Outpatient Specialty Care
CHOC provides a thorough and multidisciplinary approach and close follow up of our patients experiencing sleep disorders in our two outpatient locations — one across the street from CHOC Hospital in Orange and one at CHOC at Mission Hospital. Our specialty care outpatient programs offer care for all children with sleep disorders, even if a sleep study isn’t necessary.
At the CHOC multidisciplinary outpatient program, your child will have access to a pulmonologist, neurologist, psychologist, and other specialists as needed from our more than 30 subspecialties, to determine the best course of treatment for your child’s disorder. Our physicians will treat any underlying medical conditions for your child’s sleep disorder, and our psychologist can help with any behavior modifications needed to learn better sleep habits.
Patients who have been prescribed a CPAP, and follow-up care for patients after a sleep study, are also seen in our outpatient program.
CPAP/BiPAP Specialty Care
CPAP is a common non-surgical treatment used to manage sleep-related breathing disorders including obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea and hypoventilation and hypoxemia. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure. If a CPAP/BIPAP mask is recommended, our technologists will work closely with you and your child to learn how to properly use a mask and adapt your lifestyle to it.
A CPAP mask pumps air under pressure into the airway of the lungs, keeping the windpipe open during sleep. The forced air delivered by CPAP prevents episodes of airway collapse that block the breathing in people with obstructive sleep apnea and other breathing problems.
CHOC offers CPAP/BiPAP titration studies just for kids. A titration study is done in our sleep lab where our sleep team will fit your child’s mask and calibrate it for the best airflow. The goal is to find the right amount of air pressure to prevent your upper airway from becoming blocked. This eliminates breathing pauses in your sleep.
Follow-up CPAP/BiPAP care is done in our outpatient program. Our sleep technologists can also download the data on your child’s CPAP/BiPAP and troubleshoot any problems your child may have.
For children that are struggling to use their CPAP/BiPAP, our sleep apnea team clinic is here to help. Our sleep team psychologist will join your child’s pulmonologist during the appointment to help your child every step of the way. CHOC uses tried and proven methods to help you and your child be successful with the CPAP.