What to do with child after tonsillectomy?

[TripleTruffle]

DC(3) had tonsillectomy, adnoids removed and grommets inserted a few days ago.

Ultimately, this has led to a circle of misery for us. When not sleeping (which is all over the place due to pain), DC is crying in pain or furiously eager to be at the park. DC can't go anywhere where it's likely that an infection can be picked up for at lest 10 days and apart from the garden, we've done slime, lego, Playdough, colouring, reading, more TV time than I care to admit.

Any suggestions for things to do?

Okay, this isn’t helpful but I want to know how you managed to have this done? One of mine has enlarged adenoids and gets tonsillitis loads, nosebleeds and sleeps with their mouth open and repeatedly I have been told the NHS will do nothing, they won’t remove the adenoids. My child is 6. How extreme was your situation or did you go private?

When i had my tonsils out what helped most was a my little pony with a tail that can grow.

Not sure that's much help to you though 🤣

Could you go to a park that’s just green space and not a playground (so not touching things), and stay away from other people if you’re worried about infections? Take a ball/kite/scooter etc, feed ducks, climb a tree etc?

Do you have a friend with a garden? Maybe they could set something up in their garden for your DC.

There are a lot of explorer/ nature sets about. So you could look at garden plants or insects with a magnifier.

Food - bake a cake together, make a pizza, even just a salad.

Make a tent? This depends on the garden. Do you have a washing line? If you do then lower it, put a blanket or sheet over, stretch out and use something heavy ( stones or tins of beans) to secure.

Hard boiled some eggs, use felt tips or shapie to make them in to people.

Put food and drink out for hedge hogs do this before bed and in the morning see if the food has gone.

Woods/forest/beach?

Walk in the woods with scooter/bike?
Junk modelling - old loo roll innards/cereal boxes/cardboard/bubble wrap and a shed load of glue - make a castle/rocketship/animals and paint them
Papier mache - tear up a load of old paper/newspaper and stick onto a balloon, once dry, paint with funny faces
board games
Make a big den in the lounge or garden
Cut sandwiches into shapes with a cookie cutter or bake and decorate cookies
Have a picnic in the garden
Make an assault course and have races
Buy some fabric dyes from amazon and make tie dye shirts
Card making - any birthdays coming up? Make some cards and get some sheets of paper and potato print to make their own wrapping paper
Get some big chalks and do some drawing outside on the patio or paths or driveway
Give them a big bucket of soapy water and let them wash the car/garden furniture/fence panels
Get some seeds and plant some sunflowers in pots to cheer up the garden

My dd is 5 and had hers removed a couple of months ago. First few days weren’t so bad, just more resting than normal but lots of craft sets, Disney films and drawing…days 7-10 were horrid and she literally wanted to do nothing! Lots of pain and tears but then quickly on the mend. She didn’t really feel up to going anywhere but, like others have said, we did little walks (live in the middle of the countryside so was easy to avoid people!) and time in the garden if she felt up to it.

Bring him out to feed the ducks and let him have a run around. A nice bit of fresh air will tire him out a bit as well.

Give them lots of ice cream. It's cold and soothes the throat.

My dd had the same op at around the same age, she watched a lot of telly and we got through a lot of calpol. I remember doing some baking with her which she seemed to enjoy. I don’t think we made it to the full 10 days before starting to go out as we were all going stir crazy.

My (then 5 year old) ds had his removed with symptoms similar to what you describe when he had 5 bouts of tonsillitis in 6 months and I really badgered the GP. I also laid the problems caused by his sleep apnoea on really thickly and the GP referred us.

They sent him for a sleep study and said because he only had one incident of stopping breathing in his sleep he didn’t qualify and they have dismissed us ever since. One doctor said they won’t do them for young children anymore as there was a death last year due to it. That’s awful and very scary, but my husband has to use a cpap and has had a life of issues, I don’t want that for my child either.

We went for a walk daily. It helped a lot to get them out the house.
Forest/beach walks too.
Sometimes just a drive in the car to Mc Donald's drive thru for an ice cream.
Binoculars on a walk for wildlife.
Scooter rides
Lego
Board games
Den building
Puddle jumping
Hope they're on the mend soon!

Oh my goodness. Could you ask for a second opinion? If not I’d seriously consider going privately. My ds had his done 8 years ago and the improvement to his life was instantaneous. Wishing you luck. It’s so worrying.

Thanks for the fantastic ideas!

DC is really taking a hit with the pain at the moment so we haven't done much but we've got some new garden toys to go outside with. I'm planning a trip to a beach for some good sea air when DC feels slightly better.

@KettleHead87 So when I say DC's adnoids were removed, it wasn't complete removal, (the surgeon didn't explain why it couldn't be a complete removal but what you have said may be why). DC had issues we'd been to the GP for spanning back over 3 years to when DC was very small. I will say the GP did absolutely nothing, it had been HV intervention that sparked off a journey to referal to ENT eventually (but that also did take a long time to get to that point). A lot of GPs who see children say a lot of it self corrects as they get older so its a wait and see for them but it really was impacting DC's quality of life. I also question how much is self correcting and how much it is coping as the years go on but that's just my opinion!

A lot happened in that time frame over the years, poor hearing and speech, worsening sleep, frequent antibiotics - at times every other month although we'd sometimes have to go in for back to back antibiotics and the GP just didn't see an issue with that despite raising it multiple times. I do think it would have been a lot of harassing the GP for a referral if it hadn't have been for the HV. A tip I was given was next time you see the GP for the same issue for DC is to ask for a referral to ENT and if refused ask why and that its noted clearly on your child's records that they've refused a referral.

Could you just put him in the buggy and go for a walk? Might keep you sane and if he’s in a buggy he won’t be able to run about touching things.