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" Question From birth my son seems to momentarily forget to breathe whilst sleeping, and then takes a large breath and it&amp;#039;s back to normal. He has always done this. He also snores and breathes very heavily when asleep. He has had an almost permanent greenish cold-like discharge from his nose.  The doctor said not to be silly and that all kids have a cold. However, the two times he has had antibiotics this year the green junk cleared up for about a week. He has constantly disturbed sleep because he always seems to be really struggling to breathe through his nose. His nose gets really red and sore sometimes too. I wonder if this is something that I should pursue or if you think I am worrying about nothing.  I always seem to be at the doctors for one thing or another, and although three doctors attend my local practice, none are particularly sympathetic.   Answer Some of your son&amp;#039;s symptoms could be due to enlarged adenoids (glands at the back of the nose).  When a child&amp;#039;s adenoids are very big they may cause some obstruction to the airways, particularly at night when the child is lying down.  This can result in snoring and can make the child&amp;#039;s breathing more laboured. It can also result in a condition known as sleep apnoea, which produces spells where the breathing seems to stop altogether for a short period and then suddenly begins again. Enlarged adenoids may also cause a child to seem more &amp;#039;catarrhal&amp;#039; than other children, and can result in breathing through the mouth rather than the nose much of the time. The symptoms of enlarged adenoids tend to improve as the child gets older, but when sleep apnoea is present an operation to remove the adenoids may be necessary. If you think your son&amp;#039;s breathing pattern at night is typical of sleep apnoea, I suggest you try again to talk to one of the doctors at your practice about this problem, and see if they would agree to refer your son to a local ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeon for assessment. Yours sincerely The NetDoctor Medical Team   Other Qs &amp;amp; As A sleepwalking son How can I calm my daughter so that she goes to sleep? How can I get my son to sleep at night? How can I help my daughter overcome her night terrors? How do we get our seven-year-old to stay out of our bed at night? I&amp;#039;m 13 years old and can&amp;#039;t sleep My baby thrashes about at night My daughter sleepwalks My daughter&amp;#039;s blocked nose is disrupting her sleep My granddaughter is having trouble sleeping My six-year-old daughter is scared at night My son is too scared to sleep My son wakes up screaming My son wants us to sleep in the room with him My teenage son has trouble sleeping Our five year old won&amp;amp;#8217;t sleep Our son never sleeps Problems with sleep and breastfeeding Questions about sleep apnoea Seven-month-old needs to be breastfed to go to sleep Sleepwalking child   Last updated 19.05.2014 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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