Help my little girl has a lump in her neck!

[joanna4]

Well 2 now actually said neck felt sore earlier today but at bedtime there were 2 hard lumps on her neck behind the ear couldnt lay on them.She is 9 years old and is generally well in fact doesnt seem unwell tonight.
Am panicking and am alone tonight hubby is working away.
Hard not to think worst but cousin has just come through cancer.

Behind the ear is very likely to be swollen glands, especially if they're sore. DS has one at the moment and the doctor has seen it - she said it's a swollen gland and not to worry unless it stays for ages. Don't worry!

Yup, only swollen glands. She might have a mild infection, that's all.

Definitely sounds like swollen glands - they can be very painful to touch, in fact very tender to have any pressure anywhere near them. Might also hurt when swallowing too.

Thanks I am going to try to get her an emergency appointment tomorrow they are as hard to find as rocking horse poo but I will join the great unwashed at 8 on the dot and see what is said.
Sorry i am a panicker it has been a tough year for our family.
jo

My first thoughts on reading this like all the other posters is 'swollen glands'

One other possibility that happened to dd1 when she was 6 is an abscess in her salivary gland. Wasn't a hard lump, though, more like a swelling on one side of her neck. Two GPs (not our practice -- children were staying at MIL's at the time) diagnosed mumps, but by the time ILs brought her home she was so clearly unwell (temperature, lethargic) that I took her to A&E, where after much kerfuffle they diagnosed the abscess and operated to drain it. She was on anti-biotics for a week afterwards, but no lasting effects apart from a small scar on her neck.

Just something you could run past the Dr when you get to see them tomorrow. V. unlikely to be cancer, I would have thought.

Obviously do get it checked by the doc but my DD had a marble like lump behind her ear when she was 18 months (she wasn't ill I don't think, maybe a sniffle) but the GP just said it was swollen glands - sure enough, had gone down a few days later. I thought glands were bigger than that, not like a small hard ball so I learnt something new!

my ds had a lump on his neck for ages- a real wowser-obvious just by looking at him. it was a swollen gland. although he was well, he does have eczema and apparently atopic kids sometimes have swollen glands constantly just because their immune systems are always on lookout for something to fight.

My DS3 haad several pea like lumps in his neck on both sides. Had to keep going back to the DRs. When they didn't go, DR gave him a full body exam and found several in his groin and under his arms. I was absoluteluy terrified, as th DR asked me to go straight to the Hospital with him for blood tests. Thankfully the tests were all clear, but the DR still referred him to a specialist (more to put my mind at rest than anything, I was really worried, as my Dad had died a year earlier with Lymphoma). He was examined and was fine, but think he still has them (8 years later).

my ds had a fairly large lump in his neck which you could see from most angles (actually still has it but much smaller now). The GP said that it was a swollen gland, and sometimes they just don't go down, and as long as it didn't get bigger it wasn't a prob. We had it checked a few times and I also got a second opion just in case. DS is otherwise right as rain. I think if they are at all painful they are inidicitive of an infection somewhere like the others have said, but I would get her checked out just in case, just for your own peace of mind if anything. Remember, although you do have experience of it, cancer is rare, especially in little ones. Dose her up with calpol tonight just in case she gets a temp too.

yep just swollen glands thanks everyone for your reassurance last night.

Joanne4 - Not trying to scare you but if the lump doesn't go down please ask to be referred to an ENT specialist. My dd had a lump appear under her jawline which we were told was 'swollen glands/ infected salivary gland'. Not so. I pursued it and it turned out to be a rare atypical micobacteria infection in a lymph node. An op to drain the abcess that had formed was followed by another op to remove the node.
It's been a pretty nasty time for her and we've been told that although uncommon, this form of infection is on the increase, especially in the Home Counties (dk where you live).
I just want to warn other parents not to take a first diagnosis as necessarily being the right one. My gut feeling saved my dd from awful complications and I'd hate for other children and parents to go through what we have these past 6 months.

Fingers crossed you little ones lumps have gone down