January 23, 2016

Laryngomalacia

Ever since Eden was born, she would occasionally breathe loudly and it sounded like she was struggling to breathe (like when Barrett had Croup).  It was most noticeable when she was nursing or sleeping and it would really freak me out.  She always seemed fine but the noisy breathing made me very worried.  Finally I recorded her breathing like that and took it to our pediatrician.  She told me what she thought it was but suggested I see an ENT just to have her properly checked out.   A week or two later I had an appointment with a pediatric ENT (who was not all that good with either of my kids, btw), I showed him a different/shorter video I had of Eden's breathing (below) and he checked her out.

It was a pretty awful appointment actually.  He had to scope down her throat to see her voice box and since she gagged and fought too much to let him go through her mouth, he had to scope through her nose :(  I had to hold her hands down, the nurse held her head still, and the doctor slid the tiny camera in.  It was so sad.
This was before the doctor came in, obviously.
Bear liked sitting in the chair too and really wanted to push all the buttons on it (I didn't let him for the record).

Turns out, she has Laryngomalacia.  That's when the tissues of the voice box are malformed and floppy so they partially block the airway when breathing.  

Her case is mild as it comes and goes and does not require surgery- THANKFULLY!!  He did suggest putting her on a medication for reflux though because having reflux can cause swelling above the vocal cords and make the condition worse.  I'm not really sure that she does have reflux (although she does spit up a TON!), but we'll give the medication a try and see if it helps her to breathe better.

1 comment:

Netti said...

That appt sounds like a Mom's worst nightmare! So sorry you two had to do that.:(