Please help, is there anything I can do - preschooler snoring and sleep!

[Sleeeeeeeeeep]

My 3 year old doesn't snore "normally" but does terribly with colds and infections, which is the current normal with preschool. It's quite common to have a period of three weeks or more with constant congestion, outside this time she does not snore, but our paediatrician is aware

She's had recent major surgery for something else and subsequently sleeps in bed with me for the time being. I also have a young baby with me who wakes two hourly for feeding.

Thankfully DC1 doesn't seem to be too disrupted by the snoring herself - there's no gasps like sleep apnea and she generally sleeps soundly except for when she first gets a virus and is unsettled. Thankfully the baby is also undisturbed.

But I seriously struggle to get back to sleep after each wake to feed the baby as the snoring is just so loud. They get up for the day at 5.30am

I can't use ear plugs as need to hear the baby, and I don't think they'd drown it out anyway. I can't use any plug ins as the baby shares the room

Saline sprays and Vicks baby run seem to make no difference. Help!

Hello, OP. That sounds really difficult. Has your DD had a sleep study to rule out sleep apnoea? I know you say she doesn’t gasp, but my DD was diagnosed with severe OSA as a baby and I had no idea, as she wasn’t gasping or noticeably stopping breathing. If she hasn’t had one,
I’d push for a sleep study to rule it out.

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool thank you, how is your DD now? I raised it before her surgery as I know it can be a risk with the anaesthetic but her team weren't concerned as there are periods when she doesn't snore at all. It does always seem to be with an infection of some kind, normally the obvious like colds, it's just it goes on for so long

I might push for a sleep study anyway for her sake as it's so important that she sleeps properly, not so much me but I must say at the moment I am finding it hard! It's so loud! Weirdly though I find it easiest to ignore when it's at its loudest when she is cuddled right up to me as it's so nice having her so close. I will be delighted when she is sleeping all night in her own room though!

I think just the dynamic of two is difficult to try to stop them disturbing each other all night! I've been sitting up since 5.30 with the baby on my lap because she's barely asleep and I know if I put her back in crib now she'll chat or cry and wake DC1

Has she been checked for enlarged tonsils and adenoids? DS snored until these were removed when he was 2.

@Sleeeeeeeeeep DD is doing well now, thanks. The OSA diagnosis came after she’d been on very high dose steroids for seizures, which had made her put on a lot of weight. Her sleep studies improved as she outgrew the steroid weight. She still has a sleep disorder and still has regular sleep studies but no dangerous apnoea any more.
As a PP said, definitely get her T&As checked, if they haven’t already been.