Hi Everyone,
         I am new to the forum, but this our third round with sleep apnea with my three year old daughter.   She had severe apnea as an infant that resolved briefly after an adnoidectomy at 7 months.  Her apnea slowly returned a year later and at 19 months she had a tonsillectomy.  We began noticing that she was having an increase in sleep issues at about 29 months and we scheduled another sleep study.  She had a sleep study last month that found that she still has apnea and arousals even though the regrowth from the adnoids is moderate and not enough to warrant surgery.  After seeing a sleep specialist it was decided to try CPAP.  We are unsure how to introduce her to even the mask part and wondered of anyone had any experience that we could learn from.  Thank you in advance.

AandR Mom

Hello and welcome!    My daughter is eight and on CPAP since June. I realize she is older than your daughter but what we did was the sleep lab gave us a mask to take home before her titation study. We let her play with the mask and put it on and have her try to wear it watching tv, reading books etc just to get her comfortable with it.Then it still took some time for her to get really comfortable with it. Just try to stay positive about it and don't give up. It takes a while to get the comfortable with the whole thing. My daughter took about two weeks to get to the point where it wasn't a real struggle.


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Heather-Mom to Hannah(8-hose head) and Logan(4), wife to Paul (also a hose head)

Thank you for replying Heather.  She was fitted with two masks for us to take home today.  One was just the nose and the other was a full mask.  She tolerated it for about two minutes and then declared she was done.   I saw on another post that soneone called it an elephant mask and that helped a lot (thank you if the person who posted it reads this).  I had her sister try it on which seemed to help as well.  We will see how she does from here.
Leslie

Hi there,

My three year old daughter just did her first titration study last night to get the prescription for her CPAP machine.  It was a great success!  She only took the mask off twice during the whole night and ended up having 98% blood oxygen level the whole night.  What a relief.  She is a pretty mellow kid, but I think the fact that we played with her "trunk" every day for a month before the sleep study helped a lot.  She was not afraid at all, but she was a bit uncomfortable because the mask is actually a bit big for her and she gets air in her eyes.  Anyway, in preparation for the study, I printed out a clip art picture of an elephant and printed "trunk time" on the top.  Everytime she wore her "trunk" she received a sticker (and an M&M).  I'm not a big briber, but this time it worked for me.  We usually had her wear the trunk during TV or book time, a mellow time that she would be sitting still.  I hope this helps.  

Michelle

Hi I am new to the forum and would like to share with everyone that I have a 2 year old daughter who has sleep apnea.  She has had her tonsil and adenoids both removed and still has sleep apnea.  She was born 4 weeks early, been in the hospital numerouse times with some sort of respitory distress since she was 1 1/2months old. She now see a Pediactric Pulm doctor that is about 4 hours away from home at a Childrens Hospital.  She has reflux, asthma and possible immune deficancy.  Not to mention she is much smaller then my 10 month old son.  During the day she is up for about 1 to 2 hours and ready for a nap, she naps for about 2 hours or longer and back up for 1 to 2 hours and continues through out the day like that.  At night she is a very sound and wakes to just about anything, or should I say I hear her constantly tossing and turning and just having a difficult time to sleep.  The Sleep doctor said that she has sleep apnea worse then a normal adult would have that is diagnosed with sleep apnea.  Her speach is a little delayed as well and doesn't get words out as well as most two year olds. My problem now is when she goes to get fitted for a c-pap how am I going to get her to re-adapt to a mask.  Is it going to be different then a nebulizer mask.  Yes she has a nebulizer that she was recently weaned off and put on regular inhalers.  Has anybody been in my situation?  If so you have any suggestions?

Hi there,

My three year old had the same issues - some speech delay too.  Does your daughter have tubes in her ears?  That worked wonders for her.  My 3 1/2 year old daughter has been on CPAP since October.  She has adjusted amazingly well.  She sleeps so much more soundly now (even though she's got a mask on blowing air up her nose!).  We have tried several masks and are now using the Resmed Kidsta mask.  

http://www.resmed.com/en-us/products/masks/mirage_kidsta_nasal_mask_canada_and_latin_america/mirage-kidsta-nasal-mask-canada-and-latin-america.html?menu=products  

Unfortunately it is the smallest mask approved in the US.  It is still a bit big on her and it actually covers her upper lip too.  This gives her some seriously chapped lips, but we just make sure she's got chapstick on all the time.   The mask doesn't fit totally perfect and so she has 35-40% leakage rates (shown on her machine).  I was concerned about this, but the Sleep Doctor has assured me that these numbers are tolerable.  

It took her about one week to be completely comfortable with the mask, but it has made all the difference in the world to her behavior and personality!  She is so much more focused now, its amazing to see the change.

Hope this info helps.  Don't give up!

Michelle

hello , i have a 2 and a half year old daughter with central Apnea , we have tryed the V pap but she paniced when we tryed to use it. Developmental she is only around 15 months , which make it hard to try to explain the mask. She still uses her infant apnea monitor, that she s been using since birth. Am wonder if anyone as been told what causes central apnea , they keep telling me they dont know why Hope has it . She also has hypoventiltion , GERD , and now two valves in her heart are leaking am look for other parent to talk to to compare notes, We travel to ottawa ontario Childrens hospital for treatment..But they say she isnt like any other case they have had. Am wondering if scream fits in the middle of the night is link to Apnea spells . Hope is grumpy all the time she , napping all the time am wondering doesnt any of these change as she gets older, cause the Apnea is getting worse .. Please if u have any info let we know am a single mom on my own try to understand and help my duaghter as much as i can ...

TO ALL THE BRAVE MOMS THAT ARE POSTING IN THIS FORUM: I encourage you to read the book ULTRALONGEVITY BY DR. MARK LIPONIS, a doctor that has treated patients with sleep apnea and with good outcomes; it is amazing how many people has been affected with this disorder, even little kids......... what is wrong with this environment? it might be the food full of pesticides and fat; i don't really know, but dr. liponis talks about inflammation; you might tell me: but my child is only two years old........ maybe some kind of gene from the parents,  maybe the air we are just breathing, or the food;i don't know. but i do encourage you to read that book; let's get together legionary moms and push government, insurance, doctors to put more money for research for this disease, for treatments, for medical insurance coverage, for special masks for kiddies like yours. take care and God be with you and your beloved ones.

it would be a good idea also to get an interview on tv by one of those famous reporters, dianne swayer, dr. sangay gupta, etc, an interview of moms dealing with children suffering sleep apnea. Let's make the whole world aware of this EPIDEMIC DISEASE that even children are being threated with.

ANOTHER BOOK THAT MIGHT BE OF HELP IS: BREATHING FREE BY TERESA HALE;  SPECIFICALLY PAGE 172 : SLEEP DISORDERS IT MIGHT BE HELPFUL TO EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY OF RETRAINING THE CHILD OR ADULT HOW TO BREATH MORE PROPERLY; THERE IS A CLINIC IN NEW YORK OR GO TO WWW.BREATHCONNECTION.COM; THERE IS SOME INFORMATION AT THE END OF THE BOOK ABOUT THESE CLINICS.

Thank you so much to everyone who has written to this post.  I wanted to update and see how others who have written are doing.  My daughter has had her CPAP for a month now and actually willingly (most  of the time  ) tries to go to sleep with it.  She lasts anywhere from an hour to three and one night she made it for 6 hours!  Our biggest problem has been her having sleep terrors with the mask on and that the mask is so big for her little face.  Does anyone have a mask for their little one that works well?
Thanks
AandRMom