Snoring and Sleep Apnea

When kids are sick with colds and runny noses, we expect them to snore due to the nasal congestion and larger tonsils that occur when their body is fighting off these viral infections. But if you have a kiddo who is sawing logs in the next room even when they are feeling well, you should let your pediatrician know. When people snore, it could be due to a lot of reasons. It could be due to large tonsils (lymphatic tissue in the back of the throat), large adenoids (lymphatic tissue in the back of the nose), or the size and shape of one’s palate/jaw. 

Most snoring in kids is fine, but there is a subset of kids who snore so much that they will actually have pauses in breathing leading to a condition called obstructive sleep apnea. When this occurs, you will notice pauses in kiddos’ breathing when they are sleeping and snoring. During these pauses, the heart and lungs are strained and freak out a small bit. Every now and then is fine, but if this happens frequently over time, it can lead to heart and lung conditions. But for kids, the main immediate concern is frequent poor and interrupted sleep. We can see kids who sleep for 8-10 hours but always wake up exhausted and sleepy. This can lead to behavior and learning concerns and poor growth. 

So if you have a kiddo with loud snoring, we will usually have them seen by the ear, nose, and throat doctor and the sleep specialist for a sleep study to see if the snoring is causing these apnea events and if they are, what is causing them: the tonsils, the adenoids, both, or something else. The treatment at this age can be a combination of nasal sprays to help decrease the size of the adenoids or even surgery to remove large tonsils and adenoids.