Toddler Tonsillectomy Tips and Recovery

[Starlight19]

My 3 year old is having tonsils and adenoids removed this week. In the same way people list what to pack for going in to have a baby it would be great if people could list things that they found useful in the hospital and in recovery. I want to create a little ‘recovery box’ with medication and anything else that will aid recovery so I’m not having to go look for things last minute.

Thanks 😊

Lots of ice lollies in the fridge at home and ice packs to help with sore ears that the op can bring on

No dairy as it thickens the mucous too much and will make him more uncomfortable

Things to keep them occupied before going to surgery. It's unknown how long you will have to wait before going down and they will be super hungry and grumpy if anything like my daughter so lots of books, games, colouring etc. some really comfy pyjamas. Easy footwear to get on and off for home time. My daughter had hers out in January and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be xx

Thanks everyone, ice lollies are a cert!

@lollydu what differences have you noticed in your daughter? We have severe sleep apnea and speech delay causing us issues

I saw a tip about oversized clothes, this person said hoodies but hospitals are so warm maybe a long sleeved top, so they can knot the ends of sleeve to stop the child pulling out canulas

Ours remain to be seen as it was just constant ear infections and tonsillitis - she hasn't had anything since her op and it used to be at least once every 3 weeks to a month. People have commented her speech is much better due to her large adenoids but I didn't really notice! Good luck to your little one it'll be fine. One thing my specialist said was to make sure they eat even one tiny bite of something every 30 mins as the swallowing action helps to keep the wound site clean so we bought in literally all the nice stuff like muffins, donuts, cookies, anything and set a timer and made sure she had a nibble every 30 mins xx

Make sure you have lots of calpol and nurofen stocked up at home. Give it regularly, including overnight so they’re able to eat and drink. Sometimes they like to just pick at food they like rather than eating whole meals. As long as they’re eating and drinking.

It made a huge difference to my DS’s sleep apnoea, was well worth it.

Promise him a present that he'll get after the operation. This can work like magic to dispel anxiety. A small present will do the trick.

Oh and for the first few days you will be giving calpol and nurofen round the clock every 3 hours and we were prescribed morphine to take the edge off which we only used sparingly just at night when she was distressed and couldn't sleep. I kept in touch with the other mums of the children who were in with mine on same day and the recovery of all of them was so different, a couple were off all pain meds by day 5 or 6 and back at school before the 2 weeks were up and my daughter and one other took a bit longer and needed more pain relief so anything goes. For us like they said it might it get worse around day 6 or 7 when the scabs came off and that was quite difficult but all of a sudden they are just right as rain again.