Recurrent Tonsillitis

[peeinthepool]

Hi I don't often post but I am at my wits end. My daughter (6) had a bad bout of tonsillitis around a month ago and now every time she completes a course of antibiotics it returns a few days later. The antibiotics are upsetting her tummy now she seems so low and I'm desperately worried. We have been referred to ENT but appointment not for a couple of weeks. Has anyone experienced anything similar with their child?

Have they done a throat swab? It might be resistant to the antibiotics she’s having

We have same here ☹️☹️
every
month since may she’s had it. It dominates our lives just now, feels like she is constantly on antibiotics.
this latest bout they swabbed her at start which confirmed strep A and then on completion of antibiotics to check it had cleared which it had but they don’t know why she keeps getting it again. Like you we have been referred to ENT but it’s an 18 month wait
list for an initial appointment ☹️No idea how
we will cope with it impacting on school and my work as I’m only adult at home so when she’s off sick I’m off work to care from
her.
no
advice just ALL my sympathies xx

Thank you, they did a few weeks back and changed the antibiotics. However not for this occurrence so if she's not much improved tomorrow I will ask for one.

Probiotics can help with the tummy upset from antibiotics.

@wobblymum1 it's so hard and worrying isn't it. Similar I work full time in a high pressure role and often the only adult at home so it's so stressful with work too.

@MiniMaxi this was re the swab.

@nocoolnamesleft thanks I have some in gummie form but at the moment she's refusing them

It’s so hard. Literally one week a month she’s off school and I get very very little work done during that Week ☹️It’s so stressful. I thought her missing so much school would have her added to the appointment list sooner but GP said no, all kids with recurrent tonsilltis miss school so it carries no weight. I’m so stressed by it wnd literally feel I’m just waiting for the next “mummy my throat Hurts”
how do you cope/manage? Xx

My dd
also refuses probiotics and gummie vitamins, I think she’s so so fed up taking 10 day 4 X a day penicillin every 3 weeks that anything else is just an automatic no for her to take and I save the battles
for the antibiotics ☹️

Oh god tonsilitis is awful. I had it 7 times in my first year of university! Seven! Horrendous.

I can't help with the medication etc but somethings that really helped me -

Warm salt water - gargle water and night. It helps shift the white throat shit and feels soothing.

Equally - tea with sugar or honey in it. Can use lemon and honey in hot water if you don't want caffiene. Soothes the throat.

Steam bowl, towel on head and breathe in the vapour.

@wobblymum1 I'm only just coping to be honest. I try and work in the evenings and weekends when she's ill to make up for when I'm with her during the day but then I'm exhausted. I doubt myself too as i'm trying to work out if I'm doing something wrong.

It isn't right that they are just expected to take the antibiotics and wait so long for a referral. Last time she ended up with Quincy too which was scary.

I hope it gets better for your daughter very soon. x

@TheWayoftheLeaf thank you.

I keep wondering if I’m doing something wrong too ☹️I really hope your appointment comes soon and they get it sorted, it’s so awful watching them suffer ☹️Quincy must have been awful ☹️Xx

@wobblymum1 I hope the same for you too. Can I ask you. How long does it take for your daughters temp to go down once she starts the antibiotics. We are on day 4 and it's still not normal

thank you 💞
I’d say it drops
from 40 degrees to less hot after 48 hours but not normal - more like 38 degrees. It varies month to month 🤦‍♀️. We are one week on from finishing the latest course and she still has a small fever 🤷‍♀️Dr thinks it’s now a viral form. Aaargh!

I'm in the same boat with my dd6. We got our ent appointment last week... 4th July 2025

My daughters started after scarlet fever and then strep throat in October last year. She has had it 12 times since 🤦🏽‍♀️ antibiotics help then it comes back within a few weeks. We saw the gp last week. They are now not prescribing antibiotics as they don't think they are helping so she is riding it out with paracetamol, ibuprofen and lollies.

Hope you get somewhere soon x

This is like us, it’s utterly horrendous, 2 years of this?! it’s awful, I am so so sorry you are in the same
boat ☹️Ibuprofen is the only third that works for my daughter too Xx

so sorry @whenthelightsgoout1 I actually think my daughters started with Scarlet fever/strep too but they did the swab too late after she started antibiotics and never got the results vue she had the typical rash etc.

@peeinthepool and others, definitely push for a swab each time - we’re in a similar position, GP was reluctant to do swabs (not sure why), most recently we saw a great out of hours doctor who looked in detail at the results and said it looks like a different strain each time so it must just be rife in the classroom. Ugh!

That’s so interesting. Every
for time they swab my daughter it’s been strep A
and 50% of the time it progresses to scarlet fever and they don’t know why 🤷‍♀️☹️

@MiniMaxi thank you that's very interesting and helpful.

Being that your DD has had the complication of a quinsy, which is serious, what is the wait for ENT in your area? Ring the hospital and speak to secretary and explain the problems, how it’s affecting your DD, losing days school etc could take cancellation etc or could you see ENT privately? You can self refer for ENT.

I had recurring tonsillitis and had quinsy twice. I had my tonsils out in my late twenties, the hospital said they should have been taken out at 10, after I recovered from the last quinsy. Your poor little girl OP, I can empathise completely.

My DS1 had many ear infections as a young child, we saw ENT privately in the end. I honestly think that the antibiotics affected the enamel on his teeth, we always seemed to have amoxicillin in the fridge, the effect on teeth is well documented, on one occasion he was on amoxicillin for an ear infection, then he started complaining about the other ear. Rang surgery, to be told no he can’t possibly have another infection in the other ear, as the antibiotics would have covered it, I insisted he was seen, and yes, I was right, he did have another infection, so then we started another course of a difficult antibiotic alongside the Amoxicillin. He grew out of it eventually, but I have never forgotten the awful nights, of him crying in pain, always started in the middle of the night. It made me feel so helpless.

I hope DD is better soon OP.

self refer for private ENT, not NHS.

I didn’t know that about the enamel- that’s interesting. My daughter has weak enamel on her teeth, I wonder if that could be the cause.

@Roselilly36 I have got a private appointment for an ENT consultant next week. I am very fortunate that I have private healthcare with work. My GP refused to even do the private referral until the quinsy. I wish I had pushed harder sooner. Thanks so much for your advice. It really does make you feel helpless when they are constantly poorly.