how contagious is tonsilitis?sorry about spelling

[cheesesarnie]

my 3 dc went to a party yesterday and 2 of the children were later taken off to hospital with tonsilitis.one is ok but the other had fits and stopped breathing due to high temp,shes a bit better today apparently.im just wondering how contagious it is and what i should be looking out for.

Can be fairly contagious in that my two passed it between themselves but not hugely so. It doesn't go round schools like wildfire.

The first sign is usually a high temperature and not wanting to eat or drink. If you can see down their throat you will be able to see the tonsils at the back as they are large in children and they will have little pus coloured spots on them. I think if you don't have the pus spots it is more likely to be a viral sore throat relating to a cold rather than tonsilitis which responds to antibiotics. That said, even without antibiotics it can clear up all on its own.

Don't worry too much about the fits - that isn't the tonsilitis - it is a child who is prone to fitting when they get a high temperature. Drs told me if your child hasn't had a fit in the first 2 years due to high temp it is unlikely it will happen when they are older.

Fingers crossed that you avoid though.

thankyou-very helpful.i wasnt too worried but youve helped alot!poor dh it was first party he took dc to and it ended in poorly children!he'll never do it again!

I don't blame your DH. Seemed to happen to us a lot when DS1 was little. He used to come home with a party bag and a bug!

at party bag and bug!

My DS was taken ill at his own birthday party on Thursday at nursery!

We took him to the GP and he had tonsillitis! lol

I couldnt bloomin believe it.

really!aww is he ok?poor little things.must be horrible for them.

I had forgotten that DS1 was ill on his 5th birthday with tonsilitis but managed to get seen by the GP and was well enough for his party the next day. Thankfully nobody complained that they had caught it too which is just as well as it was the first day of the school summer hols!

DS2 got an ear infection from it though which ended up with DH taking him to the Drs instead of being at party.

It can't have been a coincidence that they just kept bouncing the same germ backwards and forwards the whole summer, DS2 getting it in his ears and DS1 getting it in his throat. Lovely time we had.

oh no-sounds like you had fun!