Tonsillectomy recovery

[Maii132]

My 6 year old had her tonsils taken out 5 days ago and I’m struggling to know what is normal and what isn’t with the recovery!!

She has not eaten since Tuesday evening! She has been having sips to drink (water, squash, milkshake) but not a large amount at all!

I took her to the doctors Friday due to her being constipated and it causing her tummy pain and the doctor prescribed movicol and said to keep an eye on her!

She’s even refusing to take the pain killers now and is like a different child! Getting inconsolable over very trivial things, screaming which she won’t snap out of and just tells us all the go away when we give her a cuddle or try and console her.

Has anyone else been through this? Will things settle down?

Thank you from one very tired and guilty mum!

Not sure about with kids but dp has one removed as an adult and he said it was the worst pain he'd had. I know it's worse in adults but he also got worse before he got better. Days 3-5 were the worst. He was eating and drinking big only with pain relief though

Ice lollies and ice cream ... sooth it x

What have you been offering her to eat? DD had hers removed a few years ago and she would only eat cold soft/liquidy things so things like milkshakes (I went for the protein ones so I could pretend they were nutritious), yoghurts, ice lollies for well over a week and then started to eat very soft slightly more food like things like bananas and mashed potatoes.

I would consider giving her painkillers as a suppository as without pain relief she is unlikely to eat. DD couldn't eat unless she had her painkillers roughly 30 minutes beforehand.

My 5 DS had his tonsillectomy in January, he was the same. He literally went from taking sips of water and his medication to absolutely nothing.

It was sooooo stressful, but you must preserve with the medication even if it isn’t the full amount. I was putting it in absolutely everything I could think of. Ice cream, custard, milkshake, honey, jam….you name it I put the painkiller in.

Around day 5 the tonsil area is starting to scab and becomes really painful. Let her rest, lots of cuddles and tiny amounts of water or whatever she will take.

I feel for you because I know how hard it is, I don’t feel like I was prepared for how awful it was going to be that first week and the more they refuse the more worried you become.

We went back to the hospital around day 6, as he hasn’t drank for a long time (advised by 111 to go). He took water at the hospital and they said basically don’t worry too much about the food intake at this point just ensure he is having small amounts of fluid. We bought fancy straws, a special cup and a syringe which he found easiest to take a syringe of water every hour (ridiculous I know but it worked).

Sorry for the long post but in a couple of days I think she will start to improve and before you know it she will be back to normal. Her voice will sound strange for a couple of weeks too due to the swelling, no one told me that and I was a bit shocked.

If you have any questions I’m happy to answer.

Hope she feels better soon x