Can large tonsils block vomiting?

[CheddarCheetah]

Hi there - I have what might be a silly question. Please bear with me.

I’m actually asking this one for me as I’ve got a random fear. I have big tonsils - not massive any more (they were monstrous when I was little) and they are generally well behaved but I’ll get tonsillitis once every year-ish. But whenever I get tonsillitis I get really scared that they’ll get super big and I’ll be sick and the vomit will get stuck and choke me to death (I know, that’s insane) …

Im posting in Mumsnet because kids so often have enormous ‘kissing’ tonsils all the time, even when they are not ill, and they still manage to vomit (which is obviously also a symptom of tonsillitis in small children) so I feel like my fear is unfounded really. Anyone have any thoughts? Or stories about how your kid has gigantic tonsils and managed to vomit past them just fine!

My son (3yo) also has big tonsils and he’ll be getting them removed young if they bother him as I’m not having him go through all the trials and tribulations of being an adult with large tonsils!

thanks for reading

Even "kissing" tonsils do move and slide off each other, otherwise you'd be unable to do useful things like breathe or eat. Vomiting involves generating loads of pressure to eject the stomach contents, it's definitely getting out.

You wouldn’t choke on your vomit even if it couldn’t get past your tonsils anyway surely - you’d just swallow it back down again.

If the food can go down between your tonsils, the vomit can come back up between your tonsils.

If the food can get in, it can get back out again.

As per PPs, if food & liquids can goes down, vomit can come back up.
(@minipie is wrong though...if vomit does meet a proper obstruction things can get quite dramatic quite quickly)

Thanks folks. In my early 20s I had tonsillitis that was so bad that when I swallowed, the food went up into my nose instead of down but normally this doesn’t happen and I can eat just fine so you are totally right - if it can go in it can get out. And I often thought about how many kids have huge tonsils and vomit a lot (probably because of them setting off their gag reflex) and if you google it there’s basically nothing online saying anyone has choked on their vomit because of large tonsils so I guess maybe I should cross it off my (lengthy) crazy worry list 😅