Would you get tonsils removed?

[Butterflies27]

My dd aged 3.8 years has suffered with a chronic cough since 11 months. Her tonsils are huge and when ever we are getting her chest checked for infection every dr has said they are impressive.

We have been to see ENT when trying to get answers for the cough. They have said they are big, but see how she goes and we can go back if we need to. She is a very restless sleeper but had a 48 hr sleep study done and sleep apnea was ruled out.

Last year my dd was in hospital for observations with bacterial bronchitis and viral tonsillitis, as wasn’t improving with antibiotics. A junior dr pulled my husband aside and said you need to get those tonsils out!

My dd doesn’t get over a cold like other children and it normally turns in to a secondary infection. My dd has just got over a ear infection which the nurse suggested was prob caused by the enlarged tonsils not allowing the ears to drain. She also said removing tonsils wouldn’t be a bad shout.

This year she has had 5 lots of antibiotics 3 of them 14 days long, last year and the previous year 5+ each year, given her history would you get tonsils removed in the hope they would help?

My oldest DD had recurrent tonsillitis from age 10 months until about 5. Every 2-4 weeks with antibiotics, it always went to her chest and ears as well. But it's like someone turned a switch once she turned 5 January. So she will be 6 in a few weeks, and hasn't had it in a year! The only thing that changed was putting her on probiotics. Wether it's a fluke who knows but I'll be keeping her on them.

Twopeapod which probiotics do you give your dd?

I really feel we need to do this soon as my dd is hardly eating today she was at a Childminder’s and she ate 1/4 toast for breakfast, lunch 1 cheese triangle, 1 Jaffa cake, bag of frazzles, tea a few mouthfuls of spag Bol. She has come home with a full lunchbox again. She just doesn’t want to eat and it’s becoming an issue at meal times to get her to try anything.

I’m worried that this poor eating will effect her immunity and recovery. Why is being a parent so hard

I feel for you so much. It's horribly stressful watching them so weak and wasting away in front of you. DS was only just turned 2 when he had his out so very young but it took them 10 months to diagnose and as he was so ill there was never a question about whether to do it or not.

FWIW I understand children's growth 'catches up' with their tonsils around age 6 or 7 and size generally becomes less of an issue.

Oh wow markleandspencer that is young. He must have been a serious case. Did he have any problems post surgery? Were the 2 weeks after bad? My dd is a bit of a princess iykwim and I think she will be unbearable for all.

Post surgery took about 10 days to recover. I won't lie - it was grim. We had to pin him down to get painkillers into him. Then on day 10 we went out for lunch. He'd been sad all morning and we thought it might distract him. After lunch he got up and started running and hasn't really stopped since! It was like a switch. That was 2 years ago and there's barely a day goes by when I don't watch him eating a good meal or sleeping peacefully without feeling a happy glow that he's better.

My ds suffered from constant infections and his tonsils were huge. They were effecting his sleep and you could hear it when he spoke.
The gp happily referred him, I saw consultant privately and then he referred him back to nhs waiting list and they were removed quickly.
Made a massive difference immediately. He was 4or 5 at the time and now rarely gets ill except odd cold.
I'm glad we had it done.

DS was a noisy sleeper from birth, we used to joke he sounded like a little piglet with all the snuffling and grunting. Then it became apparent he had hearing issues when he was 3 or so as he had speech delay. Went on the NHS list, they wouldn’t take his tonsils out despite him having 6 cases of tonsillitis over the previous 8 months until they’d done a sleep study as they don’t do it ‘until it’s 8 cases in a year’ (disgusting attitude!). All of this was taking months and months to resolve and meanwhile my poor DS had started deception barely able to hear and constantly sick.

DH changed jobs and the first day there he added DS to his health insurance, we got him to a private consultant that week and 3 months later tonsils and adenoids were removed, and grommets inserted. That was at the end of his reception year when he’d barely interact at school, he’d been so traumatised I think from being in the school environment barely able to hear. Today I went to his Year2 play and he was belting out all the songs on the stage, SALT have signed him off as they’re happy with his speech and he hasn’t had any bouts of serious sickness since that operation. Our private surgeon was amazing and absolutely looked out for my sons interests. A lot of private surgeons are also NHS surgeons. Their principles don’t change I hope just because they’re getting paid.

Without hesitation. My DS had tonsillitis around 6 - 8 times a year with temperatures of up to 40 and 10 day courses of antibiotic up to the age of 4. We had to keep a diary of the frequency, but I pushed this as he would never have been at school if this had continued. It isn't a nice operation and the healing time can be a bit long, but wow what a difference, they also took his adenoids out at the same time as they were obstructing his breathing (which is why he snored) His voice actually changed when he recovered, I had never realised that he was a nasal speaker before and all of a sudden he sounded like a little boy! Good luck x

Yes niknok69, same for us! His voice became a little higher and squeakier and clearer 👍

Both of my youngest children had their tonsils out early actually and their record very was pretty much the same. Woke up and drank pretty quickly. DS ate quicker than DD but they breezed through the 7 day recovery and then had an off day on day 7 which we were advised was the case. Throat looks dreadful with white/green scabs but that's totally normal.

The nurses were all lovely, we had to stay in over night with them coming in and out to do obs so I didn't get much sleep. I took little new toys and a selection of food and drink although you could pretty much order whatever you/they wanted at the hospital.

Same consultant did both kids 8 years apart.

It really is life changing. DS had his out due to the scarring from constant bouts of tonsillitis (about 9 in a year) causing them to be huge and was the cause of him not eating. He woke up from the anaesthetic and ate a sandwich and we were all stunned s. He didn't have the sleeping issue.

DD didn't have it so much but the few times she did was really really poorly and her tonsils never really went down. Eating was a huge chore but it became our norm and was only when a friend's husband commented that it was a dreadful situation which he could see was causing both DD and I a huge amount of stress that I pushed to see someone privately.

The sleeping thing was amazing though. We are quite a way away from her room and we didn't need an alarm to here her as she snores like a fat drunk old man and woke constantly throughout the night, she often just went back to sleep but meant I never really switched off so had dreadful sleep too.

It's worth pushing the sleeping angle with your doctor as well as the eating as the consultant said he takes kids tonsils out for this reason more than any other.

Hope I've answered all your queries but please feel free to ask any more.

DD did sound like she was in helium for a short while afterwards but she's gone back to her normal boyish voice now.

DD and I had our own room too.

Getting my Dd tonsils out was 100% the best decision for her , I would definitely look into it .

Oh wow Markleandspencer, I would love to be able to see my dd do those things. Meal times are becoming a bit tense lately. So glad it worked out for your ds.

Minicooperlover your story actually brought a tear to my eyes that’s so lovely to hear the difference now.

Twinkie1 thank you for your post thats definitely answered a lot of questions we had. Does your dd eat better now?

Still nothing from consultant but feeling more positive that this is the right decision now, thank you all. X

OP, remember that most consultants don’t do 5 day weeks in one hospital, they may work in several places, try to find out the secretary details, that’s the person you need to speak with.

She’s not eating a huge range of foods but has some sensory issues but eats more of what she used to eat in different varieties and we don’t have the gagging and having to drink gallons of water with each meal.