Patient's question:
A friend of mine recently encountered this issue and was hospitalized for a period of time. I visited him, and he said he was a bit in pain and couldn't sleep at night, which greatly affected his condition. How should congenital laryngeal cartilage underdevelopment be treated?Doctor's answer:
When congenital laryngeal cartilage dysplasia occurs, due to the softening of the cartilage, it collapses during inhalation, narrowing the passage and causing a wheezing sound. This is often accompanied by varying degrees of inspiratory dyspnea, which is more severe during sleep and milder when awake. The voice remains normal, and it does not affect breastfeeding. However, severe cases may experience choking during rapid feeding, and changing body positions sometimes alleviate the hoarseness. It generally has little impact on child development.For this reason, many parents give their children excessive calcium supplements. However, cartilage softening is not caused by calcium deficiency. Although the exact cause is unclear, the condition can intermittently improve, and symptoms usually gradually worsen or disappear as the child grows older. This condition is common clinically, and many parents have used medications for pneumonia or bronchitis and undergone numerous radiographic examinations. In reality, simply taking precautions to prevent colds is sufficient, and most cases resolve on their own around the age of one.