My ds is two months old and recently he's started waking up from napping with sort of a gasping/choking noise several times a day.  I have three other older children and never experienced this with any of them.  We have a Dr. Apt. for him tomorrow but have been doing our own research on the internet.  The sleep apnea seems to fit what we have been seeing.  Has anyone else on here dealt with this at such a young age?  What kind of test can I expect etc?  Any advice?  Also I'm practicing Elimination Communication with him ('potty training' from birth) does any one have any experience with how hospitals deal with that?

We have had several parents post about their children having problems from a very young age. In most cases they appear to have had other even more serious issues during infancy. I can see where your son's symptoms might indicate apnea but I can imagine that there might be other issues or problems that might present with similar symptoms and I am by no means an expert on apnea during infancy. What did your doctor say? What kind of tests did he recommend?

Best wishes,
Bill

Our Dr. gave us a referral to the local Children's Hospital, their Pulmonology department.  At our appointment at the Children's Hospital the Dr. suggested that it might be reflux.  Now, I'm not a first time mom, plus I've dealt with a few babies who did have reflux while working at a daycare, and my second son had colic as a baby, he doesn't even show any of the signs of that.  Other than the gasping/choking that wakes him up he doesn't exhibit any of the symptoms of reflux.  He doesn't arch his back, he doesn't spit up let alone throw up, he's gaining weight at a normal pace, he feeds normally, he doesn't sit there screaming for some unknown reason that everything we do can't figure out...  Yet they have put him on Axid as the first 'step' to see if it helps at all (which after a week all it has done is make him into a very fussy baby, which he wasn't before).  They say the next step is to put a tube of some sort down his throat through his nose to see how high the acid is getting, and then after that they might do a sleep study.  This all seems very silly to me, why are they jumping to the conclusion of something that he really isn't exhibiting the symptoms of?  Why do they want to medicate him and do all these invasive tests instead of starting with the sleep study when it seems to respond more to the symptoms that he is having?  As far as him having any problems, he doesn't seem to.  My older boys both have Aspergers and with the second one I could tell by this age that something wasn't quite right, even though I didn't know what, and he isn't even showing any of the early signs of that (thank goodness!!!).  He is quite a good and normal baby except for this thing he does when he's sleeping which scares the you know what out of me.

I know it seems like the DR's are going off in a different direction than you were expecting. Reflux does not always show symptoms. Quite often babies can have what the call "silent reflux" without showing signs until the get into trouble with their breathing or aspiration into their lungs.I would really let them Do the tests, it is the easist way to rule out a common issue. The sleep apnea is a more complex issue especially in a baby so young so they are probably trying to get to the bottom of it first before ordering a comlex and expensive sleep study.


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