It’s not just adults who snore; babies also make this raucous breathing sound when they sleep. Snoring occurs when the muscles at the back of the palate, throat, tongue and uvula relax, making it difficult for air to pass through the airway. However, when snoring occurs in babies, it is often due to a cold. To fully understand this phenomenon, read on.
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Why does baby snore at night?
Snoring is caused by abnormal vibrations of the pharynx during inspiration. When your baby sleeps, he is usually restless, which is why he grunts, sighs or breathes irregularly. He snores because his muscle tone is decreasing and his airway is constricting. This is because his or her respiratory system is not yet narrow, and he or she is congested with drool. Generally, snoring stops after 4 months, when his airways reach a good diameter and he starts to swallow his saliva. But you should not wake him up to avoid disturbing his sleep. So you don’t have to worry about this phenomenon, as long as he is sucking, it means that he is breathing through his nose. If he can’t breathe, he’ll wake up. However, don’t confuse the loud breathing you hear when you lean over your baby with the loud snoring you hear behind the door.
Snoring during feeding
If you hear your child making snoring noises while feeding, it is related to swallowing or poor posture. If he is tilted, the air may not pass well, so you should change his position. If he snores because he has a cold, clean his nose with saline before the bottle to moisten the mucous membranes and to help him breathe and drink properly. However, cleaning the nose should not be systematic, it is only done when the child has a blocked nose or a runny nose with small air bubbles at the end of the nostrils.
Snoring while eating
Like you, children salivate continuously. In babies, a small amount of saliva can collect in the throat, and this causes a snoring sound when they swallow food. But snoring sounds can also be caused by mucus that has collected in the windpipe after a cold. The baby can’t get rid of it because he or she doesn’t know how to cough yet. Also look for a small foreign body in the nostril. This causes symptoms like discharge from one nostril and green because of the infection around the object.
Snoring while breathing
If baby snores while breathing, it may be due to blocked sputum. To stop him snoring while breathing, try to get him to cough by patting him on the back. You can also give him a drink. Many babies make high-pitched noises when they breathe in, but they go away in time. However, wheezing should be a concern, especially if it persists. Exhaling wheezing can be a sign of asthma or bronchiolitis, and inhaling wheezing can be a sign of laryngitis.
Sometimes a baby snores because of an illness. This is the case if he suffers from sleep apnea, which is seen in overweight babies. Involuntary stop of breathing during sleep, sleep apnea is due to a partial or total prevention of breathing, and it leads to restless sleep and repetitive waking. To find out if your baby has this condition, observe him/her when he/she sleeps, and see if he/she makes efforts to breathe or if he/she breathes by mouth. It’s also possible that snoring is caused by a cold. But the vegetations can also promote this phenomenon, it is a formation at the back of his nose, if it is not yet big enough, it is the cause of snoring. His body does not receive enough oxygen because of the tonsils which inflate, they are the organs defending the body against infections. Baby’s snoring can also be caused by defects in craniofacial formation, neuromuscular or metabolic pathologies…
The consequences of snoring in babies
In children, snoring causes various problems that are more or less annoying during the day. It can cause fatigue, drowsiness, uncontrollable yawning, bad mood, irritability, aggressiveness and headaches. There are some side effects of snoring in babies that should concern parents and prompt them to consult a pediatrician. These include difficulty learning and concentrating, growth retardation and memory problems. The health care professional will perform an examination, make a diagnosis and suggest a solution: removal of the vegetations that may be obstructing the nose, removal of the tonsils if they are enlarged, or treatment of the allergy or cold causing the snoring.
