Swollen occipital lymph nodes

[JessandRafe]

Hello all,

First time posting on here so I don't really know what I'm doing!
My 15 month old son has some swollen occipital lymph nodes on the back of his head, behind his ear and near his neck.
They have been there for a good few months even when he isn't ill or teething and for some reason I didn't really worry about them until yesterday when I just decided to get them checked out thinking they would be nothing.

Doctor seemed a bit concerned, couldn't rule out cancer and is sending us to hospital for more tests. Terrified now and can't stop crying. Plus feel so guilty for not taking him sooner.

Nodes are fairly hard and rubbery, largest is probably the size of a flattish pea, don't hurt at all. My son has no other symptoms, he's active, alert, eating and meeting all his milestones. He's a bit small but following 25th centile fine.

Has anyone experienced this? What was the outcome? Tia xx

They have to play safe. But it's usually either a scalp issue or an ear/nose/throat issue. At 15 months, glue ear is probably the most common reason. So worth getting checked out, but it's usually something very ordinary.

Thank you for your reply. They contacted me today and said they are only going to give him a blood test now...half happy about this but then I have been 'googling' and apparently 'Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's lymphoma' can only be detected with a biopsy of the node so I don't know what to do now.

My little boy had incredibly swollen glands in his neck! At one point looked like he had little eggs in there! Doctor sent him for an urgent referral que panic from me

Turns out he was anaemic, they went down pretty much as soon as he started the iron treatment eventho the consultant couldn't say that the anaemia was the cause but it seems a coincidence they completely went with that treatment
They still come up when he is genuinely poorly with a cold or something but not as bad and not all the time like before!

At the initial appointment he said that it's the bodies way of fighting infection and some children/adults have more 'pronounced' glands

Try not to worry! I was googling and got myself into a right old state!

X

Let's put it this way, I happen to know that not one single child in my entire county has suffered from nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's lymphoma in the last 10 years. And several are seen most weeks with glands up. No one is going to say never. But please step away from google. It pushes you towards the weirdest and rarest. Because people don't make their name getting published about "yet another child with glands up from glue ear, or a virus, or cradlecap", and people don't write blogs about "it was all nothing", so it really distorts what comes up when you search.

Please don't panic. Keep the appointment, but remember that this is usually absolutely nothing worrying.

Thank you for replies. We have had the results of the blood test and my son is also a little anaemia. His LDH levels are 660, which the doctor said the specialist wasn't concerned about. I have been recommended to return in 6 weeks and if the nodes are still enlarged possibly have another blood test. I'm trying my best not to 'google' anymore, I'm
just such a 'worrier'! Xxx

@JessandRafe hi, I know this is years later but I wondered what the outcome of your child's gland problem was. My 7 week old has the same pea sized glands in back of head x

Hello. The lymph nodes didn’t change after 6 weeks so he had another blood test and ended up having an ultrasound on the nodes which all came back fine. His nodes remained raised for ages after (well over a year) I just kept an eye on them and they never changed size or anything.

Then I found a larger node in the side of his neck when he was 3 which freaked me out, but we again had blood tests etc and all was deemed to be okay.

He’s 4 now, the nodes have finally gone down but I still just check occasionally. Please try not to worry, I almost made myself ill not sleeping and Googling the worst possible things.
Get them checked out by the doctor and get a second opinion if you feel the doctor isn’t thorough enough, but I think it’s very common in little ones to get lymphadenopathy. Sending lots of love xx

My son gets this. If there are colds etc going around his nodes will become more noticeable but he won't actually get a cold but that's how i knkw he is under the weather.

It is alarming to see.

@JessandRafe thank you so much for replying after so long xxx