3yo tonsillectomy advice

[yaboreme]

Hi

My 3 yo son has his pre assessment at the end of March, which can only mean his tonsillectomy is imminent.

Can anybody tell me about their experiences with a young child having a tonsillectomy.

I'm freaking out a little bit and thinking about back tracking but know it's the right thing to do - tonsillitis 9 times last year with 2 hospital admissions.

Can anyone tell me what to expect?

Thanks

Ours was a few years ago now but same age - in and out same day, as long as she could eat some toast. She then only ate McDonald's chips for about 10 days, but we went with it. She slept really well that first night and then seemed to perk up the next day, as long as we kept the paracetamol and ibuprofen going.

Much better than antibiotics every 28 days!

My daughter had her Adenoids out when she was 5 and tonsils out when she was 10. She should have had them both out together.

It was absolutely worth it, but the recovery took longer than i expected. About 8-10 days and I literally had to alternate ibuprofen and paracetamol every few hours even waking her up because otherwise it was too painful for her to swallow.

I don’t know if this is the same for everyone, but regardless I’m so glad we did it.

I remember drinking lots of ice cold milk and loving it.

Keep alternating the pain meds. We set timers.

Don't get your hopes up with the pre op. We had 2 of them before finally getting an operation date.

DS was 4 when he had tonsils and adenoids out. The operation was fine, but then he was in so much pain he couldn't swallow the pain relief (which, of course, meant nothing could be done about the pain). He was fine once he did take it though, so keep alternating to make sure the painkillers don't run out.

He ate a lot of jelly and ice cream, and yogurt, in the first few days. It took about 10 days for him to feel OK.

Dd was 4 when she had her tonsils out, was a good decision. Had a rough few days to start with and had to stay at home for two weeks but was so much healthier after. I had mine done a couple months before and she definitely recovered quicker than me. I lived on luke warm things, where as dd needed really cold things so lived on cold rice pudding, ice cream, ice lollies and milkshake.

Agree with all of the above. 100% set alarms and wake through the night for pain relief. Even if they perk up after a few days, keep going as often they seem better and then go downhill again for a few days as the scabs come off.
Hope it goes well, I was so scared beforehand and am so relieved that we had it done. His quality of life is so much better now! Good luck!

DD was 4 when she had hers out. She was a bit rough with a chest infection afterwards but probably had it pre-op but she was so nasal/adenoidal that it didn't flag up. We were in hosp for a week and then had to stay at home for 2 weeks but she has been so much better since. Eating and drinking were an issue but ice lollies were manageable.

My son had tonsils and adenoids out at around the same age. My best advice is to stay on top of pain relief, suppositories were the best as he didn’t need to swallow. Keep fluids up, water, juice, fruit with a high water content like melons, jelly, ice lollies. There’s a point about a week into recovery when things seem to take a backwards step (seem to remember it has something to do with scabs forming) but it doesn’t last long.

My son was in hospital over night as his oxygen sats were lower than they like (he does have additional needs) but he bounced back quickly.