Mouth breathing, snoring and bed wetting (some new dwarves for Snow White?)

[DingbatsFur]

Hi,
DS1 is 6.5 and has never been consistently dry at night. We try various tactics but have only ever found success with lifting him before we go to sleep. Even then he can sometimes still wet the bed. He is an incredibly deep sleeper. I was reading up on bed wetting again to see if we could get him a referral and found there was often a link between later bed wetting and snoring.
DS1 has always snored, I thought it was just 'him' iyswim. I watched him and his breathing is very strained.
I also noticed that even while awake he is breathing through his mouth.
I asked him has it always been this way and he looked surprised and said yes.
A look down his throat reveals a big fleshy mass that nearly meets in the middle. I showed my DH and his first reaction to seeing DS1's throat was that he needed to go to A&E now. :)
So based on this do I toddle off down to the gp for an ent referral? I was down on wednesday to get referred for the bedwetting and the gp didn't check DS's throat despite the mention of the snoring.

My DD is the same...snoring, bedwetting and big ole tonsils that almost meet... I took her about her throat and the GP told me it was only that she's not grown into them yet....her tonsils that is. Go to see the GP if it makes you feel better...my DD is 5...hers seems to improve when she has less dairy....if it's not better by the time school starts I am going back but I don;t think there's a lot they can do.

Hi Dingbats, I think yes, you should go to the GP and ask for an ENT referral. Heavy snoring can be a sign of sleep apnoea - where they stop breathing for a second, gasp, then start again - and if ds has sleep apnoea, its worth treating.

It sounds like adenoids as well as tonsils, tbh (mouth breathing when awake). My dd2 had huge tonsils and adenoids, plus a floppy larynx at birth which didn't help (narrows the airway). By the age of 2 she was making gasping noises at night and always exhausted, with black circles under her eyes - an ENT consultant took one look and booked her in for an adenotonsillectomy, and we've never looked back

Strained breathing at night puts a lot of, well, strain on the whole system - and long term can affect kids' health and well being. I wouldn't hesitate to push for an ENT referral.

HTH x

ps your thread title made me

I read or heard Brian Palmer DDS (google him- his work is very interesting) saying that he thought that bed wetting was common in kids with sleep apnoea. He reckoned that when the person resumes breathing, the snort that often accompanies it pushes the diaphragm into the bladder triggering it to empty.

How is his oral structure? Does he have a high palate? Tongue tie?

DS1, now almost 8yo, suffered bouts of sleep apnoea but luckily nothing too serious. He was tongue tied with a high palate, also large tonsils and mouth breathing. We are having orthodontic treatment done to expand his palate and draw out the middle section of his face to allow his nasal passages to increase in size. He has already stopped mouth breathing at night and is much more peaceful when he sleeps.