Did your child snore in his sleep and get your attention?

  Sleep snoring is a disease that just isn’t well understood by many people. There is now growing evidence that sleep snoring can cause sudden death. Especially in infants and children, sleep snoring can lead to sudden pediatric death. Generally healthy children do not snore in their sleep. Sleep snoring in children is a red flag.  Why do children develop sleep snoring? What are the most common causes of it?  Sleep snoring in children is mainly caused by partial obstruction of the upper respiratory tract. The main cause is tonsillar and adenoid hypertrophy. Other causes such as rhinitis, sinusitis, deviated septum, nasal polyps, nasal tumors, nasal foreign bodies, maxillofacial deformities, etc. can cause obstruction of the upper airway, which can lead to sleep snoring, and excessive obesity can also lead to sleep snoring. Sleep snoring in children can cause damage to multiple systems, resulting in stunted growth, decreased intelligence, hearing, social skills, etc. When children snore in sleep, the upper airway is affected by the enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids, narrowing the upper airway, causing apnea and lack of oxygen during sleep, and the inability to fall into a deep sleep, resulting in insufficient secretion of growth hormone, leading to delayed growth and intellectual development, inattentiveness in class during the day, personality quirks, and decreased academic performance. Other common sleep disorders in children include sleepwalking, night terrors, enuresis, excessive sweating, and sleep disturbance. Sleep snoring is something that the child is not aware of, and because the child is still young, it is difficult for him or her to make a judgment about his or her symptoms. When a child snores in his or her sleep, it is a danger signal to his or her surroundings and requires the parents’ attention. Do not think that snoring is a trivial matter.  The current clinical treatment for sleep snoring in children is mainly surgical removal of enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids and treatment of concurrent rhinitis and sinusitis, with an efficiency of over 90%. The more advanced methods are nasal endoscopic power system to remove adenoids and plasma surgery to remove tonsils.