“Many things can wait. Children cannot. Today, their bones are being formed, their blood is being made,
and their senses are being developed. To them, we cannot say tomorrow.”
~ Gabriela Mistral
Who We Are
Created by parents of a child whose airway disorder went undetected for 12 years, resulting in serious lifelong consequences, The Children’s Airway First Foundation (CAFF) is committed to preventing other children and their parents from enduring similar and unnecessary hardship. Unnecessary because airway disorders are typically correctable if diagnosed and treated by the age of six. CAFF is fully invested in spreading awareness to both parents and practitioners — sharing preventative information, diagnostic insights, the latest research, medical management strategies, parent support groups, and practitioner support.
Understanding the signs and symptoms and the roles of breathing, sleeping, and eating in their development is the first step toward safeguarding your child’s health. CAFF has developed a rich and growing resource library to help parents and medical professionals understand this widespread evolutionary pandemic and how each can contribute to the well-being of more than 400 million children worldwide.
OUR MISSION
To ensure every child has access to screening, evaluation, and treatment of all children's airway disorders prior to six years of age.
Our vision is to end the evolutionary pandemic of children's airway disorders.
Our History
When Candy and Bradley Sparks discovered that their mysteriously ill, 12-year-old daughter, Savvy, was suffering from the severe side effects of a complex airway disorder which could have been prevented if she’d been diagnosed at birth, they took action. The Sparks’ channeled their deep personal despair and frustration with their daughter’s regrettably late diagnosis into an abiding commitment to prevent other children from facing similar lifetime complications. In 2021 , they established the Children’s Airway First Foundation (CAFF) with the vision of ending the evolutionary pandemic of children’s airway disorders.
CAFF is more than a labor of love; it is a dedicated advocate for airway health and a leading voice for treatment and change worldwide. CAFF collaborates with global experts, researchers, and medical practitioners to ensure every child has access to screening, evaluation, and treatment prior to six years of age.
Our guiding principles:
-
This is an evolutionary pandemic.
-
There is very little awareness of children’s airway disorders among parents and medical/dental providers.
-
Pediatric dentists, pediatricians, general dentists, feeding specialists, and general practitioners must be taught to diagnose children’s airway disorders.
-
Behavioral, i.e., ADD, ADHD, and sleep-related issues, can be ameliorated through appropriate airway treatment.
-
Prevention saves lives, pain, and suffering and dramatically improves the quality of life.
-
Innovation will require multi-disciplinary teams.
-
Resources are limited, and most of the current available treatments are inaccessible to many.
-
Treatments, such as retractive braces that shrink the oral cavity, must be avoided. Treatments must be airway-centric.
-
Insurance does not understand and often pushes back on airway disorder treatments.
-
Multi-media/internet/compelling documentary for public health campaign required to increase awareness and appropriate action.
Our strategies:
-
Provide documentation for an understanding of this evolutionary pandemic.
-
Articulate economic and quality of life cases for early prevention and treatment of children’s airway and sleep health disorders.
-
Develop inexpensive and effective screening tools.
-
Convince insurers to cover identification, evaluation, and treatment of airway disorders.
-
Teach all dental and medical students the importance of diagnosing airway disorders early.
-
Work with psychologists on potential diagnostic overshadowing for airway disorder mood and behavioral concerns.
-
Establish Centers of Excellence for complex cases around the globe.
-
Establish a standard of care for diagnosed airway disorders.
-
Convince medical/dental schools to develop and teach an integrated curriculum to address children’s airway disorders.
-
Establish regional education centers for current providers with tele-med reinforcement.
-
Create multi-media/internet compelling documentary public health campaign.
-
Gain the support and involvement of the ADA, AMA, AAP, ANMA, CDC, WHO, International organizations and luminaries, etc.