Enlarged tonsils

jmo823

Hi everyone.  I haven't posted on the bump in a VERY VERY long time, but I'm not able to find any answers on this one so I figured I would see if anyone has heard of this.

LO has had chronic congestion since was born.  While not properly diagnosed yet, I believe has mild sleep apnea as well.  (While sleeping he will stop breathing for no longer than 10 seconds and then snort and snore, wake up, and start breathing again, which is terrifying to listen to) He is a mouth breather, his nose runs almost constantly, and he exhibits all the symptoms of a child with enlarged adenoids. 

I have been fighting doctors again since was born about this issue, but no one ever took me seriously.  Now that he turned 2 in August, I am magically being taken seriously and this is a problem.  The pedi sent us to a new ENT this morning and she was WONDERFUL.  She listened to all of our concerns and examined him as best she could (although he was screaming like we were trying to kill him).  She said that his tonsils were extremely large but she knew he wouldn't let her scope him so she ordered an xray.

After the xray she came in and said she was astounded because she fully expected his adenoids to also be enormous and was planning on ordering surgery to have everything removed; however, his adenoids she said were very small "almost nonexistent" She said she had never seen anything like this before, and because of that was now hesitant to order surgery.  She is sending him for a sleep study to determine the extend of his apnea before she proceeds. 

I have tried googling enlarged tonsils but small adenoids since I imagined that someone, somewhere must have had this situation as well, but I'm coming up empty handed.  Everything is telling me that the two go hand in hand.

So has anyone ever heard of this, or is my kid just weird?   

junebugrbig

My DS had very large tonsils.  He had chronic ear/sinus infections from age 5 months until we had his adenoids and tonsils removed at age 3.  DS has had few problems since then and has been much healthier.  I think the sleep study is just going to confirm what you already know and the only way to resolve it will likely be the surgery.  I wish you all the best through this!!

blu-eyedwife

My kid has gigantic tonsils.  It's a wonder food gets between them.  When I brought it up to my doctor, they told me that most young kids have larger tonsils as a "defense" mechanism against bacteria and infections.  They shrink as kids get older.  She didn't think his golf balls were as unusual as I did.

njbride0603

My daughter had very large tonsils and sleep apnea. She had surgery at 3 to remove tonsils and adenoids. I remember the dr saying that her tonsils were one for the record books but not really anything about adenoids...she also had chronic ear infections from 4 months on and two sets of tubes. We noticed a difference immediately after surgery in the sleep apnea being nonexistent and no snoring. Surgery and recovery were brutal but the result was worth it. I've heard of kids just getting adenoids out so the two don't necessarily go hand in hand...I think the sleep study will just tell you what you already know. Sleep apnea and the breathing can cause problems...restless sleeping, not growing b/c of the restless sleeping. We also noticed after the surgery how different our daughter's voice sounded.