Child with Apnea

Hi!

Thought that perhaps there is someone out there who could give me some GOOD information or links to go to.

My son will soon have his sixth birthday and will start school (1st grade in Germany) in August. He inherited my apnea (mixed) and has been on a monitor since birth. (He is having a lot of alarms tonight so I gave up trying to sleep).

Are there any specialists out there that I can get information from as to when would be a good/proper time to change over to a cpap? Which cpap would be best for his needs? And VERY important: who can I take him to for proper sizing for a mask (whenever we're that far along) I would prefer he never need one but it is only a matter of time and I have had nothing but extremely lousy 'professional help' for myself in our area and do not want to have the same kind of lousy and uninformed, unknowledgable (lack of) care for him.

Appreciate any help I can get

I recall that when the Puritan Bennett 420 series of xPAP's first came out, they had a picture of a child sleeping with one on his night stand using their Breeze SleepGear mask. I own a 420E and I seem to recall a statement in the owners manual that xPAP therapy is contraindicated for patients less than 60 lbs. (27 Kg).

Puritan Bennett's website is:

http://www.puritanbennett.com

I wish I could give you the name of a good doctor, but all I can tell you is that I would try to find a child neurologist with an excellent reputation who specializes in sleep medicine. Perhaps you could start by contacting hospitals in some of the larger cities with good neurology departments--preferably a "teaching hospital" associated with a University. . .


Best Wishes,
-John

Here's a website that might help. There are links at the bottom to a number of other articles and to sleep organizations, one specifically for children.
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/childapnea.html

I know that a number of the masks are made in child size, but I'm not sure just which ones. I've seen them for sale, but don't remember off hand. Searching the manufacturer's sites might bring up some.

Debbie

Thanks John, thanks Debbie!

I appreciate your suggestions. I'm finding all kinds of 'good stuff' in the stanford.edu link.

Hope that (with a little help) I can make the correct decisions regarding my son's further health care. It's one thing to "experiment" on yourself, another to do so on your own child and just having the opportunity to 'talk' with someone about this helps.

Hugs to both,

Patricia (and Tristan too!)

Hey Rusty,

Has your child been seen by an ENT ( Ear Nose Throat) specialist? If not have your pediatrician recommend one.


- We honeymooned in Scotland and spent a day on the Isle of Skye.