Hi - our son is nearly five and I'm worried that he may be showing signs of sleep apnea of some sort, possibly central as his breathing isn't always noisy. I know this will sound silly, but he still uses a baby breathing monitor at night, but as he has his first sleepover on Friday I'm in need of some urgent advice if that's ok? I'm not sure whether to send him with his monitor or not, or whether I would just gain a reputation for being a completely over neurotic mother for doing this??!
To give you some background, from being a very small baby he had severe reflux and on one occasion, when he was a couple of weeks old, he went very floppy and unresponsive after a big feed, which led to me trying to revive him on the kitchen table as I suspected he had stopped breathing, but in my panic, I really can't remember noticing if his lips etc. were blue. The reflux eased when he was about one and a half, but we started to notice there were times when he would wake up with a gasp and/ or take a deep breath before going back to sleep, and also other times when I would wake up aware that he wasn't beathing properly and having to jiggle him to get him to take a proper breath. After this we got a Tommee Tippee Sure Sound breathing monitor which he would set off every couple of nights, sometimes several times a night. We are still using this at the moment, mainly out of habit though as I'm a lot more relaxed about it and usually wait for a minute or so to see if it stops before going to check on him, however I'm still fairly uneasy about removing this altogether. We have observed him during the alarm being set off and he is still breathing throughout which is comforting, but it is very shallow and he also looks quite pale. I usually jiggle him gently or try and get him to change position and he starts to breathe more strongly at this point, but I'm just not sure if this is a normal sleep pattern or not.
I know the monitor isn't meant to be used after 18 months, but I'm too worried to remove it at the moment as I can't get a proper answer from the doctor, who probably thinks (and possibly rightly?!) that I'm just being an over-neurotic mother. The monitor sensor pad is very sensitive and can detect movement when brushing the (very thick) mattress lightly with a fingertip, however my son sets off the alarm when fully over the sensor pad and the alarm can sometimes continue to sound for over a minute at a time. He doesn't set it off every night but when he does, it's often several times a night.
Does anyone else have any experience of this to know whether I should be pushing for a sleep test, or am I just being an overly flappy mother??
To give you some background, from being a very small baby he had severe reflux and on one occasion, when he was a couple of weeks old, he went very floppy and unresponsive after a big feed, which led to me trying to revive him on the kitchen table as I suspected he had stopped breathing, but in my panic, I really can't remember noticing if his lips etc. were blue. The reflux eased when he was about one and a half, but we started to notice there were times when he would wake up with a gasp and/ or take a deep breath before going back to sleep, and also other times when I would wake up aware that he wasn't beathing properly and having to jiggle him to get him to take a proper breath. After this we got a Tommee Tippee Sure Sound breathing monitor which he would set off every couple of nights, sometimes several times a night. We are still using this at the moment, mainly out of habit though as I'm a lot more relaxed about it and usually wait for a minute or so to see if it stops before going to check on him, however I'm still fairly uneasy about removing this altogether. We have observed him during the alarm being set off and he is still breathing throughout which is comforting, but it is very shallow and he also looks quite pale. I usually jiggle him gently or try and get him to change position and he starts to breathe more strongly at this point, but I'm just not sure if this is a normal sleep pattern or not.
I know the monitor isn't meant to be used after 18 months, but I'm too worried to remove it at the moment as I can't get a proper answer from the doctor, who probably thinks (and possibly rightly?!) that I'm just being an over-neurotic mother. The monitor sensor pad is very sensitive and can detect movement when brushing the (very thick) mattress lightly with a fingertip, however my son sets off the alarm when fully over the sensor pad and the alarm can sometimes continue to sound for over a minute at a time. He doesn't set it off every night but when he does, it's often several times a night.
Does anyone else have any experience of this to know whether I should be pushing for a sleep test, or am I just being an overly flappy mother??
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