What increases risk for sleep apnea in children?
Obesity is the predominant risk factor. If you lay down and you have a mass of fat in your neck, that puts even more pressure on tissues that are already relaxed, and makes the pharynx, or airway, even smaller. Children who are born into a family that has a high risk of sleep apnea are at increased risk. And children with Down syndrome, children who have significant hypotonia—that means that their muscles are relatively very weak—and children who have neuromuscular diseases are at much higher risk for sleep apnea than other kids. Obviously, if you get allergies, you get substantial swelling of the lining of the nose, and that can lead to enlargement of adenoids, and altogether this makes it more likely that a child will have difficulty breathing through their nose. Some kids who are asthmatic, obviously, can have sleep apnea. But if two diseases are common, then they are likely to coincide even though they may not share any common mechanisms. However, in children whose parents smoke, w
