Recurrent Tonsilitus - Dont know where to turn!

[whatevenissleepanymore]

DD (3.1) has been poorly with tonsilitus since Xmas Eve. Very lethargic, soaring temps, no appetite, pus filled spots all over her tonsils and very pale sk

This will be her 10th.. YES 10TH! stint of bacterial tonsilitus since January! Poor thing had only finished a 10 day course of pencillin antibiotics last Monday for STREP A and Scarlett fever!

ENT DR saw her back in September after an urgent referral was sent via our GP to access the situation and agreed that she should definitley under go a tonsilectomy to remove but made me and DH aware that the waiting list was very lengthy due to COVID delays and we could be waiting up to 2+ years for the actual surgery to take place.

I am beside myself with it all. It feels as though shes finishes with one course of antibiotics and then almost immediatley needs to start another because her tonsils are infected again!

It has really taken its toll on her and us as a family this past 12 months and I truely don’t know where to turn with it anymore as there’s no let up. Surely it can’t be healthy to be pumping AB’s into a 3 year old like this and I’m terrified that this is going to cause some sort of long lasting damage to her.

I have held off administering any AB’s this time around as I’m really hoping her body may be able to fight it off itself but am I naive in thinking this? If I reach for AB’s every time she’s poorly with this then isn’t building any natural immunity but if I don’t then I only risk her becoming more poorly. It’s a total mind fuck.

Does anyone have any useful tips of tricks who suffer either suffer or have suffered prior with recurrent tonsilitus on how to build immunity etc? Is there anything additional I should be giving to help prevent this?

I understand its hard when dc is unwell repeatedly. I would give the antibiotics if prescribed I say this as a mother who's child spent 7 years on antibiotics. Dc has actually had a tonsillectomy and it made an amazing difference to quality of life.
For a different reason dc had prophylactic antibiotics for many years (alternate days at a lower dose than normally prescribed antibiotics and we had to swap between two different ones to stop resistance). Is this something that would be worth investigating? I remember being really worried about the long-term consequences of using them but all the doctors said that the side effects/consequences of untreated illness were far worse than over use of antibiotics.
Also tell the hospital you'll take a short notice cancellation (we got 12 hours notice as a child on the list the next day had a cold) it meant dc only waited 6 months after being accepted on the waiting list. I would also go to the gp everytime as then there is a record of continued illness and if it needs escalating back to the hospital you have proof.
Hope you get sorted soon.

Firstly, I’m so sorry to hear about this and the effect it’s having. I posted here recently about my DS age 6.

What did the ENT say about anti biotics? Has your child had a blood test to see if there’s any cause?

I’m very sorry you’re dealing with this but I would give the prescribed antibiotics and then I’d seek private medical help to cut those waiting lists. I understand that’s the expensive option but your poor baby cannot suffer for that much of a wait. Absolutely ridiculous. ♥️

How’s your little one Op?

@mulberrybag5 on antibiotics AGAIN for another round of tonsilitus! But it’s a double whammy this time as she also has conjunctivitis at the same time!

I would get the tonsils removed.

Will take years by NHS. I would look into private.

Sympathies OP, it's miserable. Only tip I have from our own DD's experience is that once you can teach her to gargle (tricky at 3 but she might be able to do it now or when she's a bit older) you can sometimes manage to stave off a bout of tonsillitis with salt water gargles twice a day - but IME only if we caught it really early, at the first sensation of a sore throat, as once a proper infection had set in, only antibiotics helped. Our DD never had her tonsils removed as our GP was reluctant to refer (or prescribe ABs) and while the episodes got less frequent as she got older, she'll still get at least one episode per winter now as a teenager. She also gets horrible tonsil stones because of the crevices in her poor scarred tonsils so I do wish they had been removed when she was younger. Hope this latest infection is over soon and you don't have to wait too long for surgery.

As someone who had a tricky tonsillectomy aged 36, having lost around 1/4 my childhood to tonsillitis - I recommend getting your DD's tonsils out as quickly as you can muster.

Hi OP, I have first hand experience of this, as I suffered from 2/3 bouts of tonsillitis annually until I was around 20. It was no exaggeration to say I lived on antibiotics in my childhood. However (although of course this is anecdotal) it does not appear to have done lasting damage as I am a healthy 45 year old with what appears to he a strong immune system. Vitamin C is essential for your body to heal so I'd ensure you up the amount in your daughter's diet if you can.

At 13 my mother was beside herself and I was diagnosed with 'reactive tonsils' which is common in girls apparently. They said I'd grow out of it by around 16 (I didn't) but when pushed to have my tonsils removed they kept refusing. I can't remember why.

I would personally not avoid giving antibiotics. I tried this, once, and the tonsillitis progressed to quinsy and I nearly died from it. However this is quite rare and I really did let it get so bad I could barely open my mouth.

I would advise looking into a private tonsillectomy if you can. Good luck x

@whatevenissleepanymore sorry to hear this.

This is not so much a solution as a possible explanation: has your child had covid in the run up/during these bouts of tonsillitis? Covid kills the cells that fight infection in the tonsils, as per this paper:

"In the present study, we describe how SARS-CoV-2 can silently infect palatine tonsils and adenoids from asymptomatic children. We studied 48 children who underwent adenotonsillectomy between October 2020 and September 2021. None of them had experienced signs or symptoms of acute upper airway infection in the month prior to surgery. Nasal cytobrush, nasal wash and adenotonsillar tissue samples were tested by RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry (IHC), flow cytometry and neutralization assay. (....) IHC confirmed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein in 15 out of 16 positive tonsils samples, both in epithelium and lymphoid compartment." www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1808869422001392

So this is why many people are getting tonsillitis after getting covid (and probably why Strep A has taken off too), and I've also seen anecdotal reports of people getting conjunctivitis too, because a viral infection like covid runs down your immune system.

With all the antibiotics she's taking are you also giving her probiotics to help maintain her gut health which antibiotics destroy? This would be my main concern with frequent antibiotic usage, it can also lead to fungal infections like thrush so probiotics are important.

Hope you can get her on a list for tonsillectomy asap.

How are you doing op. I have a 2 year old which has had 11 antibiotics over a year. Most for throat. It’s so worrying x

Still waiting to hear back on her surgery date, keep chasing but still not getting anywhere! So frustrating!
It is honestly awful, I really feel for you. Does your LO suffer with recurrent too?