Restrictive sleep apnoea in 6yo. Help please!

After dealing with sleep issues from pretty much day dot with Mr C we finally had an opportunity to have an overnight stay with a sleep clinic last week. Their results reveal that he has a restrictive sleep apnoea so I'm glad that we know that there is a true cause of his problems but I'm also worried about what might be in the future for him.

They want to trial using a medication that will relax his airways and hopefully stop the struggling to breathe which wakes him up several times a night. Has anyone had experience with this at all and was it success?

Plan B is further analysis of his airways and the thought of that is freaking him (and me) out. He's had a run of ailments this last year and he is getting very cranky at Drs lol. Definitely puts their child schmoozing skills to the test this boy of mine ;)

I"m glad you've gotten a dx for him and know what's going on with your lad. Fingers crossed they are able to limit the poking and prodding and find another way to help him :hug:

Thanks lovely xox

Hugs hun I hope the meds help and can avoid further tests etc.

xoxo

I thought for kids sleep apnoea it's standard to remove adenoids & tonsils, as that's normally the cause?

DS had a sleep study, but it came up negative, and we found he had asthma which was causing him to cough all night. DH has sleep apnoea but in adults they use CPAP machines.

Part of the reason they did the sleep study is because his adenoids and tonsils don't look big enough to cause an issue. He's never had tonsillitis either so I guess they aren't wanting to take the "cut them out and see" approach because if they do and it doesn't solve the issue then he's had unnecessary surgery!

It's interesting that they attribute it to his airways. My DS2 has a condition called Eosinophilic Esophagitis which is an inflammation of his throat due to food allergies. So it's not an external allergy and does not show up in Skin testing at all.
He had to see a Paediatric Gastroenterologist who did an Endoscope and took biopsies of his oesophogus. It showed he had the condition, it was measured also by the number of white blood cells that were in the area, it was very high, you could see the ridges in his throat from the photo's he took while he was down there, it did not cause sleep aponea I think, he was a heavy breather and did snore so maybe it did without me knowing? It did cause food to get stuck is his throat and not pass.

He initially was put on Buedesonide to relax his throat, it worked. When the medication stopped, his condition returned. A life of steroids was not something I was keen on at all. We then went through an elimination diet with a Paed Allergist and Dietitian who specifically had dealt with this condition for quite a few years. We discovered Dairy products cause his condition.


The name of the Gastro Paed we saw was Dr Barry Lipschitz if you want to ask the GP or specialist if they know of him.

Perhaps something to ask about?

Wow H that is very interesting! The phone call with the respiratory Paed wasn't all that long and I was in the car so I can't remember the name of the medication, but I do remember that he said it's also a medication that they use for asthmatics as well. He is sending a script to me so I'll know the name of it soon enough.

Thanks for your reply xox

M has had obstructive sleep apnea since birth, she also does not require her adenoids/tonsils removed as they are to small to cause a problem. She really should have been on C-PAP but no matter how hard we have tried she just will not tolerate it. So most nights we can manage her with positioning (for her it is on her side with her throat open) but when she is sick we have used a medication (the name is not coming to me right now, funny being 3.30am I have no idea why lol, but it sounds like the one you have been prescribed, it is also used for asthmatics) and we have had great success with it.

Thought I'd update!

The medication was singulair and I don't think it did much at all, unfortunately.

The full results of the study show that his brain is waking 4.3 times a night on average and they believe it is related to the tonsils or adenoids after all, so now we have to go back to the ENT and discuss it further :/

~ H ~ I did bring up the possibility of it being caused by an allergy (and used your example) and the respiratory paed didn't seem to give it much consideration. I'll discuss it with the ENT when we go to see him in a couple of weeks time and see what he says.