Wife is a nose breather any advice

[brunow]

My wife and 2 kids are getting ready for our second pool session tomorrow and my wife just mentioned to me that she was having a problem the first night with not being able to breathe without water going up her nose. I know that this should and will be discussed with the instructor but she asked me to post and see if anyone has any suggestions so she could get head start to fixing her issue.

 

[DET]

Have her place her face underwater while breathing from the regulator. No mask. Nose must be underwater to do this. A natural reaction would be not to breathe from nose.

 

[grf88]

An Exercise For Reducing No Mask Swimming Anxiety

Lots of excellent information and advice on this site. Also read "The Primitive Brain" on the same site.

 

[DevonDiver]

Have her place her face underwater while breathing from the regulator. No mask. Nose must be underwater to do this. A natural reaction would be not to breathe from nose.

The issue is that she is a nose breather... which actually means that her 'natural reaction' is to breathe from the nose.

It is normally under these circumstances (no mask breath, mask remove) on a scuba course that 'nose breathers' suck up water and start to hate the course. I am sure that is what the OP is asking for advice about

I've seen this many times when teaching scuba. It's more much common among women than men. It takes a little time and patience to overcome. The tendancy itself can be overcome with practice - but initially it requires a 'work around' so that the diver concerned doesn't have too many unpleasant experiences with water up the nose. Unpleasant experiences can discourage the student from continueing training.

I know that some instructors might disagree with me, but I am an advocate of 'nose pinching' for people who suffer from this. Basically... anytime the mask is removed, then just immediately pinch the nose... the breathing reaction will automatically switch to the mouth and water cannot enter a sealed/pinched nose.

This isn't ideal as a permenant solution, but I have always found that the person quickly adapts to the routine of mouth breathing underwater...and the nose pinching swiftly ceases to be necessary.

 

[TSandM]

Your wife can actually work on this in a sink. Fill the sink with lukewarm (pleasant) water and have her put her face in it while using a snorkel. She can start with her nose pinched, and then let go and see if she can breathe without getting water. She needs to isolate mouth and nose breathing; doing it standing over a sink removes all the anxiety of being immersed in water (she's not going to drown in the kitchen sink!)

 

[Roughneck]

So how is water going up her nose if she has a mask on? Or is she just having a hard time breathing with a regulator while submerged? I can clearly remember the first time I took a breath underwater and the split second hesitation from my brain saying "WHOA! you are not supposed to be doing that!" Working at a dive shop I have seen it often and saw various techniques used by instructors. I've seen students basically blindfolded or masks blacked out and told that once their faces are submerged the instructor will put a snorkel in their mouth. They are to take a few deep breaths and then hand the snorkel to the instructor then with their hand count out one thousand one, two, three. The instructor would then place the snorkel back into the mouth and the student would clear and breath repeating the exercise. On the 4th or 5th time the instructor would place the regulator in the students mouth the student would clear thinking it is a snorkel and then begin breathing using the regulator. That was the method used for a student that had the hardest time breathing with a regulator underwater.

If her problem is just whenever her mask is off then have her either pinch her nose closed or have her focus on exhaling out her nose and inhale through her mouth.

 

[DevonDiver]

So how is water going up her nose if she has a mask on?

If she's having the problem with her mask in place, then it must be due to water in the mask. This often accumulates in the nose pocket. It can get up her nose in two ways....

1) If she's nervous...and keeps glancing upwards at the surface.... then that small amount of water can run up her nose. To remedy this, keep the head level or looking downwards, when nose is in contact with water and clear the mask frequently.

2) She might be 'sniffing' the water from the mask. Encourage her to clear the mask frequently and to exhale via her nose whenever she feels water inside it.

 

[koozemani]

My girlfriend had the same problem, especially when it came to mask clearing. She almost completely gave up on the course because of it. Like Devondiver said have her try nose pinching. It's a little funny to watch if you don't have that problem.

She would preemptively(sp?) pinch her nose through her mask with one hand while the other hand pulled the mask strap over her head. With her hand still pinching the nose portion of the mask she would pull it off and quickly have her free hand take its place. When putting her mask back on, she would simply pull the mask back in place, hand already in position to reassume nose pinching duties while the other hand reaffixed the strap.

Again like DevonDiver said, it took alot of time and patience and ultimately another instructor to get her comfortable enough to get through the skills. She still has an issue with it, but she's comfortable enough to suck it up and not go bolting for the surface everytime she sucks up some water.

Mine tried Roughneck's idea of focussing on inhaling through her mouth and out her nose, but as a nose breather, she would instictively inhale water on every breath.

Get her lots of pool time to practice at her own pace without the pressure of other class members/instructor/you making her more nervous than she already probably is. On more than one occasion mine was reduced to tears. During a vacation she opted to try a resort course so she could join me on my dives and whatever magic that instructor worked was amazing. She hasn't stopped being a nose breather, but she's figured out to work around/cope with it and continues to work at it.

She can probably find a bunch of videos about this on Utube.

Good Luck and I hope she keeps at it.

ps. Having my nose broken a bunch made me into the mouth breather that I am today. Not saying you should try that, but....... No really don't try that.

 

[koozemani]

If she's having the problem with her mask in place, then it must be due to water in the mask. This often accumulates in the nose pocket. It can get up her nose in two ways....

1) If she's nervous...and keeps glancing upwards at the surface.... then that small amount of water can run up her nose. To remedy this, keep the head level or looking downwards, when nose is in contact with water and clear the mask frequently.

2) She might be 'sniffing' the water from the mask. Encourage her to clear the mask frequently and to exhale via her nose whenever she feels water inside it.

You could also try a mask with a purge valve.

 

[stairman]

She doesnt have to dip her head in a sink but can simply fill a mask with water and breathe thru her mouth on the porch etc. Being able to breathe past small amounts of water[in the nose] is taught in rescue class and is a good way to keep a fogged up mask clear. By having a small amount of water in it if it fogs you can just shake your head a bit and the water acts as an inside windshield washer to keep it clear. My daughter had problems breathing underwater without a mask till I made her fill it up and wear it on dry land, then told her of the defog tip and she's had no problems since. Good luck!