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When a Toddler Snores
Could Your Child Have
Sleep Apnea?
Sleep Apnea?
By Harmony Cornwell
According to the Mayo Clinic, "[S]leep apnea occurs when the muscles in the back of your throat relax and your airway narrows or closes as you breathe in, and breathing momentarily cuts off." People who have sleep apnea normally do not realize or remember this is happening through the night. Toddlers with poor muscle tone, Down syndrome or neuromuscular diseases are at a higher risk of having sleep apnea.
Noelle Quero, a mom of two from Boynton Beach, Fla., has a son who had sleep apnea. "I knew to look for [sleep apnea] since my son was diagnosed with Down syndrome," she says. "His breathing at night was always labored and loud peppered with episodes of sleep apnea."
Dr. Freed provides the following guidelines to parents who are concerned that their toddler may suffer from sleep apnea or other nighttime breathing disorders:
- Listen for breathing that is not rhythmic.
- Sweating at night is a sign because they are working hard to breathe.
- Watch for gasping sounds and fighting for air.
All of these should be mentioned to your child's health care provider.
For a proper diagnosis of sleep apnea, a sleep study will be conducted. You and your child will spend the night in a sleep lab with your child hooked up to external electrodes and monitored by closed-circuit televisions outside of the room. "[A sleep study] is nothing scary; nobody gets hurt and children don't have to get anxious; there is nothing invasive about the procedure," Dr. Connolly says. "It does help to have Mom or Dad in the room; they can even sleep in the same bed if it makes the child feel better."
