Disorder Awareness
July 10th Coping With Laryngomalacia, Inc. Paint your nails light blue for LM Awareness
July 10th is World Airway Disorders Day!
Laryngomalacia is an airway disorder that affects the larynx (voice box) of infants, where floppy tissue above the vocal chords falls into the airway.
Symptoms of laryngomalacia are:
stridor or noisy breathing, difficulty feeding, poor weight gain, choking while feeding, aspiration, retractions (pulling in the neck and chest with each breath), cyanosis (turning blue), and apnea.
Approximately 5% of babies diagnosed will need life-saving surgery.
Unfortunately, it is often misdiagnosed, downplayed, or not understood by doctors. Some common misdiagnoses are reflux, newborn congestion, baby swallowed amniotic fluid during delivery, or that it is normal newborn breathing and they will grow out of it.
A pediatrician cannot diagnose laryngomalacia on symptoms alone. In order to get a proper diagnosis, an in-office scope, or laryngoscopy, should be performed by a Pediatric ENT.
For more information on laryngomalacia, please visit www.CopingwithLM.org. CWL is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide support, strength, and education for families coping with laryngomalacia, tracheomalacia, and pharyngomalacia.
Coping With Laryngomalacia, Inc. Facebook event page for: