Detecting OSA in Children

Detecting OSA in Children by Bonner Springs, KS sleep expert Dr. Thomas Drake.

Video Transcript

Detecting OSA in Children

Hello, I’m Dr. Tom Drake and today I want to share some important tips to help you parents potentially spot OSA in your children.

I was reading a medical journal the other day and it said that children who are born prematurely, have a parent with OSA, or a family member who had a tonsillectomy are at a much higher risk to have sleep apnea than other children. You see premature babies often have breathing issues due to immature development of their lungs and this can set them up for further breathing disorders later on in life.

Because the size of a person’s airway is largely determined by genetics, it only makes sense if one or both parents have OSA then there is a high likelihood their children might also have it.

The article went on to say snoring, restless sleep, and long term bed wetting are very common characteristic of kids with severe sleep apnea.

But remember just because a child displays one of these symptoms, it doesn’t automatically mean they have OSA. What it does mean is that if your child was born prematurely, or snoring or does a lot of tossing and turning while they sleep or any of the other factors we talked about, you need to take them to someone who is trained in sleep apnea to get checked out.

Early detection can save them from serious medical issues later in life.

I hope this has been helpful.

Thanks for listening.

This is another episode of sleep talk with Dr. Tom.