A mother discusses her child’s symptoms and eventual diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea with WDBJ.
Dr. Tamez suspected sleep apnea, a condition where a person stops breathing in his sleep. Trevor was sent to the Carilion sleep clinic where he and his mom spent the night and Trevor’s sleep was monitored overnight. It confirmed what Tiffany had suspected — her little boy had sleep apnea.
“Particularly the last decade or so we’ve recognized the prevalence of it,” said Dr. Tamez. “As many as 11 percent of children can have sleep disturbance and part of that is sleep apnea.”
Trevor now wears a C-pap machine that blows air into his upper airway to keep the airway open during his sleep, which is not easy for a toddler.
“We’re still working on him with it ’cause he’ll take if off he’ll pull it so I have to keep putting it back on throughout the night,” Ray said.
