What Causes Sleeping Disorders in Toddlers?

At each stage of a toddler’s development, the toddler grows and changes both physically and mentally. These changes could cause them to have trouble falling or staying asleep. For instance, a baby could experience significant separation anxiety and need to cuddle in the middle of the night. Some toddlers might just feel the urge to stretch their arms and legs, and this can keep them up at night. Even something as simple as a slight change to a toddler’s daily routine can be enough to disrupt sleep over a long period of time. A routine change might sound simple enough to us adults, but it can be difficult for a toddler to adjust to.

Some sleep disruptions can be caused by illness or allergies. Some sleep disorders, like night terrors or restless leg syndrome, could be caused by a toddler’s inability to self-soothe. Sleep apnea may be caused by a small upper airway or another issue. There could be other factors involved in your toddler’s difficulty sleeping, like not enough sleep time or bedwetting. Because there are so many possible causes of a sleeping disorder in a toddler, and because a toddler isn’t really able to communicate their sleep issues to a parent, professional help is necessary.

If you suspect your toddler has a sleep disorder, then you absolutely should take him or her in to see a pediatric sleep doctor. This professional can properly interpret sleeping issues and determine whether a child may have a sleep-related disorder.

For toddlers aged two and up, a sleep study could really help. This is one of the best methods for determining whether an individual, including a toddler, could have a sleep disorder. During this study, you and your child will stay at a clinic overnight where specialists will observe your child’s sleep behaviors and breathing. This information can help a pediatric sleep doctor determine whether your toddler could have a sleeping disorder.

Sleep disorders like night terrors and restless leg syndrome can be addressed by the doctor, and so can serious disorders like sleep apnea. For this issue in particular, oral appliance therapy can help a great deal. This method uses a simple, comfortable oral appliance to effectively treat the underlying issue causing a toddler’s sleep disorder in the first place. Oral appliance therapy is approved by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and we provide it here at Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders.

The pediatric sleep doctors here at our clinic offer a program for children who have significant sleep disorders like sleep-disordered breathing. This program is called KoalaKIDZzz®, and it can help toddlers as young as two years old. In this program, our professionals are able to provide the kind of long-term care and support children with serious sleep disorders need. Oral appliance therapy can be included in this program, and it could be the best solution for your toddler.

We’d love to tell you more about this program, our treatments, and sleeping disorders during a meet-and-greet/consultation at our clinic. We can also provide insight into what may be causing your toddler’s sleeping difficulty or disorder, and we can eventually treat the cause too.

Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders has many locations in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin. Book an appointment with us today at any of these locations. You can do so on our Appointments page, or you can call and book with us.

We hope to speak with you soon, and we look forward to helping your toddler sleep better!