Tonsils Out in a 3 Year Old

Updated on January 02, 2009
C.M. asks from Beloit, WI
6 answers

My 3 year old son has had problems with his tonsils/adenoids since birth. He's never had an ear infection and he's never had problems with his tonsils (that we know of). He is a mouth breather, he doesn't sleep well (tosses and turns and wakes at night), and still drools a lot. We took him for the second time to the ENT and they recommended removing his tonsils since they are so huge. I spoke to someone else who use to be a nurse and she said that she knew a lot of people who said they disappear when they are 4 so to wait on the procedure. Truthfully, we've been waiting for 3 years for him to grow into his adenoids and now that we know his tonsils are huge too, I just want my son to breath better. What experiences does anyone have with the procedure on a child this young? Does it help? Should we wait?

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C.

answers from Minneapolis on

Both of my kids 7 & 4 have had their tonsils and adenoids out. Same as you no infections, just to big. My kids had kissing tonsils (they touched) this caused sleep apnea for both of them, my kids would actually stop breathing while they slept. I was told this would cause more problems later in life for both of them with snoring and sleeping so we did have the operation and they sleep so much better and have had no problems since. Hope this helps, I am glad we did the surgery.

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C.J.

answers from Minneapolis on

I've never heard of tonsils just disappearing. I had mine out when I was 4, but I had problems with mine. I had tonsilitis on a regular basis so they went ahead and removed them. I remember bits and pieces of it. I say do what needs to be done. If they are a problem, take care of it now before your child gets any older.

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J.F.

answers from Green Bay on

My son had his tonsils and adnoids removed right before his 5th birthday. His ENT dr. said he had never seen adnoids that big in a child so young! Joey recovered quickly and beautifully. He had little discomfort and was back to his normal self in about 48 hours. He struggled with sleep apnea, snoring and ear infections (more as an infant) before we did the procedure. He's 8 now and doing great. I agree it's probably better to do it when they are younger rather than waiting. Best of luck!

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C.G.

answers from Davenport on

My son had a lot of the same problems, except he also had problems with ear infections. We had his tonsils removed when he was 2. He also had his second set of tubes put in at that time as well. He recovered extremely fast (the younger they are, the faster they recover). He also started sleeping a lot better immediately (drooling, snoring, tossing and turning all stopped). It completely changed his personality...my guess is because he was actually getting enough sleep. My family jokes that his personality was blocked by his tonsils.
My sister has also had problems all her life, she is 19. She is going in next week to have her tonsils out and the doctor said her adnoids too, if she has them.
I was happy with our decision to do it while he was young.

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T.H.

answers from Minneapolis on

I cannot speak directly to this but can say that we have friends that had the same thing done for their 2 1/2 year old and she is doing a lot better and it did wonders for her hearing and speech as well. I think you are doing the right thing.

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H.

answers from Minneapolis on

my 3 DD got hers out this summer. I had the same concerns, but no regrets. Hers were so huge that they were impeding her growth, she had trouble swallowing some foods and never got the sleep she needed to grow. She never got sick though either. Now, she is a completely different girl. She has energy and grew A TON and gained 3 lbs in 3 weeks (it took her a year to gain that much before)!! After the procedure, she bounced back super fast. It was hard to get her to follow the "discharge orders". when asked now, she even tells everyone she's glad it was done because she feels so much better.

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