My son who is 8 months old has been diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea after 2 sleep studies.  He has down syndrome and suffers from acid reflux as well which he is on medication to treat.  We have been attempting to use a bipap machine which the doctors feel is necessary to help his sleep situation.  HE WILL NOT TOLERATE the machine and now none of us are getting any rest.  When I say not tolerating it I mean he will rip it off or will struggle till it comes off.  The doctors have suggested ways to help but to no avail.  They are offering us little in the way of hope other than reinforcing that we must use the bipap machine.  Im not sure if they dont believe our efforts or just do not have other solutions to help.  Any advice out there from parents who have infants on bipap would be most appreciated.

Hi there, I am afraid I do not have any advice as far as helping him tolerating the bipap. I did want to say Hi and welcome. My daughter is eight years old and recently started CPAP. She also has Down syndrome.She also has severe acid reflux.Is his reflux well controlled with the meds? I have been reading about the connection between reflux and sleep apnea. Hoping others will have some good advice....


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

An 8 month old is not able to understand that this will help him. He knows he doesn't like it and thats it! You don't say how long you've been at this but it can take a long time. Just keep putting the mask back on him. Try it during the day. If he can keep it on for 1 minute give him a big hug and lots of praise, then try for 2 minutes. Repeated efforts are needed to get him to slowly come to accept this. If you keep putting it on him, of course do it very matter-of-factly, will show him that he will eventually have to do this. He will get used to it, but lots of time is needed. Would it be possible to have a friend or family member help out by spending the night occasionally and monitoring him? Or come during the day so you could have a nap? If Mom and Dad are too tired they can't be expected to cope well with any of this.





EDIT; another thought...have you tried waiting for him to fall asleep and then put the mask on? Might be worth a try.

thanks For your thoughts and suggestions.  Meds not completely solving acid reflux problems but it seems better.  He is on 2 different meds.  What have you learned about the connection between refulx and sleep apnea?  he could have upper GI problems we are not aware of.  We have been trying the biPAP for around a month...well we have had the machine for a month but have given up the past week...to get some sleep.  We appreciate the suggestions on using the mask on a more regular basis throughout the day....he needs the positive reinforcement.