4 month old - obstructive sleep apnea? Something else?

[KingaBee]

Hello,
I’m booking a GP appointment later today but as these things take time and I’m an anxious first time mum and it’s 4 am, naturally I thought I would post on here.

Not sure what is wrong with my 4 month old baby girl but I’m worried. Here are some of the symptoms:

• occasional gentle snoring, snorting etc when sleeping, slower breathing followed by lots of fast breathing
• bends backwards A LOT when sleeping, always has. Now that she is ready to roll, I find her sleeping on her side, bent backwards so much she looks like pretzel
• when bent she often rubs her head with her fists furiously and seems in discomfort
• she very often suddenly coughs and chokes when lying down or sleeping (hours after a feed).
• some silent reflux symptoms: makes faces when her food comes up and then seems to swallow everything back down
• unable to fall asleep on her own - we always have to transfer her to bed when fully sleep
• wakes up a lot but doesn’t cry much and falls back asleep on boob right away (but then I need to wait until she is deep asleep to transfer her to bed)

She is almost exclusively breast fed, with an occasional formula top up in her evening bottle (if I haven’t managed to express enough during the day). She is not premature. There were initial concerns when she lost a lot of weight post birth (13%) but that was resolved quickly (my milk is as delayed due to traumatic birth). And now she is steadily gaining weight - she is on a small side but consistently follows 12-13 percentile.

Any words of wisdom or reassurance?
Many thanks!

Obviously see a dr if you're concerned, but this sounds like a four month old baby with some reflux. Especially the last two points, those are very normal.

I agree that your last two points are very normal. But trust your instincts about other points and check with the doctor.
Has the baby been assessed for a tongue tie? And I mean properly assessed for oral function by a tongue tie specialist. TT can cause issues you described.

Thanks - I thought the last two points are probably normal and included them as a bit of an afterthought. (Even though NCT and NHS keep telling me about all this putting to bed “drowsy but awake” nonsense - not once did we manage this mysterious trick)

She wasnt properly properly assessed for tongue tie. Obviously, they did check for it when she had early weight struggles early on. I think one feeding consultant thought she might have a bit of a tongue tie but her latch was very good and her sucking was very strong so no one seemed concerned.

I guess my main worries are the bending backwards and choking/coughing. I haven’t heard of those being caused by tongue tie?

Ideally I’d like you all to tell me that your babies had the same exact thing, they were fine and they are off to college now. And than I should go see the doctor about my anxiety and insomnia instead. 😅

Gagging is also common with tongue tie so worth getting checked! Your health visitor should be able to get you in touch with the local infant feeding team (or there might already be a number in your red book). We had some of these issues and the team were brilliant in helping us. Tongue tie waiting list on the nhs was extreme though so we went private once diagnosed. Hope GP can help tomorrow too 🙂

All of those can be normal. But I just read about it being a potential sign of tongue tie and given it was spotted earlier I'd investigate that. Even if just for the peace of mind. And TT can be easily fixed so please try not to worry.

Thanks again all. Things look less scary at noon than they did at 4 am. But the extreme arching is concerning so I will book an apt.
On the pic you can see how she sleeps. She literally stays like this.

Variable breathing is quite normal in young babies. It can sound concerning, but it's called periodic breathing: rapid stints followed by pauses or periods of shallow breaths.

My son has this and sometimes he even uses his hands to prop up his chin.
It got better when he got older and because of his adenoids. One doctor wanted to remove the adenoids but a specialist said to leave and monitor.

Go see an ENT (ear nose throat) specialist.

Try to raise one side of the bed so it slopes, like put a towel under the mattress so it is elevated since she can't use a pillow.

If you look at the photo, you will see your baby's arm bent at a strange angle, as though trying to prop up her chin/ head.