Tonsilitis

[Cariad2012]

Hi
Does anyone have any top tips for treating tonsilitis? My daughter is 9, has a raised temperature, sore throat, neck ache on white spots on her tonsils. I've been giving her Calpol and Neurofen but does anyone have any other recommendations on how to make her feel easier? Is there any chance Ive got it wrong and it's not tonsilitis? How long do you wait before going to the GP?
Thanks

if she has white spots Iwould go to emergency GP tomorrow as she would need an antibiotic

I wonder if Vicks in a bowl of water and inhaling it might ease the pain a bit?

2nd getting her anti bs.

Rubbing vicks on your neck can help. Honey and lemon syrup or just honey.

Poor her

Agree with other posters - if she has white spots you have to go to OOH to get anti-biotics. The quicker you treat it the faster it will respond, the longer you wait the longer it will take and she may end up needing several courses of anti-biotics instead of just one.

GPs are less ready to give antibiotics to children with tonsillitis, bacterial (white spots) or viral unless the child is very unwell, severe swelling to the tonsills or underlying conditions. Symptoms will usually ease anyway after 3 days and the child will develop a natural immunity to the bug causing the tonsillitis. Giving abx can perpetuate the cycle of tonsillitis - abx - tonsillitis etc. Tonsillitis is generally a minor illness.

My own experience is a child with 6 weekly abx for tonsillitis, advised by GP to see how he goes without. Horrendous week and a very sick child (I would not do it again) but never had tonsillitis since. (My GP would also have given me abx if he had seen how ill he became, as I took him immediately before the worse symptoms started)

However, it is a judgement call, if your DD can cope on pain relief and has no significant throat swelling or occlusion, drinking well and improving after 3 days, and you are happy with that approach you can wait and see. Obviously if she worsens or you are worried see the OOH gp.

NICE GUIDELINES

I think that the difficulty is to determine whether it is a case of strep throat or tonsillitis.

If I was confident in the GP or the GP did a test for strep throat which came back negative then I agree that you do not necessarily need to treat tonsillitis with antibiotics.

Unfortunately, my experience with UK GPs is that they do not test for strep throat. Strep throat can actually be fatal if left untreated, hence I tend to insist on antibiotics with my dc. Unless they are okay to travel for 3 hours so I can see our private paediatrician, but usually when they have tonsillitis they are in no condition to travel this far.

This is why I would be cautious when a GP diagnoses tonsillitis. Then again, I almost lost my child due to GP blunders, so it has made me very very cautious and I am not very likely to rely on their judgement anymore (I tend to go to A&E nowadays, very inconvenient, long waits, long drive, but I have more confidence in A&E doctors than GPs).

How is she today?

Sucking on an ice pop will help. Only remidies i know off (alongside GP) would not be suitable for a 9 year old.

Just to add to this and just something to think about. DD1 seems to have inherited my regular childhood bouts of tonsillitis. Last month the second bout appeared but by this time she had remembered that the antibiotics taste horrible (we've now tried 2 variations - she's only just 4 so still hard work to get meds down).
Long story shortened - didn't go for antibiotics and relied on usual calpol neurofen combo - 3 days later we seemed to have sorted it.
Fast forward last Thursday when she wakes unable to move her neck and screaming in pain, we are sent straight to hospital by GP (neck linked to meningitis) and the poor thing endures blood tests etc etc. After a very long day we are eventually discharged with antibiotics - she had a lymph node infection caused by ...... the bacteria from the tonsils not properly clearing.
So lesson learned by me.

Hope your DC perks up soon x

PMMummy - your pood DD. DS1 had bad tonisitis last month, took him about 2 weeks to get back on his feet. I had mine out at 23, best thing i ever did!

Same here, age 20- they were apparently as dead as a dodo. Its a horrible illness, one upshot from our experience was that the hospital gave her a lovely tasting antibiotic, quite a strong one too, so next time we shouldn't have any probs getting it down (hopefully). X

I think people who have never had it think its just a sore throat!

I used to suffer terribly with tonsillitis as a child (had the buggers taken out when I was 16 though!) have you tried the anaesthetic throat sprays? I used to use one called Ultra Chloraseptic (something like that!) which would relieve the pain for a short while, takes a bit of practice to get the spray where it's needed but it does numb the area for a short while.

I would always avoid cold drinks when I had tonsilitis, seemed to aggravate it, warm water and gargling soluble aspirin (maybe soluble paracetamol for a child though?)

Hope she feels better soon.

Just been to look at the stuff I used to gargle with (and still use) oraldene is suitable for children over 6 years (do you think she could). This stuff is great and will help (but still see GP)

I used to use tyrozet throat lozenges, but not sure if suitable. They have antibiotics on them.........will google

yep she can have these too.