Melody puts it like this: Imagine yourself after three days of sleep deprivation. Now multiply that by 100, and then add a stimulant like caffeine or something even stronger into the mix. “How do you think you’ll feel once you start coming down from that?” she asks.
After doing some hard long research, Melody finally got Kian to see an ENT (ears, nose, and throat specialist).
Following an eye-opening sleep study, Kian was diagnosed with sleep apnea and sinusitis.
“He got exactly 0 minutes of REM sleep during the first study, and oxygen saturation in the low 80%, and his sinuses were 90% blocked. We had no idea that Kian had a headache daily, but it was just his normal so he never thought to tell us. Kian had his tonsils and adenoids removed and the change was immediate. He could breathe through his nose as soon as he came out of surgery, where he couldn’t when they wheeled him in.”
Melody says they have seen a “complete 180” in Kian’s behavior.
“No more angry tantrums, no more fixation on little OCD things, it’s been an enormous change. And we haven’t even finished the second step – fixing his jaw and tongue issues that developed during the course of undiagnosed sleep apnea. Our follow-up sleep study? 360 minutes of REM sleep, and oxygen saturation above the minimum threshold. No behavior reports in school. His appetite has exploded, he’s no longer a picky eater, and he had a huge growth spurt 2 weeks after the surgery. He still has mild sleep apnea, but the frequency in the night was cut in half, and the duration of each episode was cut in half. If we see this much of a change now, I can only imagine how much it will improve once we cross the finish line.”
In her post, Melody says she’s sharing her experience because her child was sleep deprived and it disguised itself as ADHD. Kian’s brain, and thus, his body, wasn’t getting the proper rest that it needed simply because he was breathing with his mouth open.
Melody says no one had ever told her about this relationship between sleep disorders and ADHD, but it’s something every parent needs to know about, because it’s radically transformed her son’s quality of life.
Children who often suffer from sleep disorders will often breathe through their mouths, and exhibit several of the following symptoms:
- Falls asleep immediately after their head hits the pillow
- Snores
- Grinds their teeth
- Wakes up in the night
- Has night time accidents or daytime accidents
- Has impulse control issues
- Is hard to understand when speaking
- Has under eye circles
- Has crooked teeth or a misaligned bite
- Wakes up insanely early
- Is irritable during the day
- Has a bad appetite
“If any of this is raising red flags in your mind, if this sounds like your child, if your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, please see an ENT and get a sleep study. It may just change your life.”
