How does difficulty breathing, mouth breathing, or night terrors affect children?

My son is 9 years old this year. When sleeping at night, he often has difficulty breathing, gasps for breath, sometimes has to breathe through his mouth, snores, is startled, startled... so his sleep is not good. I see that this greatly affects his health, study, physical and intellectual development. Please advise me on a treatment!

(Readers call from 0937xxx912)

Doctor replied:

Hello!

The condition of a 9-year-old child having difficulty breathing, breathing through the mouth, snoring loudly, and being startled while sleeping as you described are signs suggesting obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This is a common breathing disorder during sleep in children, which can affect the quality of sleep, concentration, behavior, and physical development of the child if prolonged.

Common causes include: inflammation, hypertrophy of tonsils and adenoids (nasopharynx), causing obstruction of the airway when the baby is sleeping; the child is obese or has neuromuscular abnormalities.

Therefore, you should take your child to an ENT specialist and a pediatrician for a thorough examination and some paraclinical tests if necessary, such as nasopharyngeal endoscopy, X-ray, etc. If it is due to enlarged adenoids or tonsils, the doctor may prescribe medical treatment first, or adenoidectomy/tonsillectomy if necessary. At the same time, monitor the child's weight to see if the child is overweight or obese, which can also lead to this condition.

Wish your baby get effective treatment soon!

Specialist Doctor 2 Nguyen Van Suu,

Deputy Director of Professional Affairs, Head of Pediatrics Department, Au Co Hospital

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/alo--bac-si-oi/202508/tinh-trang-kho-tho-tho-bang-mieng-hay-giat-minh-ve-dem-gay-anh-huong-the-nao-den-tre-8d229c9/