According to statistics, almost 5% of children snore in their sleep, mostly at the age of 3-7 years.
Causes of night snoring in a child
If your child snores in his sleep, first of all, you should contact an ENT doctor with him and determine the causes of snoring .
Since the respiratory tract in a child is narrower than in an adult, respiratory disorders occur much more often and more easily. The causes of children’s snoring during sleep are usually various anatomical changes in the nasopharynx that contribute to the narrowing of the airways:
- congenital narrowness of the pharynx or nasal passages;
- enlarged adenoids;
- swelling of the nasopharynx of inflammatory origin;
- nasal polyps;
- runny nose in acute or chronic form;
- curvature of the nasal septum;
- anomalies of the soft and hard palate;
- non-standard anatomical structure of the bones of the facial skull (elongated adenoid face);
- excess weight.
Often a baby snores through his nose at night if he was born prematurely and with a small weight. Sudden sleep apnea in infants (SIA) is one of the causes of death in children under the age of one year. This condition occurs due to the imperfection of the central (brain) regulation of breathing in newborns and premature babies, especially when rhinitis, hematomas and catarrh of the upper respiratory tract appear in children.
Overheating also contributes to the occurrence of sudden apnea in newborns with an underdeveloped central nervous system. At the same time, they most often develop a mixed syndrome of sudden apnea of central and obstructive genesis.
In most cases, premature babies “outgrow” this condition, and it does not bother them in the future.
When is snoring in a child not normal?
Periodic snoring is not dangerous for the health of the child. However, you should be alert if snoring is the cause of poor sleep, frequent nighttime awakenings and difficulty breathing with occasional stops and pronounced nocturnal motor activity. Also, parents should pay attention to the rapid fatigue of their child, shortness of breath during the day, changes in the speech and behavior of children (capriciousness), reduced academic performance, and the appearance of nocturnal enuresis.
Let’s deal with the problem
How is child snoring treated? If a child sniffles and snores at night, parents should try to rid him of this using simple methods.
- Choosing the right pillow for sleeping. Its height should be about six centimeters, since a higher pillow changes the position of the neck and sometimes causes snoring in itself.
- Do not put the child to sleep on his back, only on his side.
- Regularly ventilate the sleeping area, and, if necessary, moisten it. Dry air in the bedroom dries out the nasal mucosa and contributes to the formation of “crusts” that cause snoring.
- With nasal congestion in a child, use vasoconstrictor drops (” Tizin “, ” Otrivin “, etc.).
If snoring in a dream in children is caused by pathology of the ENT organs, you should consult a specialist, preferably in a specialized medical institution. At the Sleep Medicine Center at the Rehabilitation Clinic in Khamovniki, your child will receive adequate treatment for the disorder, depending on the causes of snoring .
In the presence of anatomical obstacles to the breathing process (growth of adenoids, polyps, curvature of the nasal septum), surgical methods are used to get rid of snoring . In other cases, therapeutic techniques may be different. Regardless of the chosen method, individually selected treatment demonstrates high efficiency.