What is Laryngomalacia?

FACTS vs. FICTION
Things you should KNOW about your child's laryngomalacia!

What is Laryngomalacia?
Laryngomalacia is floppy tissue or under developed cartilage. The tissues involved are the epiglottis and arytenoid cartilages. These are located above the vocal cords in the airway. When a person has laryngomalacia the floppy tissue falls into the airway blocking or constricting airflow upon inspiration. Usually when this happens it produces a sound known as stridor.

What is Tracheomalacia?
Tracheomalacia is a condition characterized by flaccidity of the tracheal support cartilage which leads to the collapse of the trachea when increased airflow is demanded. In a normal airway, the trachea dilates slightly upon inspiration and narrows slightly during expiration, when a person has tracheomalacia, however, these processes are exaggerated causing the airway to collapse upon expiration.

What is Bronchomalacia?
Like Tracheomalacia and Laryngomalacia, Bronchomalacia is the weakness of the bronchial tubes causing a collapse of the airway and a wheezing/stridor upon expiration. Bronchomalacia is due to a deficiency in the cartilaginous rings of the bronchial tubes.

What is Stridor?
Stridor is a high pitched wheezing sound resulting from turbulent air flow in the upper airway. Stridor is a physical sign which is produced by narrow or obstructed airway path. It can be inspiratory (upon inhale), expiratory (upon exhale), or biphasic (both). Inspiratory stridor is the most common (and is associated with Laryngomalacia). Expiratory stridor happens with Tracheomalacia and Bronchomalacia. Stridor can be indicative of a serious airway obstruction from severe conditions of the epiglottitis, a foreign body in the airway, or a laryngeal tumor. Stridor is indicative of a potential medical emergency and should always command attention.

What Dr's don't want you to know...don't let this happen to you....
For some strange reason many Dr's seem to try to ease the minds of laryngomalacia parents by saying things like "they will grow out of it" or "it's just noisy breathing." These statements are not true, first of all, the noisy breathing is stridor which is very dangerous. What they mean by that statement is your child's episodes are not as significant as some more severe children and therefore require less intervention, but the bottomline is every time you hear that sound which I'm guessing in many cases of "mild laryngomalacia" is frequent, your child's airway is being restricted and that is a BIG deal. And how do they determine it's mild? I was told Declan had mild LM, but a year later it was SEVERE?? It's all relative to what the doctor sees in the five second scope they do in office? I mean that's just ridiculous and I have seen too many "mild" cases turn south to believe this crap about 90% of these kids growing out of it or only having mild LM.

Another problem is it's all one dimensional to many of these Dr's, it's only noisy breathing, but laryngomalacia has many layers and leads to other problems, such as frequent ear infections, low immune system, failure to thrive, and reflux. Lets touch on a few of those side effects, failure to thrive for instence. Has it ever occurred to anyone that the reason so many laryngomalacia babies have failure to thrive is because they are having to work over time to breathe? Well apparently it's not a big deal to have stridor, ha, yeah right. Failure to thrive is very prominent in these children and it's because their airways are not being protected by their doctors and their parents are not educated enough to speak up about it. I had to fight for Sawyer otherwise he would be a statistic (a SIDS baby). Declan I didn't fight for because I didn't know what to do...lesson learned, now I have one child that has serious medical issues (probably for life) and another that is starting to thrive. You are your child's advocate never forget this and remember these Dr's work for YOU! Low immune system led to Declan picking up a mycobacterium (most likely from our water source), which led to a granuloma (similar to a tumor) in his lymph node near his parotid gland...these things happen guys! I'm not trying to scare you I'm just giving you the information you need to be a better advocate for your child's condition.

As I continue to stumble across things that have to do with LM, TM, BM, I will update on here to give more information, but this is a good start...goodnight all.