Your child is snoring a symptom that should not be overlooked. Risk of apnea while sleeping

Your child is Snoring a symptom that should not be overlooked. Risk of apnea while sleeping

Snoring is caused by narrowed upper respiratory tract while sleeping, causing the difficulty in breathing. The cause of snoring in most of the kids,  caused by the enlarged size of tonsil and/or adenoid so it obstructs the upper respiratory tract of kids. It oftenly found in preschool kids and up to 8 years old. It is also caused by other causes such as obesity, abnormal face shape, nose allergy , etc.

Reason that should not be overlooked

          Although snoring is mostly not dangerous, it does not occur often like when getting a fever and it does not interrupt sleeping. But the life-threatening snoring is caused by complete airway obstruction, causing hypoxia (insufficient oxygen) and Hypercapnia (High amount of carbon dioxide in blood) while sleeping, causing quality of sleeping lowered. It is called these symptoms as Obstructive sleep apnea , OSA. 

Warning signs of being obstructive sleep apnea from complete airway obstruction

1.   Have loud snoring more than 3 times a week.

2.   Abnormal sleeping pose, shaking, or too much sweating while sleeping.

3.   Breathing stops in a short period then followed by snoring, deep breath and startled awake during the night.

4.   Has problems in study and behavior such as short attention, easily irritated or feel sleepy while studying, etc.

5.   Difficult to wake up or feel not refreshed after waking up.

6.   Have a headache during the day or after waking up.

7.   Urinating on the bed, even though it previously can be held.

What are the negative effects of this on the kids?

The aforementioned condition causing insufficient and low quality of sleeping time, so the kids might express it in many ways 

Behavior : It might be unusually naughty, short attention, aggressive, short memory.

Growth : It might delay growth, Obesity and insulin resistance and it also affects the heart and arteries system such as high blood pressure, thickened left side of heart. And if the symptoms get more severe, there will be High Blood Pressure in the lungs, malfunction in the right side of the heart and heart failure .

Regarding diagnosis, when parents observe abnormal signs, the doctor will take a medical history and conduct a physical examination. Then, imaging tests will be performed to assess the size of the tonsils and adenoid . When there is suspicion of sleep apnea causing breathing cessation during sleep, confirmation may involve a sleep test or polysomnography.

Treatment of sleep apnea

In the case of snoring that is caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoid depends on if the patient has a complication of stop breathing.

- If there’s no or a few symptoms, it will use nose spraying steroids and/or using an antihistamine by mouth.

- If there’s respiratory arrest with medium to high severity, treated by cutting tonsils and/or adenoid off.

In the case of a patient that has snoring and stops breathing from other causes, is treated by covering continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP on the patient’s face while sleeping to help in widening the upper respiratory tract.

Moreover, there are also other ways of treatment such as taking care of good sleeping habits, weight control or avoiding nose allergic stimulation, etc.