Snoring and Children – Your Options

You may learn that if your child snores from time to time it amy often be believed normal, but if its more regular then it may not be normal. Chronic snoring can be a cause for a more troublesome medical condition called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome or 'OSAS' – simply put, Sleep Apnea.

Sleep apnea is a situation characterized by loud snoring with periods of breathing interruptions. Interruptions may be short or prolonged, usually between five to thirty seconds and during this time, the boy or girl will not be able to get to sleep, continually moving into different sleeping positions, and then resuming sleep. Eventually, after a short period, the boy or girl will begin snoring once again. It is important that parents should watch out for symptoms that come along with it, even though this situation rarely appears on kids.

Bad speech habits can suggest a disorder called sleep apnea, and occasionally the speech traits can be so terrible that it sounds like a person is speaking with a mouth of hot food. Kids suffering from sleep apnea use more energy in breathing during the nighttime. They often are inclined to eat their food slowly due to the trouble of breathing and chewing simultaneously and this frequently causes a deficiency of nutrients needed to support healthy growth. If a child does not get a good nights rest, they will often display behavior that is not natural and may look to be hyperactive. Since kids do not get the right sleep throughout the night, they have a tendency to appear tired and lack the concentration to focus at school, thus, producing a poor performance.

If you observe any of these symptoms in your child it is important you get them to a pediatrician to be analyzed. A child might seem happy and all smiles in the doctor's office making it hard to diagnose sleep apnea accurately. If your boy or girl snores you should record any information that you can, so that a doctor can analyze the condition and if need be make a decision established on the information that you are able to give him.

Sleep apnea is not the only reason for snoring in youngsters, other causes might be obesity, asthma, allergic reactions, or puffiness of adenoids or tonsils, induced by colds or tonsillitis. A child's breathing may be made hard by enlarged adenoids. This, in turn, can be induced by allergic attacks, which may produce swelling in the nose. The theory behind this is that a boy or girl will snore prior to an allergic or asthma attack because of the narrowed air passage. It has been established that after an allergic reaction or asthma attack the snoring will quit. Obesity can also lead to snoring, in fact, 20 to 40 percent of obese youngsters snore. This is because fats can shape around the throat that can result in constriction and make the limited air passages, plus fats in the stomach, force the diaphragm to function on an irregular basis.

Recent research is establishing that snoring and asthma may go together, particularly in youngsters. Sometimes it could be a more easy reason, such as inflamed or enlarged tonsils or adenoids. This might be the outcome of a cold or a contagion in which the snoring will be diminished or go away completely when the person is well again. While cold or tonsillitis can be remedied by decongestant and antibiotics, adenoid enlargement is handled by a surgical procedure to take away adenoids and tonsils.