Squeaks & Pops. Tracheamalacia diagnosis.

suzanne2545 · #1 01-27-2009, 04:07 PM

A friend's son was born two months ago. She says to a group of us that he is noisy- he squeaks and pops a lot when he is excited, should she be concerned. We were all like "probably not." Another friend of ours who is a doc saw him the other day and suggested that out of an abundance of caution she should bring it up to his ped.

Ped says he is probably just a noisy kid but it could be tracheamalacia and refers him to a pulm for a flexi scope. That will happen next week.

So, my friend asked me a lot of questions but still some things are confusing me or I just don't know the answer.

Can stridor ever sound like squeaks and pops? I've heard stridor and it sounds more like a wheeze or dragging sound to me. This kid (I've heard him) is truly squeaky - but only when awake and alert, never when sleeping.

Also, she wanted to know if a flexi scope in the office would the final way that this could be diagnosed. I said I wasn't sure if a bronch would be necessary - any thoughts?

Obviously this isn't a kid who is destined for a trach but it is concerning to her, nonetheless, and I'm trying to arm her with info going into the appointment. She is very emotional after this baby and I feel she needs to be prepared for this appointment, down to exactly what they do during a flexi scope.

saywhatyouwill · #2 01-27-2009, 04:19 PM

i don't know much about this stuff, but emily did sound squeaky as well as making classic stridor noises. not sure what a "pop" would sound like. i don't know if the malacia caused any of her stridor/squeak noises, but i do remember that a lot of people were stumped cos her breathing sounded unusual.

when the diagnosed tracheomalacia they did it with a scope down the trach and peeked out the bottom - don't know if that's a flexiscope or not (and it may be different given that they could use the trach tube for access)

hope he is okay!

KJKK8437 · #3 01-27-2009, 04:24 PM

Suzanne -- I may be way off base here, but I thought that a flexiscope could only go down the nose to examine the cords. (Unless, of course, the child has a trach, in which case it can go down the trach to look at the trachea down to the bronchial divide.

In that case, I'm not sure how they could see tracheamalacia in an office. I hope I'm wrong.

JWorthington · #4 01-27-2009, 04:27 PM

Sam's breathing was quite squeaky - no pops though. They may find something with a flexiscope, but I think a bronch may be necessary to determine some things. I suspect they will scope first and do a bronch if they feel it is warranted. i hope the news is good.
Julie x

suzanne2545 · #5 01-27-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJKK8437

In that case, I'm not sure how they could see tracheamalacia in an office. I hope I'm wrong.

This is kind of what I'm getting at. Her ped told her to expect a scope in the office. She asked me what that would be, so I explained but in my own mind I'm wondering if you CAN diagnos malacia that way.

My guess is that this is a noisy kiddo. My other guess is that even if they think it is related to malacia they probably will give her an apnea monitor for it and call it a day. He has NO other symptoms.

bryantem · #6 01-27-2009, 04:32 PM

Addisyn would squeek. Her nurse called her a little pip squeek. Her stridor sounded like she was constantly snoring
________
CHEVROLET TRIAX SPECIFICATIONS

aline · #7 01-27-2009, 04:32 PM

Hello!
Sol had been diagnosed with tracheomalacia when he was about 9 months old but we knew something was not quite right after he contracted broncholitis and never stopped sounding like a train! People kept commenting about 'his cold'. It was audible both night and day. At night, we could hear him breathing when we were downstairs (which had its useful point as we never needed a baby monitor!). During the day, if he laughed, it would quickly sound like a smoker's laugh. He did not squeak, just rattled. You could feel the rattle if you put your hand on his back / chest.
The tracheomalacia was diagnosed by doing a bronchoscopy.
Later on, he was diagnosed with bronchomalacia too.
They told us it was more common with boys. They also told us it should disappear by age 2, but it is clearly still there.
Do tell us the results!

Niff · #8 01-27-2009, 07:07 PM

I don't have any experience with tracheomalacia, but I do with laryngomalacia.

We had a flexible scope done the first go round and they can't go below the vocal cords. With laryngomalacia, they would be able to see it with the scope, but if there were any issues deeper down then a bronch would be the best (if only) way to see it. So I would assume that in order to really diagnose tracheomalacia they would have to do a bronch. At least that's what makes sense in my head.

As for the stridor, I'm used to hearing a "snoring" noise. It's possible that stridor can be present in the form of a squeak, but I've never heard it.

Kate · #9 01-27-2009, 07:37 PM

Mitchell's sounded more like a seal-and mainly when he cried. He had all the malacias-

Now Sam--he is 6 1/2 months...at about 3 or 4 months he started doing this goofy sound-and it concerned me at first but then out of the blue if I would look at him and do it, he'd copy me...so he was just being goofy--I taped him because really at first I was kind of worried. Is this what her little guy is doing?? If so I'm guessing it is just him being goofy? Notice Sam is excited when he is doing this.

As far as the scope-I don't know, Mitchell was lightly sedated when they did his-he had a bronch. Let me know if you can't see the video I can email it to you-I'm not the best at doing videos on this site. But, re-reading your message-it kind of sounds like what Sam is doing.

YouTube Video

Ainsley's Mom · #10 01-27-2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzanne2545

This is kind of what I'm getting at. Her ped told her to expect a scope in the office. She asked me what that would be, so I explained but in my own mind I'm wondering if you CAN diagnos malacia that way.

My guess is that this is a noisy kiddo. My other guess is that even if they think it is related to malacia they probably will give her an apnea monitor for it and call it a day. He has NO other symptoms.

I have a friend whose child has laryngomalacia and he sounds quite bad. To be honest I think she's in a bit of denial about the whole thing. Her son sounds like he has croup or something like that, but I'm not sure about pops and squeaks. I think his growth is affected somewhat (he's short they're all tall). But they opted not to have surgery and to wait and see if he grew out of it. After the initial NICU stay he satted okay. They sent him home. No monitor, no ambubag, nothin'. Now I think he's getting pretty close to 2 and still has it. So YOU JUST NEVER KNOW.

(But I think it would be great to have both a monitor and ambubag, personally.)