Diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea in children is very different from diagnosing it in adults. Because children shouldn't snore at all, there shouldn't be any real pauses in their breathing and their sleep should be quiet and restful. We actually rely on parent observations reporting pauses in the child’s breathing. They may report the child snoring, seeming tired, difficulty breathing through their nose, behavioral problems. Some metabolic issues happen with untreated obstructive sleep apnea and sometimes there’s weight gain or loss. The thing that makes it easy to diagnose is you just look in their throat and their throat is literally filled with tonsil tissue.
