Sleep apnea is recognized as a common condition among overweight
children. If your child has sleep apnea, he stops breathing for a
period of 10 to 20 seconds during sleep. The interruption of breathing
may extend up to 2 minutes. This episode may occur hundreds of times in
a single night.
Sleep apnea can be caused by complete obstruction of airway or partial
obstruction. Therefore obstructive sleep apnea is defined as
obstruction of airway during sleep. Due to the obstruction of airway,
your child's sleep gets interrupted. As the sleep is interrupted, your
child may feel drowsy during the daytime. This also results in
tiredness, headaches, loss of memory, lack of energy and depression.
If your child is a normal weight child, he may have tonsils and
adenoids which can be cured with surgery. If you child is overweight,
the excess fat may narrow the airway. Excess body fat on the neck and
chest constricts the air-passageways and sometimes the lungs.
Obesity, mainly abdominal and upper body obesity, is the most
significant risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea. Thus morbid or
malignant obesity carries a greater risk.
If your child lies down, the throat muscles relax, the tongue falls
back and the airway gets obstructed. Due to the obstructed airway, the
oxygen cannot be pumped to various parts of the body. Therefore oxygen
levels drop, and your child arouses from sleep to breathe and the cycle
begins again. Your child might experience snoring which is the result
of sleep apnea.
Snoring results from the vibration of excess tissue - whether it's fat,
large natural anatomy or both - as the child breathes in.
Here are the signs and symptoms so that you can identify that your child is suffering from sleep apnea.
1. Interruption of breathing during sleep. Your child may gasp for breathing when breathing is interrupted.
2. Loud snoring or noisy breathing during sleep. As a parent of your
child, you can find if they snore; your child may make all types of
strange noises when he is sleeping. But snoring is less common in
children.
3. Your child may be having a restless sleep. If your child is having
sleep apnea, he is not going to get a good night sleep, as may not be
able to breath properly while sleeping.
4. Breathing through the mouth, rather than through the nose.
5. Excessive tiredness or daytime sleepiness during the day.
6. With the inability to breath properly, your child may have difficulty in paying attention and difficulty in concentrating.
7. Your child may be having tonsils and adenoids.
Your child may sleep with his mouth open. You can see his chest retract
as he gasps for air, and he sometimes sleep in strange positions. Your
child may show signs of depression or outward signs of confusion
because he may be generally tired, from lack of sleep. Your child may
also show signs of behavior changes as he is not getting the sleep
needed.
Due to the presence of some, or indeed many, of these signs does not
necessarily mean that your child is suffering from sleep apnea, but it
would be better to consult a specialist if he is facing with any of
these symptoms.
Today, sleep apnea is being widely recognized as a common disorder
amongst children of all ages, and particularly amongst children between
the ages of about three and six. Estimates vary, but in the United
States alone, the number of children suffering from sleep apnea is put
at between one and a half and two million. |
