Snoring is a noise emitted during respiration, indicating a barrier to the airflow at the nasal or pharyngeal. Theabnormal breathing and noisyin children is a frequent reason for consultation, which often worries parents.

As in adults, snoring can be indicative of asyndrome of obstructive sleep apneaWhose consequences are very important. This condition, which as its name indicates, is characterized bystops short of breath, Is defined in the child by the occurrence of more than thirty apneas of at least five seconds, during a period of approximately seven hours of sleep. The questioning of the parents can often confirm the diagnosis. They describe a snoring interrupted by pauses in breathing a few seconds. The child then takes his breath very loudly, then the snoring resumed its pace.

Very serious consequences

The child sleeps badly, his sleep is restless, he pee in bed when he was clean his clock is difficult, it drowses during the day, feel the need to nap, or vice versa, is very restless and hyperactive .
In addition to these symptoms, the syndrome of obstructive sleep apnea is accompanied by acassure de la courbe staturo-pondérale. In the toddler, it can cause disorders of psychomotor development and intellectual. In a larger child, it can cause difficulty concentrating at school or at home, and a fall inschool performance. Without diagnosis and treatment, this syndrome can affect the heart with signs of heart failure.

Examination

The doctor conducts a comprehensive review of all the ENT with a fibroscopy (flexible tube with an optical system and light). And it assesses the state of the nasal mucosa, the position of the nasal septum, the volume of the tonsils and vegetation. It also searches the possible presence of a tumor or malformation.

The most frequent causes are thehypertrophy of tonsils and vegetations, Acute rhinitis in infants, thechronic rhinitis(allergic rhinitis, hypertrophic rhinitis) and rarely more serious diseases (cystic fibrosis, Kartagener syndrome, tumors and malformations), which must be supported by specialized teams.

Should we treat all children snorer?

No! A small buzzer that does not have apnea, whose sleep is good, which is developing well and is not often nasopharyngitis and / or ear infections, has no reason to be treated, treatment will be useless .
However, once the diagnosis of sleep apnea is made, aappropriate care to the cause of snoringis necessary.
As a result, good growth and good quality of life, that day night.