QuestionI have a 5 1/2 yr old daughter. Who has a history of Asthma and at age 18 months, and then at age 3 was hospitalized with reactive airway disease.
She currently uses a neubulizer as needed, which is roughly 2-3 times a week. Both her older sister (10 yrs) and myself have asthma that is worse during the winter then it is any other time of year, but it is very well managed.
We noticed a pattern with her sleeping, where she will awake a few hours after going to sleep and crawl into bed with whoever she can find in the house (often her older sister), we also noticed often that she sleeps with her entire upper body on her pillow, that she is a mouth breather and tends to cough a lot at night which she does not do during the day.
While my mother was here over Christmas, my mother told me that she had noticed that my daughter often seems to stop breathing for a brief moment, before having a coughing fit while sleeping.
Of course this alarmed me and I took her to see a general med doctor at our health clinic.
Her blood pressure was high, but her heart rate low. Her peak flow was at only 40. She is small in stature, (she was under 6 pounds at birth and currently weighs 36 pounds) but so was her sister and myself.
The general med doc that she saw asked if she had ever been tested for Cystic Fibrosis (she has not as far as I am aware) and has set up an appointment to do so in Feb. For some reason (she couldn't give me a solid explanation) she feels that "late onset cystic fibrosis" is more likely then Sleep Apnea, which I don't have to tell you scares me quite a bit.
While pregnant with her in the first trimester I was on tetracycline for 60 days unaware that I was pregnant. Which I was told could effect her heart and lungs. But other then her 2 hospitalizations there seemed to be no serious problems until this last year.
I cannot find anything online about "late onset CF" and thought that it was a genetic illness you were either born with or were not. Should I be pushing for a sleep study or allow them to do the CF testing first?
AnswerHi Jo,
I can understand your concern. CF can be diagnosed at birth to one year of age and early childhood but many kids are diagnosed later in life--early to mid teens. The disease is genetic. If your child has asthma, I would first look into treating with Singulair. Even consider a tonsil and adenoidectomy. Much of this may be structural. If there is a strong suspicion for CF then genetic testing should be done. Sleep apnea is not very common in children but not unheard of.
