🩺Tonsils🩺
Many of you will be opening this post thinking, ‘what on earth do tonsils have to do with sleep?’.
I thought the exact same until it became apparent that my older two boys were waking in the night because theirs were too big!
For a bit of backstory, my older boys could self settle, had no bedtime battles, would fall asleep independently but would wake several times overnight crying. Sometimes they would be so distressed, other times they’d go back off easily.
We thought night terrors, too hot, too cold, scared of the dark and at one point thought it may have been too much TV before bed.
But when my eldest needed an operation for grommets due to glue ear, the ENT surgeon asked how he was sleeping. When I told him what was going on, he said he had grade 3 tonsils and it’s probably due to obstructive sleep apnoea!
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in children is a sleep disorder characterised by partial or complete upper airway obstruction during sleep, resulting in disrupted sleep patterns and altered oxygen levels. It all made sense! He was struggling to breathe, would wake up and be upset and confused as to why he was awake!
He had his surgery to remove his tonsils and we have never had a wake up in the night since!!
Soon after, we took my second son to be seen by the same surgeon and we were shocked that his tonsils were a grade 4 (pretty much touching!!). He had the same operation (minus the grommets) and exactly the same happened for him – no wake ups!
Now I am not saying get your child’s tonsils out and they’ll sleep better, but if you have exhausted all other avenues and your child can self settle but waking upset in the night, it may be worth having a look and getting checked over by a doctor ❤️
