Health question kids...adenoids...
 

Hello Pelican friends.

Our five year old son(born and raised in Japan) seems to have some breathing issues, along with snoring, frequent ear infections etc. We originally though he might be allergic to something but the ear, nose, throat Dr. said it was enlarged adenoids.

My Japanese isn’t good enough to understand all the nuances of the diagnosis and issues, but he seems to think he will outgrow the condition.

Currently my wife has a friend who’s son had similar issues and their Doctor said he wasn’t sleeping well due to the adenoid problem.
So they decided to have surgery to remove his adenoids and tonsils.

I really don’t want to go through the surgery if it’s not necessary...

Before we get a second opinion I’d like to hear more first hand accounts.

Any thoughts on the matter.

Daughter had seemingly non-stop ear infections when she was 3, we really didn't want to go through the surgery either but finally relented after her 4th or 5th ear infection.

She went in for surgery and 30 minutes later we were back with her in the recovery room. The surgeon proceeds to tell us that the adenoid removal took less than 10 minutes, but that he had to spend 20 minutes or so to extract a small rubber band (1/2' diameter) from her sinuses. Apparently the skin in her sinuses had started growing around it. Since it was rubber, no x-ray would have found it.

That was the end of here repeated ear infections. Obviously she was an outlier, but in the end, we were glad we went through the surgery.

Wow! That’s crazy. So were the ear infections related to her adenoids or the rubber band?

My son gets ear infections too but they don’t seem to be painful at all. Medicine seems to do the trick.

The adenoid is pretty much a kind of gland that many small children have a problem with. It tends to get swollen and producing more mucus with all the constant microorganisms inhaled. It produces a problem both as it filles out the nasal airway, congesting it, both as the secretion tends to drip backway into the throat. Many children have difficulties with it, particularly at night or when feeding.
Along with the adenoid, the tonsills and soft palate creates a degree of airway obstruction that often interfers with quality of sleeping.
Together, these tissues may also contribute to ear trumpets being less aerated and increasing the risk of ear infections.
We send a lot of children with these problems from our pediatric clinic to the ENT specialist to have the adenoid and/or tonsills reduced or removed. The procedure is low risk and the health and symptom improvements are often very substantial.

I am curious, how much is the cost of that procedure in Sweden? In the states, I think it was at least $1,500 if not more, but it has been a long time.

We think it was the body fighting the foreign object and causing infections. I don't remember too many ear infections after that, and the green snot coming out of her noses ended too.

Would cost you zero dollars in Canada :)

Thanks for the reply’s. My wife is pushing to take him to an expert. I sleep in the same room as him and can hear the little guy struggling to breath sometimes.
National health care covers costs 100% in Japan until kids reach elementary school age.

What are you waiting for? Take him to a doc right now. I remember years back my daughter was struggling with her breathing. We took her to the emerge dept and was diagnosed with asthma. She was working in animal research and she was diagnosed as reacting to the animals.

For myself I had my adenoids and tonsils removed when I was nine years old. I believe it was to reduce the number of colds I got. I don't get many colds anymore.

Get your son to the doc right now!

He goes to a regular nose doctor almost every month to check on his condition. This Dr. doesn’t seem concerned with his situation and believes he will ‘grow out of it’. We’re planning to take him to a specialist for another analysis. I wanted to get some information beforehand. Thank you.