Snoring Babies

Infants and babies also snore while sleeping like older children. The causes of snoring in babies differ from that of older kids.

1. Immature tissues and organs

The vast majority of baby snoring is caused by immature tissues and organs of infants, which will disappear as the children grow up. As the nasal passages of infants are still narrow and usual are filled with bubbly secretions, when air passes through the nose filled with secretions, a vibratory sound is produced causing baby to snore. Snoring is basically just a sound produced by the soft tissues as air passes in. As the baby grows older, as well as his nasal passages and as he learns to swallow excess saliva these vibratory sounds or baby snoring should subside.

2. Laryngomalacia

One more cause for baby snoring is laryngomalacia. Laryngomalacia is a very common condition of infancy, in which the soft, immature cartilage of the upper larynx collapses inward during inhalation, causing airway obstruction. In time, the cartilage that supports tissues around the throat and airway become stronger which helps resolve the problem. Most children grow out of laryngomalacia by one year of age and nearly all children eventually outgrow the condition. The sound of snoring is more and baby becomes blue during suckling.

3. Diet

Some of the daily diet may also lead to snoring, which may not only for babies, it would also be applied in adults as well. Dairy products like milk will increases the production of mucus that causes narrowing of the airway. Eating high caloric foods also contributes to snoring during sleep. High caloric foods are not easy to digest and it stays longer in the stomach especially when eaten late at nights this leads to increase pressure in the diaphragm especially while lying down. This pressure in turn causes the snoring.

4. Tonsil and Adenoids

An abnormal structure in his nasal passages like enlarged tonsils are also can cause snoring and sleep apnea like in older children, but adenoid and tonsils are enlarged usually after the age of 2-3 years. Rarely it can cause sleep apnea in young infants. The generally accepted procedure for enlarged tonsils called tonsillectomy, in which the tonsils are removed from either side of the throat.

Adenoid hypertrophy causes a variety of symptoms of nasal obstruction and chronic mouth breathing and contributes to snoring. Adenoid hypertrophy is a specific disease to early childhood. For adenoid hypertrophy, the nose will be blocked, not only the drainage of nasal secretions will blocked, and the inbound and outbound air will also be blocked, eventually lead to mouth breathing. Surgical removal of the adenoids is a procedure called adenoidectomy, and cure the snoring and sleep apnea completely.

5. Facial malformations

Retrognathia and small lower jaw with large tongue in infants of trisomy21 (downs syndrome) result in sleep apnea. These infants may need CPAP support for survival.