How to treat snoring in children?

In daily life, snoring is a very common phenomenon, so everyone regards snoring as a personal habit, thinking that snoring only occurs when you sleep soundly. In fact, this is wrong. Snoring is actually a pathological condition that can cause certain harm to the patient's body. In severe cases, it may even cause suffocation and sudden death. Therefore, it is necessary to treat snoring, especially for children who snore. So how should snoring in children be treated?

In clinical practice, the symptoms of snoring in children during sleep are relatively hidden and are often easily ignored by parents. It should be noted here that snoring in children may indicate a serious health hazard - obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome.

Since children spend nearly half of their time sleeping, even a brief bout of sleep apnea or hypopnea will result in a decrease in blood oxygen saturation. Factors such as hypoxia and hypercapnia affect the secretion of growth hormone or reduce the responsiveness of tissues and organs to growth hormone, causing malnutrition, short stature, mental retardation, inattention, poor academic performance, and even growth stagnation in severe cases. In addition, snoring in children can easily lead to facial deformities: the oral breathing pattern caused by nasal congestion and mouth breathing during sleep has an adverse effect on facial growth and dental occlusion. About 15% of children have adenoid facies, characterized by a narrow and long upper jaw, high arched hard palate, uneven teeth, protruding teeth that appear "overbite" or "underbite", and indifferent expression. Children with the disease are also prone to high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and other diseases.

So, how should obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome be treated after being diagnosed? Unlike adults who mostly need to use ventilators, snoring in children is generally caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids, which can mostly be corrected through surgery with significant results. For children without craniofacial deformities or neurological diseases, the surgical effectiveness rate is over 90%. A small number of children still have severe sleep apnea after adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy and require further non-invasive ventilation treatment.

The article introduces the treatment methods for snoring in children. To treat snoring, we must first find out the reason why the child snores. If it is due to an inappropriate pillow or an inappropriate sleeping position, then the snoring phenomenon can be improved by improving these habits and supplies. But if the cause is pathological, then drug treatment is needed.