Laryngomalacia

jo4janet · June 2012

Anyone ever hear of this condition or their child have it? Basically for the past 22 months, DD has been getting croup on and off and has a constant cough that is more apparent at night because she is laying down (positioning). We went to an ENT doctor yesterday and he confirmed this, but was a little concerned that she was almost two and that it hasn't yet resolved. If anyone has any experience with this, please tell me how old your LO is and what issues you have had. We follow up in six weeks and I am just so happy that we finally have an answer for this issue she has been having. We were worried that she was going to have really bad asthma. PS Sorry I know some of you are dealing with things way more serious than this, but I am still worried about what can potentially occur with this condition.

seethesmiles · June 2012

My DS was diagnosed with laryngomalacia at 4 months. At his 2 year appointment, the ENT told us it had resolved and we no longer had to follow-up with him. However, during that time, our ENT kept assuring us that if it didn't resolve, there was a simple surgery to fix the problem. To me, there is no such thing as "simple surgery" when it comes to my kid so I, like you, was very concerned. As far as I know, there are no real long-term problems associated with the disorder. As our pedi said, "it bothers the parents a lot more than it bothers the patient." Think positively and hopefully, your DD's will resolve without intervention.

jo4janet · June 2012

Thank you so much. That is very reassuring. I really DO NOT want DD to have to have the surgery. I read about it and even though it seems "simple", I, like you don't feel that going under anesthesia for anything is truly simple, especially when it is for your LO.

realisticdreams · June 2012

I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting this I will be calling our ENT on Monday bc P has had a cough for as long as I can remember and no amount of allergy, asthma or cough suppressants help it. We have been clueless. I wanted to ask was your DD's cough worse on some nights than others? Sometimes P even coughs if she is sleeping in her carseat.

jo4janet · June 2012

realisticdreams:
I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting this I will be calling our ENT on Monday bc P has had a cough for as long as I can remember and no amount of allergy, asthma or cough suppressants help it. We have been clueless. I wanted to ask was your DD's cough worse on some nights than others? Sometimes P even coughs if she is sleeping in her carseat.

Absolutely her cough is worse on some nights than others, especially when she is sick. It lingers for weeks and weeks. She has had croup various times and when she coughs in the middle of the night in her sleep, it makes DH and I cringe. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though because she sleeps right through it. Good luck with your appt. it took us a really LONG time to realize that it was not just allergies or a cold. BTW, how old is yourDD?

realisticdreams · June 2012

jo4janet:
realisticdreams:
I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting this I will be calling our ENT on Monday bc P has had a cough for as long as I can remember and no amount of allergy, asthma or cough suppressants help it. We have been clueless. I wanted to ask was your DD's cough worse on some nights than others? Sometimes P even coughs if she is sleeping in her carseat.
Absolutely her cough is worse on some nights than others, especially when she is sick. It lingers for weeks and weeks. She has had croup various times and when she coughs in the middle of the night in her sleep, it makes DH and I cringe. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though because she sleeps right through it. Good luck with your appt. it took us a really LONG time to realize that it was not just allergies or a cold. BTW, how old is yourDD?

We did allergy meds daily for over 2 months with no real change, and she can use her nebulizer before bed, inhaler during, take pedicare/mucinex dm and nothing makes a difference. The last time we talked to the pedi he was leaning towards asthma but said that the term 'cough variant asthma' is usually just bc they can't figure out what it is. We never really pushed it bc it's more annoying than anything. She has other sleep issues though, so she gets very little restful sleep some nights. And some nights if she's really croupy she will even throw up (just water/clear) from coughing so much. She has been dx with croup a couple of times and given steroids to help. We saw an ENT when she was around 1 for multiple ear infections but chose not to do tubes, but we have seen one before. This is my oldest..she is 2 1/2 (bday in nov) so over the age frame you listed =( It's ok though, that's just our luck and she has had general atleast 12-15 times so we are used to it.

Are they able to do a visible exam to diagnose that? Even if the child is uncooperative?

seethesmiles · June 2012

realisticdreams:
jo4janet:
realisticdreams:
I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting this I will be calling our ENT on Monday bc P has had a cough for as long as I can remember and no amount of allergy, asthma or cough suppressants help it. We have been clueless. I wanted to ask was your DD's cough worse on some nights than others? Sometimes P even coughs if she is sleeping in her carseat.
Absolutely her cough is worse on some nights than others, especially when she is sick. It lingers for weeks and weeks. She has had croup various times and when she coughs in the middle of the night in her sleep, it makes DH and I cringe. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though because she sleeps right through it. Good luck with your appt. it took us a really LONG time to realize that it was not just allergies or a cold. BTW, how old is yourDD?
We did allergy meds daily for over 2 months with no real change, and she can use her nebulizer before bed, inhaler during, take pedicare/mucinex dm and nothing makes a difference. The last time we talked to the pedi he was leaning towards asthma but said that the term 'cough variant asthma' is usually just bc they can't figure out what it is. We never really pushed it bc it's more annoying than anything. She has other sleep issues though, so she gets very little restful sleep some nights. And some nights if she's really croupy she will even throw up (just water/clear) from coughing so much. She has been dx with croup a couple of times and given steroids to help. We saw an ENT when she was around 1 for multiple ear infections but chose not to do tubes, but we have seen one before. This is my oldest..she is 2 1/2 (bday in nov) so over the age frame you listed =( It's ok though, that's just our luck and she has had general atleast 12-15 times so we are used to it.
Are they able to do a visible exam to diagnose that? Even if the child is uncooperative?

In our case, they were not able to diagnose with just a visible exam. They had to do a scope. The good news is that they did not need to sedate DS for the scope. Our ENT said that it was not painful at all for DS (although his cries made me think differently) but DS had it done several times and it was always very quick (less than a minute -- except for the time that there was a med student observing and the ENT kept stopping so the med student could get a look in the scope but I digress...). Basically, they put a little camera thing down through his nose, took a look, and that was it. I held DS on my lap and restrained his arms while a nurse restrained his head. It honestly wasn't too bad. Good luck!

jo4janet · June 2012

We also did the scope, like seethesmiles, but she didn't need any anesthetic. DH was there and held her down because she is so freaking strong and probably would have headbutted my belly (I am 12 weeks preggo). You really do need some kind of diagnostic exam because then it isn't really worth it to go see them. I am personally not satisfied with just a clinical diagnosis. I like to have diagnostic exams performed (when necessary, of course) because I am OCD like that. Good luck to you and I hope that they just have to do the laryngoscope. If they don't see anything on that, then they put them under anesthesia and do another scope, which I think is a bronchoscopy, but I don't remember exactly.

realisticdreams · June 2012

Thanks both of you! We got an appt for 2:45 tomorrow I hope he doesn't just dismiss it, I don't think he will because he's a fairly thorough doctor.

Will let you both know!

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