How To Diagnose Sleep Apnea In Toddlers

The patient is hooked to wires which are then connected to a machine. It monitors brain waves eye movement breathing and oxygen levels in the blood as well as snoring and gasping sounds during sleep.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

A Child S Snoring Can Sometimes Be A Sign Of Sleep Apnea

Obstructive Sleep Apnea In Children Recognition Treatment

The traditional diagnostic tool for sleep apnea is polysomnography at a sleep lab.

How to diagnose sleep apnea in toddlers. If the results are abnormal your doctor might be able to prescribe a therapy without further testing. Your doctor might provide you with simplified tests to be used at home to diagnose sleep apnea. They might just have disturbed sleep.

The main risk factors for sleep apnea in children and toddlers are enlarged adenoids or tonsils. Your doctor or a dentist can diagnose sleep apnea but the gold standard of diagnostic tools is overnight polysomnography. Csa occurs more commonly in children with underlying disease and the presence of csa may influence the course of their disease.

Central sleep apnea csa is thought to occur in about 1 5 of healthy children. Children are more difficult to diagnose than adults and can easily be misdiagnosed by doctors. Because sleep apnea in toddlers can masquerade as add or adhd or other seemingly unrelated behavioral issues getting a diagnosis is crucial for proper treatment.

Diagnosing sleep apnea in children. It allows doctors to evaluate how the patients vital organs work while he rests. During sleep signs and symptoms of pediatric sleep apnea might include.

Snorting coughing or choking. Removal of the adenoids or tonsils. Some of the sleep apnea symptoms differ in children and adults with sleep apnea.

These tests usually measure your heart rate blood oxygen level airflow and breathing patterns. Csa can be classified based on the presence or absence of hypercapnia as well as the underl. Since apnea can be caused by the inflammation of either removing them is usually a solution.

Other tests for sleep apnea eeg electroencephalogram to measure and record brain wave activity. If you think that your child has a sleep disorder visit an accredited sleep center for a sleep study. The test thats usually used to diagnose sleep apnea is called a polysomnogram.

This way they can discover any anomalies in the organs including the airways. Emg electromyogram to record muscle activity such as face twitches teeth grinding and leg. To properly diagnose sleep apnea the doctor will ask about your childs symptoms perform a physical examination and schedule a sleep study.

For the sleep study your child spends the night in. In some cases obesity is a risk factor but generally only for adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 18. The most common test to detect sleep apnea in children is the polysomnogram.

Infants and young children with obstructive sleep apnea dont always snore. Once the doctors have identified the problem we can treat sleep apnea in children in the following ways.