Sleep Apnea In Children The Causes, Symptoms, And Treatments

Sleep Apnea In Children: The Causes, Symptoms, And Treatments

Although sleep apnea mostly affects the older population, it is also experienced by children usually under the ages three to six. Sleep apnea in children is in the same way troubling as in adults. If it remains undiagnosed and untreated, it leaves the children with learning difficulties, weak school performance, mood and behavior problems, poor interpersonal abilities, developmental delays, and worse, high blood pressure and heart problems.

Causes
A common sleep disorder, sleep apnea occurs when the person stops breathing for brief periods that average 30 seconds. It is caused by an obstruction in the airway. In children, majority of the cases of sleep apnea result from enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Some cases of enlargement are due to infection.

But in some children, facial and structural deformities cause the narrowing of the airway. It can be that the children are born with smaller jaw, larger tongue, and smaller opening of the throat. Some facial deformities are also caused by certain craniofacial syndromes such as Down Syndrome, Treacher Collins Syndrome, and Pierre Robin Sequence. Children with these syndromes have structural deformities in the jaw, nose, and mouth, and have poor muscle tone, making them more at risk for developing sleep apnea.

Tumors anywhere that affects the airway can also contribute to the development of sleep apnea, since the presence of a tumor diminishes the muscle tone and therefore causes an obstruction. Although very rare, obesity can also be a cause. The fatty cells that amass in the throat tissue result in the narrowing of the airway.

Symptoms
As in adults, loud and heavy snoring is always the first symptom of sleep apnea in children. But since 10 to 20% of children snore at some point, even without the presence of sleep apnea, it is important for the parents to look for other symptoms in their kids.

Other symptoms include mouth breathing, bedwetting, odd sleeping positions, extreme sweating while sleeping, hyperactivity, excessive sleepiness, short attention span, aggressiveness, and behavior problems. Other children may also do poorly in school, have learning problems, and not grow according to their age.

Unlike adults who have the tendency to get overweight, children with sleep apnea are usually thin and may experience weight loss. This is because obstruction in the airway, especially in the throat and nose area, makes eating quite uncomfortable. Burning of calories is also at a higher speed due to abnormal breathing patterns.

Treatments
Since the enlargement of tonsils and adenoids is the common cause of sleep apnea in children, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, where enlarged tonsils and adenoids are removed, are the usual treatment.

But those who won’t benefit from such surgeries or may develop complications after going through them will be prescribed to use continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP. This is a nose mask connected to a machine that delivers pressurized air and keeps the airway open. Parents need to realize that CPAP may be a little uncomfortable to use, but some adjustments may allow the kids to get to use to it.

Sleep apnea in children requires immediate medical attention. If parents suspect their kids to have this sleep disorder, they need to promptly see a doctor or a sleep specialist. The severity of the case and identification of treatments will be based on the symptoms, medical evidence of enlargement of tonsils and adenoids, and sleep test results.

BONUS : Sleep Apnea Symptoms

Sleep apnea can exist for years without being diagnosed. This is because the sleep disorder manifests itself only during sleep, just when the person suffering from it is totally out of the bounds of consciousness to actually notice the irregularities. On the other hand, his bed partner may take the snoring and snorting as normal occurrences.

An undiagnosed case of sleep apnea, however, can be irritating and fatal all at the same time. Those who have it can experience as simple as fatigue and as life-threatening as heart disease. But the question is, how can one be so sure if he or his loved one is already having bouts with sleep apnea? There are warning signs to look out for, and they come as sleep apnea symptoms.

Red Flag: The signs and symptoms
Sleep apnea requires prompt attention. If the following symptoms surface, a consultation with a doctor or a sleep specialist must immediately take place.

1. Snoring. Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, but snoring is typical to those who suffer from the sleep disorder. Loud and chronic snoring is ordinarily accompanied by grunts, snorts, gasps for breath, and restless movements.

2. Breathing irregularities. Sleep apnea renders a person to have breath pauses that lead to frequent and brief silences during sleep, but which then break into loud snoring. It is the bed partner who notices these breath intervals.

3. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). It is described as the unordinary and persistent sleepiness. People experiencing EDS normally feel the urge to and sometimes involuntarily fall asleep for brief moments many times during the day and when performing daily itinerary such as eating, talking over the phone, and driving. Over time, EDS becomes a threat to someone’s performance at work and in school because it usually weakens a person’s competency to complete tasks.

4. Daytime fatigue. Due to disrupted sleep, people with sleep apnea normally feel tired as though they haven’t slept the night before. It then results in forgetfulness, lack of concentration, and learning difficulties. Mood changes are also apparent, causing the person to become irritable and anxious.

5. Depression. Although it is not clear how exactly sleep apnea contributes to depression, it is said that people with the sleep disorder are five times more prone to developing depression. Sleep apnea is also reported to aggravate an existing case of depression.

6. Morning headache. People suffering from sleep apnea wake up with morning headache. In fact, statistics says that headaches occur in approximately half of the people with sleep apnea. Headaches at night are also reported.

7. Other symptoms. People with sleep apnea have a frequent need to urinate at night and experience excessive sweating when asleep. Upon waking up, they tend to have a dry throat. Sexual dysfunction is also observed from people with sleep apnea.

Experts suggest that the more sleep apnea symptoms present in a person and the more intense they are, the more severe his case of sleep apnea is. Undergoing sleep test and treatment then is necessary. But because it is hard for a potential patient to observe some of these symptoms from himself, the bed partner is put in a place of greater accountability.

Any suspected case of sleep apnea should not be taken for granted. Rather, it should be monitored extensively.