Occasional snoring may be normal to children. Recent studies show that 3 to 12 percent of children between the age of 1 and 9 snore. But frequency doesn’t mean normality. Habitual snoring can be a cause of a more serious medical condition called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) or simply, sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by loud snoring with periods of breathing interruptions. Interruptions may be short or prolonged, usually between 5 to 30 seconds. During this period, the child’s could not get straight sleep. He rouses and moves to another sleeping position, then resumes sleep. After a while he will once again begin snoring. This activity often happens several times during the night, each night. Although this condition rarely appears on children, it is very important that parents should watch out for symptoms that come along with it.
Symptoms of sleep apnea include
* Unclear speech-his or her verbal skills are poor.
* Growth rate is reduced. Children who suffer sleep apnea tend to eat slower and have difficulty in chewing while breathing. Moreover, during sleep more energy is given to the body due to the difficulty of breathing. As a result, fewer nutrients are given for his or her growth.
* Easily excitable and usually exuberant. For children who have insufficient sleep during the night, drowsiness is usually experienced. So for the child to stay awake he or she usually acts frantically.
* Low performance in school. Children who have insufficient sleep comes in class with lack of concentration or focus and appears to be tired which in return causes poor academic performance.
If these signs show up, it is vital for parents to consult a pediatrician for further diagnosis. Though a child may seem happy and without any problem when brought to a doctor, and show no signs of the negative effects of sleep apnea. So keeping track of the child’s snoring is important for the doctor to analyze.
Meanwhile, sleep apnea is not the sole reason why children snore. Other reasons include allergy attack, obesity, asthma, and enlargement of adenoids and/or tonsils caused by cold or tonsillitis.
Some allergy attacks can cause swelling on the linings of the nose that can direct to the enlargement of adenoids. This keeps the child from breathing normally. This causes the child to snore. After the allergy attack, the snoring stops.
For children who are obese or overweight, the chances of snoring is relatively high almost 20% to 40% of obese children snore. This is caused the tissues surrounding the throat which causes the snoring. Other than that fats found in the stomach can cause irregular diaphragm functioning.
Asthma suffers have a high chance of snoring. In fact a study has been conducted showing 40% of children who suffer from asthma actually snore.
Children with the enlargement of the adenoids and/or tonsils are likely to experience snoring. Adenoid enlargement is treated mostly by surgical procedures removing the adenoids and tonsils. But for tonsils it is easily cured by decongestants and antibiotics.
Another cause of snoring is the underdevelopment of the jaw during the child is still in the womb. The nerves and muscles may be unable to control properly the air passages due to the condition and thus the child snores.
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