Health Problems In Children May Be Linked To Snoring
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's not usually associated with kids, yet a growing number of children snore.
As CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports, snoring isn't just annoying for the rest of the family. It could put your child's health at risk.
It's bedtime and all's quiet at the Sanchez household. But until recently, it was anything but quiet. That's because when Orlando Sanchez's twin boys hit the sheets, they used to snore.
"It was so loud we weren't able to sleep during most of the night," he says.
"We started noticing they were not breathing during their sleep. We're like, 'All right, we've got to do something about it,'" Sanchez says.
The family doctor referred the twins to a sleep lab where their every move and sound was monitored. The eye-opening results showed the boys gasping for air throughout the night.
Dr. Darius Loghmanee of Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago says the boys suffered from a severe case of sleep apnea – a resistance of the upper airway during sleep.
"I think we're starting to recognize that snoring and sleep apnea are more widespread than we initially expected," he says.
He says in children, the symptoms are easily misdiagnosed as attention problems or hyperactivity.
Children with the condition may be cranky or irritable. And the problem can lead to hypertension, stroke and heart disease when the children grow up.
Treatments include use of a breathing machine called a CPAP; for obese children weight loss; or, in the case of the Sanchez twins, surgery to remove tonsils and adenoids.
For the Sanchez family, the surgery was life-changing. The twins sleep soundly through the night, and they have a lot more energy during the day.
"They don't wake up with bags under their eyes anymore," Orlando Sanchez says.
Doctors say if your child snores you should at a minimum discuss it with your pediatrician or have a full sleep study done. The payoff could include a good night's sleep for the whole family.
