Kayley's Story: Sleep Apnea?

Kayley's 3 year well check started off pretty good. Before we walked in, I showed her a sucker in my purse and told her she could have it if she was good while we were at the doctor.  She was very well behaved while we were there. :-)

Kayley weighed in at 29 lbs and she was 36.5 inches tall. Those numbers put her right at the 30th percentile. Her pediatrician was fine with those numbers because she has been on that growth curve for awhile. I was kind of surprised that she was only in the 30th percentile for height.  She seemed taller to me.  Guess not!

We talked a lot about her development and she seems to be right where she needs to be. We have always been concerned about how she is developing and learning. We are still working on some shapes and she still occasionally calls something green that is red. If you can tell these things at age 3 and 4, Drew will be our studious child and Kayley will be the one we are always after to study and get her homework done! And I don't mean that I think Kayley won't be smart, she just has lots of other things she would rather be doing!

Then we talked about potty training. He asked Kayley how potty training is going and she did her famous little smirk. She moved her head like she was going to look down at her feet and then she looked at him with her head still down and had this little grin on her face. She knows EXACTLY what she is doing! I am convinced Kayley has "accidents" on purpose. Trying to get our attention? I guess, but we give her tons of praise when she stays dry! Her accidents occur mostly at daycare. She went an entire week at Mom and Dad's and didn't have any accidents. First day back at daycare, two accidents. When you ask her about them when you pick her up, she just smiles and is very excited to show you her new shorts. She'll say something like, "Yeah, I peed in my pants. Look Mommy, my shorts have stars on them!!" We have tried almost everything with this child. She does not care. I did get her attention when I told her that it was ok that she peed in her pants, it just means she isn't ready to be a big girl yet and we would go back to diapers. Oh boy, she got upset and said she won't pee in her pants anymore.  We'll see.

Then he asked if I had any concerns. We have noticed for awhile now that Kayley either snores or breathes very loudly through her mouth when she sleeps. She slept on the floor in my parents' bedroom the week she stayed there and she was so loud that my Dad got up and slept in another room. I have noticed when I have walked into her room at night that sometimes her breathing seems irregular. She will have pauses where she isn't breathing. He looked in her mouth and remarked that she has huge tonsils. We knew that from one other time she was sick and the doctor made the comment about how large they were, but she wasn't having any problems so nobody was very concerned about it. He also asked if she is restless in her sleep and if she moves around a lot.  Kayley is never in the same position for very long. He thinks she has sleep apnea and referred us to an ENT to discuss a T&A and any other options.  We certainly don't want to put her through surgery unless we need to, but after reading about all the negative things associated with sleep apnea, we are more open to it.

I have always associated sleep apnea with adults so I came home from the pediatrician and read the materials he gave us and then went to work on google to find some more information. (Doctors have to hate that we do that!) Anyway, we looked through the symptoms of sleep apnea in children and we could check the box next to almost each one. One additional thing I didn't mention to the pediatrician because it has always been like this, is that Kayley's voice has always sounded nasally to me. I have always thought they nicked her vocal cords when they intubated her in the NICU or something. But, in my less than thorough google research, I have come across several sites that mention a nasal sounding voice as a side effect of large tonsils. That would explain a lot if it is true.

So the next step is to go to the ENT and see what he thinks. Maybe she will simply outgrow it in the next few weeks!

Here are a few pictures from a few months ago. They show her personality perfectly though.