4 year old with persistent swollen lymph nodes

[Judeski]

This is my first post as a nervous mum, hoping someone could give me some advise or help me stress less. I'm probably overreacting, but as a parent, those nasty "What if?" questions constantly go through your head sad

So about 4-5 weeks ago, I noticed an enlarged lymph node on my daughters neck (about half way down). Had it checked out by the doctor and she confirmed an enlarged node, with another on the other side of the neck. Their about 1cm in size, somedays they feel a little smaller some days a little bigger, hard to get an accurate size. After the doctor examined her, she also found an enlarged node in her armpit and in her groin, once again, about 1cm in size.

The cause of my concern is that my daughter is not sick. She is perfectly healthy, running around and doing all the normal 4 year old things. It was only by chance that I felt the 1st node when I was resting my fingers on her neck when doing some teeth brushing, and like I said, that was about 4-5 weeks ago now. The doctor has tried to reassure me and told me that enlarged nodes in kids this age is very common. But I made the mistake of asking Dr Google, and well, as we all know, the news from Dr Google is always disastrous. Needless to say, the doctor could tell I was still concerned so we had some blood work done (me fearing something like Leukaemia). The blood tests came back all normal from a cancer perspective which was a relief, but did indicate signs of a viral infection or potential autoimmune disease with reactive cells in the blood and a slight drop in neutrophils. Red blood cells and platelets were all fine. So the doctor concluded that she is just fighting an infection. But as I said, she's not sick with anything, so as one final measure we have an Ultrasound booked for later this week just to see if her nodes look suspicious and to rule out Lymphoma (which apparently cant be detected with a blood test).

So am I concerned for nothing and just over reacting ? She also got tested for EBV and CMV as her older sister had glandular fever about 3-4 months ago so I was sort of hoping that the blood tests would come back EBV positive, and that would help explain the enlarged nodes. But no, that was not the case.

So if the Ultrasound comes back normal (Hopefully!), I really don't know what else to do? How long should these nodes remain enlarged in an otherwise healthy child?

Any advise would be very welcome smile

Thanks

Judith.

My son had this. We saw a paediatrician every so often, she said it was common and nothing to worry about. The swelling just slowly went down over time, it took a couple of years to disappear completely though. By the time he was 7 I think.

Dd1 has/had this. Enlarged in neck. No bloods taken. Had an US and it was fine. She still has enlarged glands.
Imo it was to do with persistent ear infections or adenoids. It also turned up when she got hfm just after mmr.
Certainly i had swollen glands for years after glandular fever

My ds has this. Noticed a few months after he had chickepox, seen the gp and then referred to paediatrician who did not see it it as a problem. His enlarged nodes were on both sides of the neck (visible), armpits and groin area (felt by a doctor but not noticeable generally so not significantly enlarged). No blood tests were recommended but we had them done later for a different reason and there was nothing indicating any serious problem. We have seen a neck surgeon who specialises in enlarged nodes privately to get a second opinion and he also expressed no concern, saying that it is very common and they might just be visible because the child is very slim. The ones on the neck are still noticeable a year later.

Thanks for the comments everyone, they were very reassuring and allowed me to relax a little :)

So we got our ultrasound results today and everything looks normal and fine. So combined with the blood test results and the fact that she's cheeky and bouncing around as normal, I'm not really stressed them anymore. They haven't really changed much, still about the size of a large pea on either side, but the doc confirms that this is very common for someone her age and in contact with other kids and germs at kinder. So I'll keep an eye on them, but unless they start to get much bigger or she develops other symptoms, I'm not stressing about them anymore :).

Thanks.

@Judeski H Judith,

i appreciate this is a very old post but wondered if you’d had any issues since ?

I am going through similar with my 20 month old son, discovered swollen glands on the neck, only for the doctors to discover more in the groin and armpit! This has just sent me into a spiral of worry as he is well within himself.

many thanks

@MrsGJD not sure if this will help but my son has HUGE lymph nodes, ever since he was a baby (he's 10 now). You can feel them in his neck, see them on his collar bone and all the way down his side and his groin ones are like grapes! He once had one the size of a tennis ball under his armpit after the Men B jab. We have been in and out of hospital because he would get petechial rashes (non blanching) and this, teamed with giant lymph nodes, rang alarm bells for leukaemia. He is absolutely fine though - he never had any other symptoms, like fevers, sickness, night sweats or nosebleeds.

My Paed consultant told me that lots of children can have very obvious lymph nodes - especially after a bug (their lymph nodes are just super sensitive).

If ever you feel that the lymph node is getting bigger and your child has some of the symptoms I mentioned above, I would contact your GP.

@Jaybird43 Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. We have been to the GP, but in all honesty she sent my anxiety through the roof, currently waiting for a follow up appointment. Thanks again for replying

@MrsGJD bless you, hope everything goes well at the follow up appointment. Try and remember that some kids do have more pronounced lymph nodes for no reason whatsoever - you’d never find them on my DD but DS is riddled!

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