My Son is 5.. he also had a sleep study 2 years ago... he had reflux as a baby, allergies to milk protiens.... pneumonia , constant chest colds, high temps during the night and always complained of tired sore legs.... I did some reasearch on the internet and demanded an apointment with an ENT... I thought it would be that easy.... He sent me to a Sleep study Dr .. he had the test at 3 years old. He too hated touching wet things... would not leave on a wet shirt if he dribbled on it or hold a sandwich if the butter would get on his fingers. He HATES things that are sticky.. including band aids and it was a battle to get him to leave the wires on his body.... since then he has lost a few of those quirks but he is still a "strange" little boy at times. He is highly intellegent.. how i don't know as his report says the suffers from Severe obstructive sleep apnea and Periodic Limb Movement Disorder ( restless legs).
For some un known reason the results of this test did not reach the right people and Brandan was never treated.... he has been suffering for the last 2 years and losing weight along the way. I held him back from school this year and forced my Dr to re check the test results and do something about this..... He has been given a nose spray for the last 6 weeks and that did nothing... so Tuesday we are heading for an ENT consult and booking in to have his tonsil and Ad removed.... about time i say.... poor little..... by little i mean 14 kg at 5... has taken as much as he can... He is moody and tired all the time. He does not eat and is just happy to lay around all day... we even had a salt water pool put in to try and expand his lungs and he him active.. worked for a little while but he soom became to tired to be bothered swimming... every winter we end up with the same thing,,, pneumonia....
I thought i would vent my anger hear as you other mums know how frustrating this is ... especially for the little ones in this.

Anyone that has had the surgery.... did it help?.... did you see an improvement?,I am praying this is the answer ...


It was only me being paranoid that the Dr would not beleive he had sleep apnea that i got the test result faxed thru.. we would still not have know that the results never made it back to my normal dr... when i asked about the results 2 years ago they said that he was not bad enought to treat and he would "grow" out of it..... there has not been much Growing since!....

Does this poor eating habit improve?... he is barley a shadow at the moment. I am worried that with not eating for a week or two after the operation he will loose much more weight...

someone give me some positive thoughts please...
x mel

My advice to you would be to start with the removal of his tonsils and adenoids.  That often does help, assuming that it's the cause of his apnea.  After he's recovered from surgery you may want to have him go in for another sleep study just to make sure that the problem was fixed.  Sleep apnea can cause lots of problems including being tired and mooody and having a difficult time with concentrating.  I don't know about the not wanting to eat part....hmm.  Do you have feeding (speech) therapists/specialists where you live??  It may be worth trying to get him in somewhere for an eval....

The T&A did help my son for a while, but he's always had central apnea as well as obstructive sleep apnea (which wasn't discovered until this year) and he started having problems again with obstructive apnea after he had work done on his velum last fall.  I also understand how you feel about your child not being treated.....  My son went nearly 4 years before we discovered that he was allergic to nearly all foods.  We were told by his first set of doctors that he didn't have reflux, which he obviously did but because of his low tone he didn't present in the typical way.  You can't hold on to the things that should have been but you can make sure that it doesn't happen again.  It sounds like it needs to be up to you to make sure that he's being followed by everyone that is needed.  Get copies of his medical records (from each appointment) and check them for mistakes or omissions.  Make sure that the records are sent to the necessary doctors....  I hope that he responds well to the surgery and that it's all that's needed in order for him to feel better.  Hugs.

Thanks for the reply,

Brandan did not present with any of the "normal" signs for Reflux either. I had to demand a berium swollow while in the hospital for dehydration due to him refusing to feed... they then started to actually listen to me..

As far as Brandan's speech goes...He was speaking in full adult sentences by about 18mths... he had 5 words clear by 6 mths.... At present his speech is about 12 months ahead of where it should be.. ( very thankful for that). This is another reason they didn;t think there was a problem becuase he was so smart and ahead of all age mile stones.... Guess there is no "normal" signs they should look at everything case by case and listen to the mothers of these kids.

I did some research about the eating side and from what i can work out kids make the Human Growth Hormone needed for growing while they are in stage 3 or 4 of sleep.. If they are having apnea's throughout the night they are not getting the quality sleep to make these growth hormones and becuase their little body isn't trying to grow they don;t need to eat as much food... weird but seems to make sense now that i have read it.

I hope your little man has some luck in sorting out his sleep problems... They are such a worry..
thanks again
Mel