In my new favorite book, Buteyko Meets Dr. Mew, ABC means Always Breathe Correctly. I found my copy on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Buteyko-Meets-Dr-Patrick-McKeown/dp/0956682308
This book is a fabulous resource for dentists, speech pathologists, and ENTs alike to use with patients and parents on proper breathing, which is nasal breathing.
Oral breathing (aka, mouth breathing) causes sore throat and bad breath. But what’s worse, oral breathing also creates a vicious cycle of airway soft tissue swelling of adenoids and tonsils, which in turn creates more oral breathing.
In this book, you will learn that in order to breathe correctly, you can employ a few strategies. A favorite of my 5 year old is the instruction to take a small breath in through the nose, then back out through the nose, hold the breath out, and count the number of steps he can take until he needs to breathe again. He started with 12. Now just one week later he can easily accomplish 53 steps without taking a gasping heaving breath! His goal is 90.
In my yoga teacher training, I learned the technique of alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodhana pranayama) and discovered even if I had a cold, this technique worked to reduce my nasal congestion. In this Buteyko meets Dr Mew book, there is a different way described to improve how to breathe correctly with a stuffy nose: same beginning as counting steps, but rather than walking, simply hold the nose for 15-20 seconds and release. Doing this just a few times will improve nasal breathing and reduce the feeling of congestion.