I sent a private email to Dr. Palmer in response to his posting about sleep apnea and he
asked me to share what I wrote with everyone on Lactnet.

I was interested in what he had to write about sleep apnea, snoring, and airway
obstructions because my youngest daughter Melissa (age 5 yrs.) has had problems with all
three. She has always snored and we were told by her pedi that she had enlarged tonsils.
The snoring had gotten progressively worse until she started having 2-3 episodes of
sleep apnea per night and we were very worried. We took her into an ENT who took one
look at her tonsils and wondered how she could eat or breathe at all. When a doctor
looks scared, I get concerned! Melissa was also having problems being extremely tired
and would often fall asleep on the floor or the couch in the afternoon. She has always
been very small for her age (about 32 lbs. at 5.2 yrs.) and was having a lot of trouble
eating. Anyway, we scheduled the tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy immediately. The ENT
also felt that her airway obstruction was cutting down her oxygen supply and could have
been a contributing factor in her slow growth rate.

She had the surgery in December '95 and did fine. The ENT was amazed at the size of her
tonsils and said they were the largest he had ever seen in such a little girl (each
about the size of a golf ball!). She no longer snores (and I can finally sleep easier
too), eats much better, isn't tired all the time, actually enjoys going to preschool,
and seems to be growing better.

We are definitely glad we went with the surgery. I would be interested in hearing if
anyone has found any links with a slow growth rate and airway obstructions.

Kim
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Kim Balzer, La Leche League Leader, Student Lactation Consultant
Sebastopol, CA

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."
                                        -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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