Toddler sleep apnea advice

[Fran091]

My 2.5 yo has been diagnosed with sleep apnea - he had very pronounced pauses in breathing earlier this year but these have since got significantly better. Now only a couple of short pauses every 1-2 hours and breathing generally sounds normal. He has been put on a waiting list for a tonsillectomy but we don't want to go ahead with this if not needed. A couple of questions for anyone who has had similar experiences:

• was anyone able to get a sleep study on the NHS? Our local hospital doesn't do them and we'd like to check he actually has apnea before having the tonsillectomy
• any experiences of sleep apnea affecting toddler growth? Our son was 50th centile height for the first year of his life and has now dropped to 12th and is significantly shorter than his peers

Thanks in advance

My daughter is 3 and has had a sleep study in hospital showing mild sleep apnea. We have suspected this for the last 12 months. We are waiting for next consultation to follow up. I haven’t noticed any restricted growth so far

My DS1 was referred for sleep studies as his sats were dropping during sleep while in hospital for pneumonia and it was suspected something deeper is going on. We had an at-home sleep study done (collecting the kit ourselves and doing the toe oxygen monitor they use in hospital) within a month of being referred. The full bells-and-whistles sleep study with a huge range of monitors took place perhaps four months after that - all this on the NHS.

He does have restricted growth but he also has heart issues and a very rare chromosomal disorder so it is hard to know which bit of his issues leads to slow weight gain.

My son's apnea appears to be central rather than obstructive so they are not going to operate - no need to "make space", as they put it. So not all apnea will require surgery. Having said that, we are awaiting follow-up for these "central events" and I don't know what they plan to do!

Definitely worth pushing for the sleep study to see whether the surgery can be avoided. We have been told they don't want to do operations until strictly necessary as they avoid putting little ones under anaesthetic unless they have to.