As the saying goes, “Children sleep and cry until they are two years old.” Many parents always use this phrase to comfort themselves when facing the trouble of their children sleeping restlessly. The little baby girl, 20 months old, is also particularly “naughty” when it comes to sleeping, rolling all over the bed. When sleeping down at this end of the bed, in the middle of the night to the other end of the bed. The parents of the little treasure and the neighbors a communication, many children also have the same situation, neighbors said, children are like this, when they grow up will be good. But Xiao Bao’s parents were concerned about this problem, they felt that “sleeping naughty” might not be so simple.
After half a year of seeking medical help, the answer was finally revealed. Wang Hong, a member of the Pediatric Society of Zhejiang Province, a member of the Pediatric Society of Nanjing Military Region and the director of the Department of Pediatrics of the 117th Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, confirmed that Xiao Bao’s restless sleep was caused by adenoid hypertrophy. This problem is found in many children, but is not known by the public.
Two days ago, Xiao Bao went to the specialist clinic of the director of pediatrics Wang Hong at the 117th Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army for a follow-up consultation, and I made a special trip there as well. Little treasure’s sleep story says you listen, you may find similarities in your own children.
90% of children’s sleep snoring is due to adenoid hypertrophy
Grandmother said that the child is good at everything, it is the sleep problem that worries the whole family.
Last July, the grandmother was the first to notice the little treasure “skin”. The child was previously taken by an aunt, and seemed to be sleeping well, as long as a cry, the aunt will give the baby a pacifier, immediately quiet down.
Xiao Bao had a hard time falling asleep and liked to crawl around in bed. After he fell asleep, he liked to sleep on his stomach, sometimes even kneeling on the bed, arching his back, and snoring as loudly as adults. The family feels that this problem must be solved, for one thing, the child does not sleep deeply, which may affect development; for another, in order to cover the child, has affected the sleep and work of adults.
In August last year, Grandma took Xiao Bao to a familiar Chinese medicine clinic and then to a pediatric specialist clinic at a major hospital, with no improvement in treatment. In the next six months, the child tried acupuncture, massage and other therapies one after another, but still no improvement.
In January of this year, the child continued to snore at night, and the adults were both distressed and anxious.
Grandmother’s family lives across the street from PLA Hospital 117, so one morning she went directly to the hospital’s pediatric inpatient department with Xiao Bao in her arms and found Director Wang Hong.
After listening to Xiao Bao’s sleep story, Director Wang asked additional questions about the symptoms and then examined them in detail, answering the long-standing questions of Xiao Bao’s family.
Director Wang said: “The child’s adenoids may be enlarged, blocking the posterior nostril and pharyngeal tube pharyngeal opening, the tongue root back, thus appearing snoring, uncomfortable breathing during sleep. Children crawling around or sleeping on their backs or arching their backs are looking for a sleeping position that allows them to breathe comfortably. It really is not a matter of naughtiness.”
”Children snore in their sleep for different reasons than adults. The majority of adults snore and pharyngeal muscle relaxation, obesity related. Ninety percent of children snore because of adenoid hypertrophy, which affects the nasopharynx ventilation. It can also cause inflammation of the ear, nose, pharynx and bronchus, such as chronic otitis media, hearing loss and other diseases.” Director Wang Hong said.
Among secondary school students with poor academic performance
12.9 percent of students have a history of snoring at the age of 2-6
Director Wang said that adenoids are lymphatic tissues located at the junction of the ear, nose and pharynx, which exist in the embryo, develop to their maximum around the age of 6, and basically shrink to resemble adults at the age of 14-15. Generally speaking, adenoid hypertrophy or proliferation, mostly caused by colds, inflammatory secretions will stimulate the adenoids to proliferate and hypertrophy, blocking the posterior nostril, poor drainage resulting in recurrent rhinitis and sinusitis, easily causing a vicious cycle. Because of nasal congestion, children often open their mouths to breathe, the bacteria and viruses in the air without nasal filtration, directly into the throat, easy to repeated respiratory infections.
Adenoid hypertrophy is a common and frequent disease in children, and is most common in Director Wang’s clinic between the ages of 2 and 10, with the youngest being 12 months old. One 6-year-old boy, because of adenoid hypertrophy, usually suffers from breath-holding and snoring when he lies down to sleep, and every time he opens his mouth to breathe and has a significant shortness of breath after a cold, he needs to be hospitalized to get better, which seriously affects his development.
Director Wang Hong said that the symptoms of adenoid hypertrophy are very similar to the common symptoms of colds and rhinitis, which are actually “fake colds”. Some children also have recurrent coughs, which are easily misdiagnosed as asthma, but are not necessarily tracheal problems. Many of these coughs are caused by rhinitis, where the snot flows back into the throat. Children who snore and cough should generally be suspected of having adenoid hypertrophy or chronic rhinitis and should be seen by a hospital promptly.
It is especially important that children with adenoidal hypertrophy, due to snoring during sleep, open mouth breathing and body position, may cause the child’s teeth development deformities, facial eye spacing is too wide and other “adenoidal face”, over time may make the cute baby ugly. The pituitary gland secretes growth hormone, which is a crucial part of a child’s growth and development, and this hormone is mainly produced during sleep at night. If the child does not get enough sleep for a long time, the pituitary gland secretion will be stagnant, which will definitely affect the child’s development. Such children are shorter compared to children of the same age. According to a study on the long-term effects of snoring on children’s academic performance, 12.9% of secondary school students with poor academic performance had a history of snoring between the ages of 2 and 6, much higher than those with good academic performance.
Xiao Bao’s case was not very serious, and Director Wang Hong chose conservative treatment for the child and observed him for 3 months. However, Director Wang also reminded parents that if the child is diagnosed with adenoid hypertrophy on film and conservative treatment is not effective, and if the adenoid hypertrophy blocks more than 2/3 of the posterior nostril, surgery should be performed in time.