4 year old with persistent swollen lymph nodes

[Judeski]

This is my first post as a nervous mum, hoping someone could give me some advise or help me stress less. I'm probably overreacting, but as a parent, those nasty "What if?" questions constantly go through your head :(

So about 4-5 weeks ago, I noticed an enlarged lymph node on my daughters neck (about half way down). Had it checked out by the doctor and she confirmed an enlarged node, with another on the other side of the neck. Their about 1cm in size, somedays they feel a little smaller some days a little bigger, hard to get an accurate size. After the doctor examined her, she also found an enlarged node in her armpit and in her groin, once again, about 1cm in size.

The cause of my concern is that my daughter is not sick. She is perfectly healthy, running around and doing all the normal 4 year old things. It was only by chance that I felt the 1st node when I was resting my fingers on her neck when doing some teeth brushing, and like I said, that was about 4-5 weeks ago now. The doctor has tried to reassure me and told me that enlarged nodes in kids this age is very common. But I made the mistake of asking Dr Google, and well, as we all know, the news from Dr Google is always disastrous. Needless to say, the doctor could tell I was still concerned so we had some blood work done (me fearing something like Leukaemia). The blood tests came back all normal from a cancer perspective which was a relief, but did indicate signs of a viral infection or potential autoimmune disease with reactive cells in the blood and a slight drop in neutrophils. Red blood cells and platelets were all fine. So the doctor concluded that she is just fighting an infection. But as I said, she's not sick with anything, so as one final measure we have an Ultrasound booked for later this week just to see if her nodes look suspicious and to rule out Lymphoma (which apparently cant be detected with a blood test).

So am I concerned for nothing and just over reacting ? She also got tested for EBV and CMV as her older sister had glandular fever about 3-4 months ago so I was sort of hoping that the blood tests would come back EBV positive, and that would help explain the enlarged nodes. But no, that was not the case.

So if the Ultrasound comes back normal (Hopefully!), I really don't know what else to do? How long should these nodes remain enlarged in an otherwise healthy child?

Any advise would be very welcome :)

Thanks

Judith.

[zighazigha]

I think some kids (and indeed some adults) are just prone to palpable lymph nodes. My very skinny two year old has one in his neck that's not even that big, but because he's so thin you can see it when he turns a certain way. He has a few others in his neck too, he's had them since he was about 6 months old. Been to GP numerous times but they've never been concerned.

I myself have several in my neck I can feel which have been palpable for years!! Check yourself - you might have some too which you've never noticed.