By Dr Annabelle Leong
Does your child struggle to breathe well when asleep?
Does your child have noisy breathing even in the daytime? Is his or her mouth often open to breathe? Children who have persistent noisy breathing, snoring, blocked nose with mouth-breathing, are not breathing normally.
As a result, they don’t sleep well and go on to have daytime problems too. As a busy Children’s ENT specialist in Singapore, Dr Annabelle Leong has seen diagnosed, and treated so many children to help them breathe and sleep better.
Parents are sometimes unaware that their children are sleeping poorly due to their difficulty breathing because many kids sleep in their rooms. But peeking in their rooms at night every once in a while to listen to their breathing pattern when asleep is important.
Some of the danger signs to watch out for when your child is asleep are:
- Loud snoring
- Recurrent noisy breathing and gasping
- Recurrent teeth-grinding
- Recurrent cough
- Restless sleep pattern e.g. tossing and turning, moving all over the bed
- Persistent mouth-breathing i.e. mouth open most of the time
- Sleepwalking
- Bedwetting
- Nocturnal waking episodes: “My child keeps waking up at night cos he can’t breathe”
- Increased chest and neck muscle effort to breathe when asleep
- Blocked nose with mucus sounds inside the nose and repeated sniffing
- Daytime tiredness and “no energy”
- Behavioral problems in the daytime and at school e.g. cranky, temper issues
- Attention deficit issues (ADHD symptoms)
- Persistent dark under-eye circles
The list is not exhaustive and children with sleep-disordered breathing problems may present with atypical different symptoms not listed above. Watch out for mouth-breathing, often a sign of breathing problems and linked to blocked nose symptoms too.
If any of the above ENT symptoms in your child are worrying you, then you should have your child checked out by an ENT specialist. Your child may be suffering from sleep apnea, a serious health condition that affects breathing to cause low oxygen levels in their blood.
If left untreated, sleep apnea in children is associated with a higher risk of poor general health, falling ill frequently, and disrupted sleep, each in turn leading to abnormal cognitive development.
Remember, your child needs to breathe well to sleep well. They need to sleep well to grow well too! The brain produces a lot of important neurotransmitters and hormones, including growth hormone, during sleep.
So your child may not be receiving the right amount of the “goodie stuff” from their brains if they aren’t sleeping well.
Five Ways to Help Your Child Breathe and Sleep Well
- Make sure they have a good pillow and try sleeping on their side
- Try some antihistamine syrup like Zyrtec to decongest their little noses
- A good bedtime routine like early bedtime and enough sleep is important: Little ones need as much as 9-10 hours of good sleep every night.
- Using a nasal spray like Nasonex is safe for controlling nasal allergies (allergic rhinitis) and improving nasal breathing.
- Enough exercise and daytime physical activity are important to tire the little ones out to sleep better at night.