Snoring might be little more than a frustration for most adults—but it can be downright scary when it affects children. Waking up to hear your child rasping, gasping for breath, or even ceasing to breathe altogether in brief episodes can be terrifying.

Believe it or not, snoring affects children more than you’d like to know. Researchers say that 20% of ‘normal children’ snore from time to time, while 7-10% snore every night. Of course, snoring doesn’t necessarily mean that your child has a serious problem—but it’s also difficult to determine this for certain without the help of a medical professional.

According to an article about Child Snoring published on sleepcenter.ucla.edu, severe snoring can be found in about 2% of children. This might not seem like a lot—but what if it happens to you? What if your child ends up being in this 2% figure? What should you do? How can you help?

Identifying a ‘serious’ case of snoring in your child

The first step is obviously to figure out if the snoring is even posing a serious risk. Most cases of child snoring aren’t dangerous at all—so odds are good that you actually have nothing to be afraid of.

For children who do end up with a severe snoring problem, Obstructive Sleep Apnea is almost always to blame. It’s a common sleep disorder that causes those suffering to cease breathing intermittently and/or randomly throughout the night due to constriction of the airway.

A child suffering from OSA might appear to suck in his or her chest while snoring. He/she may also snort and/or gasp, and you may notice breathing starting and stopping several times per hour. There are a number of signs to look for that might help to tell you whether or not your child may be suffering from the condition.

But the bottom line, unfortunately, is that it might be impossible to know for sure without a doctor’s help—so if you suspect that your child might be dealing with OSA, make sure to contact a medical professional for an appointment.

Is there anything that I can do to help stop my child’s snoring problem?

Unfortunately, children don’t have quite as many options as adults when it comes to snoring. Many of the stop-snoring devices on the market today are only usable by grownups—but that doesn’t leave you powerless.

One possible solution is surgery, though this will probably only be considered if your child’s snoring problem is unusually severe. Positive airway pressure, or PAP is also an option—though again, it may take a fairly bad case of OSA to make this a viable option.

Simple lifestyle changes can do a lot to help keep your child from snoring—especially if he/she is obese. Obesity really increases your child’s odds of developing a snoring problem—so helping to get him/her on a better diet and exercise routine could do a world of good.

Of course, none of these are going to work for everyone—and sometimes, unfortunately, there’ll simply be nothing that you can do. If your child’s snoring isn’t severe enough to warrant surgery or PAP treatment, then consider yourself lucky that you don’t have severe OSA to deal with, and try to implement some positive lifestyle changes [exercise is probably the best thing] to help eliminate the problem over time.

The good news is that snoring isn’t always dangerous. There’s a very good chance that your child will be fine and basically unaffected by the problem—but it never hurts to ask your doctor, just in case.

Guest Author: Albert J. has a passion for writing and is the main author on http://snoringdevicesaustralia.com website. If you would like to find out more about snoring, please visit his website.