Talk to me about Tonsilitis.

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How do you know if a) it is Tonsillitis and b) if it needs ABs. I can't believe i have got to child number 3 without having to visit the GP for this!

Hi there! Sorry to hear your LO is ill! My 4 year old had serious strep throat recently, symptoms started with "scratchy" throat then high temp, always above 39 and spiking to above 40, off his food completely, you can test this with "would you like some .. insert fav food" .. he was also too ill to watch tv!.. throat was red and had white coating at first then actual white blisters.. needed a week of AB.. baby got it too and symptoms were v high temp, scary 40+ spikes, no bottle for 3 days.. she had ten days AB, gave both calpol and neurofen as appropriate in alternative doses for pain and to keep temp under control .. strep throats require antibiotics, not so much because it makes a bug difference to how quickly they recover from sore throat but more to prevent complications where strep can cause dangerous infection in heart some weeks later.. best to go to doc to be absolutely sure.. good luck!

DS had it last week - went from absolutely fine to 40+ temp and pretty poorly with it in a matter of hours, I seem to remember that this sudden onset is typical of tonsilitis from previous times, though that may be wrong. Child's breath tends to smell funny, generally they go off food (though not always - DS ate through this illness as he always does). He had a trip to the out of hours GP and a week of penicillin, I think generally children get ABs to shift it. HTH and they're better soon

DD had it a few times before tonsils were removed last year, and I had it many many times as a child.
Typical symptoms are a very sore throat, white, pussy spots on tonsils, which are enlarged. High temperature, often with vomitting. Comes on pretty quickly and can make children seem very poorly indeed (first time DD had it we were in A&E having meningitus ruled out).
In in doubt, get it checked, as the sooner you start antibiotics and get on top of the infection the better.
Hope they are better soon. x