Last March my 4 yo had his adenoids removed because the doc said they were huge and he was snoring and having speech and drooling problems and recurrent ear infections. At that time he said his tonsils were large but didn't think it was a problem so he was going to leave them alone. The drooling and the snoring stopped and his speech got a little better. Within the past 3 weeks he has been drooling again and his snoring is sometimes loud. His teacher asked me to check with his speech therapist because his drooling was drenching the toys. The speech therapist looked in his mouth and told me his tonsils were huge and probably the cause of the problem. You can see the tissue touching the Uvula (the hanging thing in the throat) on one side and almost touching on the other. I just had him back at the ENT for a hearing test last month and I don't remember if he checked his throat or not, but I came away feeling like a crazy mom. He has had a cold the past week. Would a cold cause the tonsils to enlarge temporarily? Will they go down in size? He hates going to the ENT so I don't want to drag him back there for nothing. The speech therapist told me that even though they are enlarged, since they aren't infected, it would be difficult to convince a ENT to remove them unless they do a sleep apnea test. Anyone else have experience with enlarged tonsils?
If he is having a lot of drainage with his cold, they can get very large. My ped usually recommends an antihistamine to help dry it up. They should go back to normal once he's over his cold.
My 23 yr old is just getting over mono, tonsilitis and strep throat-during this two week ordeal-he was unable to close his mouth because his tonsils were so swollen-and it was very difficult for him to talk, as well. The virus that causes the cold can affect the tonsils-or they can become swollen due to a secondary bacterial infection. Better get it checked out-could be strep-good luck.
takie him back to the ENT. You aren't dragging him there it is for his health. How can the speech therapist tell if they are infected? A cold can make them enlarge. My son had no cold and his tonsils were enlarged so his ent took em out, he already had his adnoids out but at the time. He too had ear infections like crazy. You really don't know what your doc is going to say or do. I would just make an appointment.
An infection could most def. cause them to enlarge. However as a nurse I tend to error on the side of caution especialy when it's something that could restrict airflow. In all honesty it depends on how aggresive your ENT is whether they will say take them out or lets just watch them. I agree with the suggestion on a second opinion if you are not completely comfortable with the action of your current ENT.
I'm in Annapolis, MD and just a week and half ago my three oldest children (4, 6 & 8 years old) had their tonsils/adenoids removed. Our ENT is fabulous and removed them because they each had really, really large tonsils. They were horrible sleepers - lots of snoring and horrible throat clearing sounds in the night which scared me to death every time. No major history of ear infections - they each had only one and were treated with antibiotics at the time. Our doctor feels that a sleep study on a child under 8 years of age would be useless because children don't generally sleep well in a lab with oodles of wires stuck to them so we didn't even have to go through that hoop. I was surprised that he actually signed each of mine up for surgery after our initial consult - he is not known in the area to take these surgeries lightly. I have friends who strongly feel their children should have their tonsils removed but can't find an ENT willing.
I'm actually shocked to hear an ENT would put a child through adenoid surgery and not just remove the tonsils while he was in there especially for a child who has the history yours does with the ear infections, drooling and speech issues. WOW!!
Any chance you can get a second opinion? This particular doctor of yours may just stick to his original plan out of defiance and not wanting to admit he should have removed both at the same time. It certainly sounds like your little guy would benefit greatly for having some extra space there in his throat.
It's been like night and day for my three since the surgery. The 10 days of recovery were tricky with three of them but worth every moment!
Good luck and really, trust your gut!! Keep getting additional opinions!!
My little guy was in for strep and the Dr. said his tonsils were swollen and toughing. He put him on a steroid for 3 days and said to come back in to get them checked out again after two weeks. Thanks for the reminder and good luck!
