November 2004

Sleep studies give children sweet dreams

A good night’s sleep is important to health and wellbeing and for children it is a time when the body grows and replenishes itself.

Children who snore and suffer from disturbed sleep patterns may be need of medical treatment.

In some cases, snoring may be caused by swollen tonsils that may partially block the airway.

In a small number of cases, the swelling can reduce oxygen intake for short periods overnight.

If this is the case, tonsils may need to be removed to make breathing easier.

To find out if snoring is affecting oxygen levels, the Latrobe Regional Hospital Tarra Paediatric Unit conducts ‘sleep studies.’

Until now, this has involved an overnight stay for the child and a parent or carer but, with the aid of new portable equipment, the sleep studies can be done in the child’s home.

The new program operates through Hospital-in-the-Home (HITH) in cooperation with Tarra.

A HITH nurse usually visits the home in the afternoon before the sleep study and explains how it works.

She shows parents or carers how to attach the sleep monitor—a simple soft clip—onto the child’s finger.

The child can then become familiar with the equipment so that by bedtime it is no longer a distracting novelty.

The HITH nurse visits the next day to collect the monitor.

The program is convenient for families, particularly those with other young children needing care.

The child settles more easily and tends to have a more ‘normal’ sleep at home, increasing the accuracy of the result.

Back at Tarra, the monitor is attached to a computer and data is downloaded from the previous night.

Information on the child’s heart rate and blood oxygen levels is charted.

The paediatrician then reviews the graph and decides on the best treatment for the child.

Home sleep studies are also cost effective for Latrobe Regional Hospital as they enable more beds to be available for children needing immediate medical and surgical care.