Baby Sleep Apnea Could Be Why Your Baby Isn’t Breathing Right While Sleeping

BabySense Sleep Apnea Monitor

Does Your Baby Have Sleep Apnea?  Its Not Just for Adults

Sleep apnea is often associated with overweight adults, particularly men, but babies can have it too.  In fact, parents spend so much time researching devastating tragedies like SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but no one ever talks about sleep apnea when an infant stops breathing.  For the parent who has a baby with sleep apnea, it can be a horribly exhausting experience losing sleep every night as you check on your baby.

Sleep apnea in babies most often occurs in premature babies,  – but it can happen to anyone.  There are three types of sleep apnea, of which obstructive apnea is the most common.  There is also mixed/complex and central apnea, but the obstructive apnea most often occurs in babies.

With obstructive apnea, your baby may experience gasping, snoring, restlessness and discoloration.  While most people have episodes of apnea, those who suffer from it recurrently know that controlling it can be complicated.  Luckily, obstructive apnea in babies may be as simple as getting their tonsils or adenoids checked for inflammation – but if its not, you may want to check out some other options to make sure your baby is safely breathing.

If your baby seems to wake frequently, has brief pauses in breathing or snores, you may want to consider that it might be sleep apnea. Your physician can give you more information, including suggesting a baby sleep apnea monitor.

Until your baby gets a little older, a monitor designed for sleep apnea may help because, unlike regular baby monitors, baby sleep apnea monitors are specifically designed to monitor breathing.  There are several different kinds on the market, with some even having a heartbeat monitor as a back-up in case the monitor misses any change in breathing patterns.  Nearly all activate an alarm when the baby stops breathing and, just like standard baby monitors, there those that come either wireless or not wireless, and with the option for rechargeable batteries.

When baby suffers from lack of sleep, parents do too – and that’s not healthy for anyone.  So check with your doctor and ask if the symptoms your baby has could be related to a case of baby sleep apnea, and find out what can be done to help.