Recurrent tonsillitis in 13 month old

[111222xx]

My LG is getting recurrent tonsillitis so often. She has had 8+ episodes with antibiotics since January this year.

it stops her eating, drinking, playing and now nursery. She cannot sleep, screams in pain and grabs at her throat. It is awful to watch and I am starting to loose my patience with the GP/ out of hours. We spent yet another whole night until 5am in A&E due to her screaming for hours in pain and high temp that wouldn’t come down
the dr was off with us and asked why we went for tonsillitis. I just don’t know what to do and they don’t understand how much it impacts my LG and also the family as a whole. It’s awful.
has anyone ever experience this before!

you need a referral to an ENT - do her tonsils stay enlarged all the time?
All your dr to refer you x

Yes what are her tonsils like in between bouts? Does she mouth breathe/snore at night at all? This can impact tonsil health.

Perhaps she has Epstein barr virus

Do they swab the tonsils each time to check what bacteria it is? Ask them to do this and then you can see if they’re giving the right antibiotics and it’s a long enough course. It could be the same infection and it’s not going away.

Do the fevers occur with regularity? If so, have a look at something called PFAPA. If it fits, you can try to get a referral to paed immunology and ask for a meds called Colchicine. We had it and it totally stopped the fevers and sore throat.

Tonsillitis is minimised but it really is awful. Have they done bloodwork? Like a pp I’d be wondering about Epstein Barr/ glandular fever. I had this as a little girl and it was missed (tested for but a false negative which is common) so I was taking endless antibiotics but it’s viral. You can develop secondary bacterial tonsillitis as inflamed tonsils provide an excellent breeding ground for bacteria but the antibiotics only deal with symptom not underlying cause so keeps reoccurring.