Acute Tonsilitis

[joz]

Hello to cut a long story short my DD is 21 months old and since she was 18 months old she is suffering with constant bouts of acute tonsolitis i am at my wits ends cause it seems i just get her back on her feet and showing signs of being healthy she is knocked back down with it again. On average she is getting it every 13 days the poor little thing has had 9 doses already and is now struck down again with her 10th dose. I have taken her to the hospital that many times and my local doctor but they just keep treating her with penicillian to the point it is now that she has to remain on it till she gets to see the ear nose and throat specialist hahaha when ever that happens as i have been told it will take min 12 months to get in and see them ( thats the public health system for you). Well any way i was just wondering if anyone out there can help me with ideas so i don't have to keep her on the antibiotics till i can get her into see the specialist with hopes they will remove them .

[Wivi]

Hi there,

I went down this road when DS was about the same age. What I can tell you is that any natural products out there are not recommended until bub is over 2 as I explored that one. I did invest in a multi-vitamin for DS and you can get some stuff that is a bit like "inner health" when they are on long term antibiotics to protect their gut.

We took DS to an ENT specialist as well (we went private - if you are desperate an initial consult actually wasn't that expensive) - and were told they rarely take tonsils out these days. The ENT we saw suggested that as DS didn't seem to respond that well to the antibiotics that it was probably viral and just kept repeating. So we stopped antibiotics and he has slowly gotten better. DS is still prone to the odd case ( 2 since August) but generally he is better.

I hope you can find something to help your little one soon. It sounds very unpleasant!

[LivinOnAPrayer]

Hi. :hugs: to you and your daughter. My DD is 18 months and has only had tonsilitis twice, but shes getting her tonsils out in march (and adnoids) due to sleep apnea. Hearing stories like your makes me sad, and also makes me realise just how lucky we are. Because DD has been under ENT since birth (surgery to correct laringomalacia) we can ring them and get in asap. It must be hard to have to wait...

I also do know that prolonged use of antibiotics can strip the stomach lining leading to food intolorences and depleated immunity, so its deffinatly something to be concerned about. I recomend chatting to your pharmacist about what can help your little girl.
Good luck....

Oh, i also had my tonsils out at 16 as i repeatedly suffered from acute tonsilitis just like your DD. I found that warm water and adrop of honey was the only thing that really helped me.....

[3boys1girl]

My DS who is 9 got his tonsilis out a few months ago after having about 15 or more bouts in 1 year ( I lost count :dizzy:) Hes was like your child, he would just get over them and get another bout. He was on constant antibiotics. I took him to a natropath to see if he could boost his immunity, but that didnt help. We saw a ENT specailist with in 2 months of refferal and he had them out with in 6 mths. He was a Cat 2 in the surgical list which means he was high protrity (cat 1 is emergency) We decided to stay public as we couldnt afford the $2000 it was going to cost to go private. Also if we went private he would be placed in a adult ward with nurses that specialise in adults, not kids. The only kids ward was in the public system. I worked there as a nurse as well, so I had great faith in the people that worked there.
U can pay to have it done private or intermidiate which is a private doctor in a public hospital, or just go public. Speak to your Dr about it.
Keep going to your GP though everytime your child gets it as then they will hurry up the process, well thats what got JAckson in earlier and get your GP to write a note to the specialist saying that he is high prority. Sometimes u have to put your foot down!

Good Luck:hugs: I know how hard it is to watch your child suffer!
Let me know if u have anymore questions

[ellie13]

Hi I went through this with my DD and she ended up having to have her tonsills and adenoids removed.

Here is a tip to cut the cue in public system.

My gp knew of an ENT specialist-private-who also did surgeries at a public hospital. What she did is gave him a refferal-private- so I got to see him ASAP (had to pay for consultation about $50 as I don't have a private cover) but he made the assesment and put her straight onto the waiting list at the public hospital where he worked. The waiting list was about 3 mnths, but DD deteriorated so much and couldn't swallow, that GP contacted this specialist herself, updated him and he pushed some buttons and got her in sooner, so she waited about 1.5 mnths for surgery. I know it still sounds long but it is a lot faster than waiting for ENT public(12 mnths) and than waiting the waiting list for surgery.

Because my GP is great at that time she put refferal;s to 3 hospitals. I got a letter to say that she has been placed on the waiting list to see the specialist after she has already had her surgery. So it was definately a short cut.

Best of luck, let us know how u go.

[joz]

thanks for all your advice sorry it has taken me a bit to get back to all ur messages but with her down with it again i am so frustrated. on her 17th does in under 12 month my dr and i had said enough was enough nd called the specialist himself and when i got home to check out how she was going low and behold she has an appointmnet on the 28th of this month:yelclap:.
but since then she has coped 3 more bouts of it and they keep getting worse every time the last bout of it last week was that bad that she was vomiting up the pus off her tonsils it was so gross. She has intolerances to milk products so yeah it they say that it can be a side affect to all the medicine she has been on as it has gotten worse since she was diagnosed with loactose intolerace at 4 weeks old. Now the drs seem to think that she has an immune dificencey( i think thats how it is spelt) but is refusing to test her for it.
But on the bright side the dr is agreeing that they must be removed and her adnoids plus gromits all at once but if i can't get the results i am after i will be asking for a referral to a surgeon to get the results i need as the last thing i want is for her to go thru the same thing i went thru and my parents wondering if i was ever going to survive considdering i died twice from mine ( they never let me forget it lol) so :fingerscrossed: that the results are what i need for the sake of her health

[joz]

just a quick update dd 2years old has seen her specialist( ent ) on the 28th of april any way the great news is they r going to remove them with in 90 days yayayayayay!!!!! but they have also been able to push it faster because she has a sleeping disorder as well so they r going to take her adnoids out as well and see if this will help her with sleeping once this has been done they r going to assess her to have grommits in as well so yeah.
YES it is unusal for the drs to do any thing about it becasue she is under the age of 3 but with her sleep disorder it is easier to do it all in one go so:fingerscrossed: that things will happen fast

[3boys1girl]

:yelclap: Im so glad! Keep us posted on the updates! Just a word of warning though, it can be upsetting when u see your child in pain afterwards. Just make sure they keep the painrelief up to her and just keep thinking that it is worth it in the end!
Good luck! :fingerscrossed:

[ellie13]

So good to hear the Dr's are doing something- best of luck-hope it all turns out ok...