People connect sleep apnea with overweight adults, mostly men, and this profile does match most sufferers, but in fact everybody ceases breathing at some time when they are asleep. Not every night as with sufferers of sleep apnea, but every now and then.
Even babies can stop breathing sometimes. This can be a terrifying experience for parents and carers. If you are anxious about your baby suffering from apnea, you could get one of the baby sleep apnea monitors.
There are three forms of apnea, which means ‘without wind’ and comes from Greek: central, obstructive and mixed or complex apnea. Obstructive apnea is by far the most common kind and it is also the explanation why babies get apnea most of the time too.
Although a small amount of apnea sometimes is fairly normal, constant apnea could be a sign that something is wrong medically. Two of the causes in babies could be enlarged adenoids or tonsils, which could have significant consequences.
It is a problem to tell what is going on with babies at the best of times, but when a baby is suffering from apnea, you might become aware of snoring, gasping, colouration and restlessness.
Obstructive apnea normally only happens during sleep when muscles are relaxed, however, central apnea can take place at any time of the day or night. Central apnea is caused by a part of the brain that controls breathing not working in the correct manner. This type of apnea is more common in premature babies.
Mixed or complex apnea is a mixture of the other two forms and is also pretty common in children.
Your doctor, the nurse or the midwife will check for apnea and may suggest that you get one of the various baby sleep apnea monitors. One of the concerns with these baby monitors is that none of them is completely dependable to detect the cessation of breathing. Therefore, the better baby monitors will have a heart beat detector as a back-up.
The monitor must also be able to activate an alarm outside the room where the baby is, so that the parent or carer can walk around the house without having to worry about checking up on the baby regularly
These remote alarms are normally wireless nowadays and they may also have a vibration alert. This is a very helpful role. The last consideration is the power source. Batteries alone are not really good enough.
The best forms are rechargeable. That is, they function like a mobile phone. This means that the sensor can be attached to the cot and the baby wherever it is, even when there is no local power source.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. If you want to know more, please go to our web site at Sleep Apnea Surgery Techniques