Enlarged tonsils ( and adenoids?) in 3yr old

[mousemole]

DS 1 is 3 and has the largest tonsils I have ever seen. He sleeps 12hrs a night and up to 3hrs in the day. He is often tired and has huge black rings under his eyes all the time. He has only had a couple of 'bad' throat infections although semi frequently says his mouth is sore. I was away for a week recently without him and when I came back I was struck by how 'nasally' he sounded. He is a very deep sleeper with an impressive snore. Should I be investigating this further ?

bump

If you are concerned, take him to gp.

A friends daughter had hers out as she had a type of sleep apnoea from them being so large.
She videoed her dd sleeping and made a sleep diary for 2 weeks, so she had evidence of her concerns to show the GP.

BTW mine have very large tonsils and are both quite nasal, but was told unless very severe or repeated infections it was unlikely they would be removed.

Hi there

Our DD had her tonsils and adenoids out in Dec 07, 3 days before she turned 3.

When the consultant came to see her after the op, she said the whole theatre team had been stunned at the size of her tonsils but her adenoids had knocked them for six. She said they were the largest adenoids they had EVER removed in that hospital!!!!! They blocked over 80% of her airway.

She had a really bad case of tonsilitis in August 06 that ended in her being hospitalised but apart from that she had very few throat problems.

The reason for them removing hers was that the main symptom of all this was she suffered from sleep apnea, where the tonsils/adenoids flapped over and blocked her entire airway when she was going into deep sleep and this then stopped her breathing temporarily. As she gasped for breath, this would wake her up. She would be fine until she started falling into deep sleep and then it all happened again, stopping breathing, gasping for breath, waking herself (and us up!) all through the night.

Sometimes she stopped breathing for up to 15 seconds and it got very scary at times. She learned to deal with it on her own, and put herself back to sleep each time but it wasn't an acceptable solution.

I went to see the GP about the sleep apnea and the GP took one look at her tonsils and said immediately, they have to come out. He was mainly concerned that if she got another bad case of tonsilitis, her tonsils would swell and as they were so large, they could potentially totally block her airways.

So, she had them out in Dec. It was the best thing ever. She was a really bad eater and she couldn't easily swallow and survived by filling herself up on liquids most days .

Take your DS to the GP and ask them. However, they only remove them if they really need to and if they are proving to be detrimental to their health. If they can get away with leaving them in, they will.

Let us know how you get on

A xxx

PS Sorry this is SO long

Just to give a more long term view and give you the benefit of hind sight that I wish I'd had. My ds, now 17, has huge tonsils. Problems started with them when he was about 2, with all the snoring, sleep problems described by others here. I used to lie in bed listening to his breathing from the next room. Gp eventually referred him to ent clinic at hospital when he was about 3 or 4. A very unhelpful consultant told me not to look at his tonsils if they bothered me and refused to remove them as, although he had had infections, they hadn't been very bad and had cleared up with abs. He said that he would "grow out of it".
Here's the benefit of hindsight bit because I really wish I hadn't accepted this. Over the years ds has had repeated bouts of tonsilits which have become steadily worse. This culminated in a really horrible bout during his gcses last year. That caused a secondary problem which I can't remember the name of. He had very painful swollen lumps on his legs as a result of the strep infection. The dermatoligist he saw about his legs was shocked at the state of his tonsils and asked why they hadn't been removed when he was younger. He is due to go in in July to have them removed, but I now wish I had persisted when he was younger and we could have avoided all the problems he has had as a teenager. The ent consultant said he hadn't seen such nasty scarred tonsils for a long time. They are still so big that they meet in the middle. I'm sure the op to remove them would have been much more straight forward if it had done when he was younger. Hope this helps and you get on ok. I would see the gp if I were you.