[T-3 yrs] Children, Children

In 2006, we started hearing a lot about sleep apnea in children. Obviously these issues are best dealt with when they are children, otherwise it could severely affect both their physical and mental growth.  Our anatomy is tied to genetics and anatomy is a leading cause of OSA. My father has always been a heavy snorer but as far as I can tell, he escaped apnea. In his younger days, he used to take afternoon naps but only on weekends. Now in his late 70's and retired, I see him taking naps in the afternoon on a regular basis. He has been an early morning riser and I have never seen him show any typical sleep apnea symptoms.

Concerned for our children we went to see Dr. Rafael Pelayo, who is well known as a peadetric sleep specialist at Stanford. My son then 11 did not exhibit any symptoms, however he does have a narrow jaw. After much discussion with the doctor, he explained that the apnea measuring equipment is not quite sensitive enough to detect mild apnea for sure. He also said that even if my son had mild apnea, the old surgery he would recommend was tonsillitis which were tiny for my son. We just decided to punt.

By now I started worrying about my 5 year old daughter. She had huge, I mean huge tonsils. She used to snore, sweat in her sleep and routinely fall asleep in the car on a long car ride. Most importantly she was having a hard time swallowing and had taken to more or less living on milk alone. Back to Stanford ... Guillemault and Kasey Li both recommended removal her very large tonsils.  We had to find a surgeon. Having been to Stanford Sleep Center at least a billion times,  I had become intimate with several staff members. They all recommended that Dr. Kasey Li was the best for children. How can anyone but the best perform surgery on my baby?!

Dr, Li took out her tonsils and adenoids. The surgery resulted in a squeaky voice for a few months and then corrected itself. Thank god. All her symptoms of sweating at night, pain during swallowing food and snoring disappeared. Hopefully everything will be smooth sailing for them for the rest of their life.