I have a 6 year old son who is very restless in bed.  By restless I mean every 30 minutes you check on him his head seems to be in a different position.  Sometimes he lies in bed sideways or his head is where his feet are.  I don't notice anything irregular about his breathing, meaning I don't hear any heavy breathing or gasps for air.  He does frequently breathe through his mouth at night.

His primary Dr. today commented about his large tonsils and ask how he was sleeping.  That is when my wife told him about his sleeping.  The Dr. then said he may have sleep apnea and that it was our choice if we wanted to pursue further testing.

I wanted to do some research before a decision was made.

Could allgeries led doctors to think kids have sleep apnea?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Craig

Hi Craig,

My 7yo dd has rls/plmd and obstructive sleep apnea.  She was diagnosed just when she turned 7.  I asked her neuro to order a sleep test because she was such a lively sleeper.....sharing a bed with her was dangerous...like sleeping with a rugby player.  I never noticed any breathing trouble, just very active sleep.  I did know that she was an obligate mouth breather, I thought this was due to allergies. She still needs to be tested for allergies, but her real problem was enlarged adenoids that were blocking her airway.  She had her adenoids removed and now her daytime breathing is better.  

We were told that the allergies could be contributing to her problems and were given expensive allergy medication to try and fix the problem......when I asked if there would be a sleep study to confirm the allergy medication had fixed the problem and was told "NO,there is no justification for another test" we got a new ENT who said repeat testing was a necessity to confirm the breathing problems were gone.

We now know that she still has apnea after surgery and will be getting a c-pap.  We also know that she has excessive leg movements that are part of the reason she is arousing 600X/night.  We are hoping that when she has the cpap that her legs will slow down and allow her to sleep (or medication will help).

If you child is that lively of a sleeper, it wouldn't hurt to have a sleep study done, and then you would know for sure if there is anything to worry about. It is the easiest test your child will ever take (mine has had 3 with another coming up soon).  For the test they just place leads on their legs, a belt on their abdomen, a belt on their chest and a number of leads on their head.  Nothing painful or scary.  We call it being wired for cable and sound....to make it more fun we had new pj's and took pictures the first time.  We also brought her favorite stuffed animal and blanket.  She was great....no problems.


Susanne

Hi Susanne

Please can you tell me what the expensive allergy medication is called? where did you get it from and was it any good?

Sophie

Hi Sophie,

Christina was given Clarinex and Rhinocort...both were in the highest payment bracket for our insurance ($48).  They did nothing for Christina (neither has any other OTC or RX allergy medication).   I just learned on Thursday that Chris is allergic to wheat and rice (and peas) so these were probably the cause of her congestion.....for Chris the medication was doomed to failure because of the nature of her allergies.

Susanne

Hi Susanne

Thanks for your reply,

I live in the UK and have not heard of any allergy medications.

Very interesting you learned your daughter has a rice allergy,my son is 15 months old i just found he has son has one. how did you find this out?

Does your daughter have alot of allergies, peas is an unusual one, my son cannot tolerate dairy,soy,wheat,oats,citrus,potato,tomato,rice and the list goes on,

He is extrememly restless at night at gets very uncomfortable at night when his stomach becomes empty, sometimes his pain can be quite awfull,

The GP is suspecting H.pylori and possible ulcer,

I am interested in how your daughter reacts when she is allergic/intolerant.

Sophie