Ds4 ALWAYS has huge tonsils!

[chipmonkey]

I first noticed this when a GP pointed it out to me when he was ill. But every time I look at them they are massive, even if he seems well. Sometimes they get quite red and I think at those times he seems to be uncomfortable and sticks his hand in his mouth, other times they look a normal colour but they are always the size of marbles. Anyone else's dc's have this?

hi chipmonkey , yes my ds had this from a very young age , when he was 8months old he chocked on almost all foods was a nightmare , then when he hit age 3yrs he started to suffer terrible throat infections we were advised to wait until he was 5.5yrs old to see if he grew out of it but he just got worse until i change doctors & when our now pediatrician saw the state his throat was in he had ds admitted to hospital as an emergency & ds had his tonsils & adenoids removed & has been fine since . Ds only had a tiny gap between his tonsils to swallow food hence the chocking . How old is your ds ?

Hi elmo!
He has only just turned 2. He doesn't seem to have any bother with food although his favourit foods at the moment are yoghurts and actimels. Right noe , after convuncing him to stick out his tongue and say "Aaaah" there is really only 1.5 cm of a space between the tonsils. It looks like it must be uncomfortable!

ahhh the poor baby , yoghurt's , ha ds lived on them while waiting for his op , ds had bout 1cm gap between his tonsils but bar the chocking (everything had to liquidised) the infections only kicked in when he turned 3yrs old , very high fevers & viral rashes all from the throat infections . I am in Ireland & over here they like to wait & see if children grow out of tonsillitis before removing them but in ds's case he was sick every 2 weeks so it was necessary .

I'm in Ireland too!

just looked at your profile , see your in co meath i am in north Dublin . ds had his op in beaumont hospital they were brilliant with him . hopefully your ds wont need to have his removed .

Our friends' little boy had huge tonsils as well - didn't cause him any real problems except nosiey breathing when sleeping and occassionally he would stop breathing momentarily. He had the tonsils removed when he was nearly 3 and has been fine since.

dd2 had huge tonsils, by the time she was 2 she had such bad sleep apnoea (noisy and difficult breathing at night, snoring, stopping breathing for a few seconds on/off all night) and was losing weight from eating less, that they took one look and operated. She had a floppy larynx as well (from birth), so for a while this was blamed for the sleep apnoea - but since her op (adenoids and tonsils out) she has been much, much better.

She hadn't had a single throat infection, but large tonsils can cause problems in other ways. That said, in some children they cause no problems at all - and eventually the child 'grows into them' (according to my GP ).

I have tonsils that scare doctors, and so does my mother. She gets tonsillitis every other year or so (so why did she never have them out?) but I never had a problem, they're just huge.

dd (3) has huge tonsils. noticed it fairly recently. they doesn't seem to cause any problems, no sore throats or problems swallowing\breathing. will prob take her to dr to check out though.

DD had swollen tonsils that for a couple of years caused her mild pain but pretty constant pain.

The doc said they were not a problem - were just doing their job . He said they would probably shrink back to normal by the time she was 13.

Which wasn't much of a consolation to dd, suffering the pain!

Bu she had no other problems with food or breathing so we just rode the storm. Now she's 12 they certainly are less of a problem, so we're hoping it will resolve naturally.

The big tonsils do seem to run in dh's family. One of his nieces and one of his nephews have had them removed.