Sleep apnea in children
Sleep apnea is a sleep problem in which breathing is interrupted by airway obstruction, find out how it affects children.
The apnea sleep is a common disorder, is a pathology of sleep in which breathing or short stays superficially . Those interruptions can last a few seconds or minutes and can happen a couple of times or numerous times. The most common type is obstructive sleep apnea. Normally, the people who suffer from it are people who snore when they sleep.
In children, sleep apnea is that their breathing stops and is interrupted during sleep. This happens, in turn, because the airways have become blocked or narrowed.
Index
WHY DOES APNEA OCCUR?
Both in the case of adults and children, when we are sleeping, the muscles relax. Air enters the throat into the lungs, and for them, the throat muscles also relax and hold it open for that air to pass through. So far everything is normal, hardly any are produced.
What happens in some children is that their throat is a little narrower than normal . This may be because your tonsils are also slightly larger than normal and thus prevent air from entering. In turn, the muscles will continue to relax during sleep, but in this case the tissues will close and block the airways. This is known as sleep apnea, the arrest of breathing.
However, there are also other causes for this sleep disorder . They are between them:
– Having a small jaw, in which the lower jaw is smaller than the upper jaw.
– Some certain forms of the palate or the airway that can cause this collapse of the airway.
– Have a big neck.
– Have a big tongue. This can cause it to move backward and block the airway.
– Obesity.
POSSIBLE SYMPTOMS
The main warning symptom of sleep apnea is snoring. However, you must bear in mind that not all children who snore will have this disorder. Although if snoring is frequent, it is a symptom of sleep apnea.
Another aspect that will indicate that you have this disorder are respiratory problems, that is, the difficulty of breathing that children will present when sleeping. Added to this are episodes of gasping as the child tries to breathe again. Also, due to the difficulty, children will breathe mostly through their mouths and will wake up very often , so the child will have a restless sleep.
As a consequence of all this, of this situation, the following symptoms will occur. Because the children have not had a good night’s rest, they will be drowsy during the day . As a consequence also, the children will have other behavior. You will be moody, more irritable, a direct cause of lack of sleep, and also more hyperactive . In addition, their concentration will decrease, so that at school children will have attention problems.
Therefore, if you notice any of these symptoms in your child, you should consider that taking him to the pediatrician is the best option. You can sleep with him to make sure nighttime symptoms appear and then take him to the doctor for a diagnosis.
SLEEP APNEA DIAGNOSIS
Once you take your child to the doctor, he or she will carry out a series of tests and examinations to check whether or not they have the disorder. What will be done is a sleep study or test .
The tests that the doctor is going to carry out are used to determine at what level the apnea is and, therefore, its severity. Thus, one treatment or another can be applied. This test is called polysomnography and with it neurological and respiratory variables are studied . This is done through a series of sensors attached to the skin. The test can be performed both at the patient’s home and in the hospital and does not have any pain. You will sleep normal and the sensors will determine those variables.
SLEEP APNEA TREATMENT
It is very important that sleep apnea is treated, since otherwise it can lead to other problems , whether they are less important such as behavior, conduct, learning or more important problems such as growth or heart problems.
There are three basic treatments , depending on the type of apnea and its severity:
– In the first, the doctor will advise the patient to lose weight if he is obese, to maintain a good diet and exercise. Dental devices that keep the jaw forward and also keep the airways open or inhaled nasal steroids can also be placed on the patient .
– Another treatment, the most common in most cases, consists of CPAP, that is, a continuous positive airway pressure device . It is done through a nasal mask placed on children when they sleep, which is connected to a machine located near the bed. What this machine is going to do is continuously transmit pressure to the upper airway to prevent it from collapsing. That is, the machine will continuously pump air through the hose and it will reach the mask that the child is wearing while they go to sleep. This keeps the airway open.
– The third possible treatment is surgery . It can be used if, for example, the child does not tolerate the mask well. The surgical operation can consist of several things. Clogging and excess tissue can be removed from the upper throat. The operation can also be used to correct a problem with the structure of the child’s face. Finally, it serves to make an opening in the windpipe to avoid the airway that has become obstructed.
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.