###Human: My son has trouble sleeping with gasping for air at times. Please help. ###Assistant: Hi. If symptoms are too severe we can go for tonsil and adenoid surgery now also. Flonase is a steroid and it does not affect growth as it will be administered inside the nostril and will have the action only there. There will not be any systemic or bloodstream absorption. How much worried you should be about his tonsil and sleep apnea problem are: 1. Change in facial features producing adenoid facies. 2. Irritability of kid. 3. He cannot hear properly due to adenoids blocking ear tubes. 4. Ear discharge. 5. Reduced development of speech. Do not get worried just because of the snoring and sleep apnea. Give him nasal steroids and antihistaminic syrup (like Zyrtec or Allegra syrup) of appropriate dosage. In some cases, we even give oral steroid syrup. It does not cause any stunting the way you have understood. Once you exhaust the above medical treatment option and find no or not much benefit we can discuss about the surgery. Your doctor is right in giving the medicines Flonase, etc. That is the protocol. We can follow the same here. The decision to operate may vary with different surgeon. Take a pediatrician opinion as well. Do revert back to me if you need more support.