2yr old sleep apnea and irregular breathing

[Riada]

My son was diagnosed with sleep apnea at 18 months.  He had showed mild symptoms at birth but as he got older we noticed he was having challenges breathing at night and he was making noises that sounded like he was gasping for air or he had really really bad hiccups.  When he had a “bad night” we would have all kinds of behavioral issues and he had stopped growing.   The sleep study confirmed he had moderate sleep apnea.   We had his adenoids removed @2 yrs old.  We saw an immediate improvement in his breathing and behavior, but we still have occasional bad nights where we hear the sounds described above. I have a video of one of the episodes and we have showed to the ENT.  Our ENT wanted us to do another sleep study but we are very hesitant b/c it is so sporadic. He says it appears to be “irregular breathing” and during the recorded episode he does not appear to be having any obstructive issues.   Sometimes he will wake up crying and other times he will sleep right through it.   The issues appear to be in his REM sleep.   We also put my son on allergy meds and that helped but he still has the breathing episodes at night.   I had him tested for allergies but those tests came back normal.  ENT says that allergy test at my son’s age are not reliable.   Once the test came back we stopped the medicine but he started having congestion and behavior symptoms again so he is now back on them.    Other random symptoms that I am not sure are related are that he sweats a lot and when he is hot (due to excessive play or heat) he becomes very emotional.   Our ENT referred us to a pulmonologist but I am learning as much as I can before I go that route.  I’m hoping to better understand if it is truly irregular breathing, what is the long term impact, what are the potential causes of these symptoms.  

[Riada]

Yes, they also took his tonsils and adenoids out.   That is good advice, thank you!

[KatEyes]

Did they also remove his tonsils? Prior to a decision to get a sleep study, you may want to ask the doc about ordering a few nights with a recording pulse oximeter. It's very easy as it's just the finger clip, but it will at least let you know if his breathing is causing oxygen drops. When ones sleep and especially breathing are not right, there is potential for so many of our body systems to become dysfunctional. How that manifests probably depends on the severity of the problem. Best wishes sorting through this so your son can begin to rest well and in time recover from the effects of what he's been through.