Can Someone Please Share Their Experience with Adenoids Removal.3 Year Old

My son had his adenoids removed after a pediatric ENT had to go in and remove a set of tubes that were in place by another ENT. I wish I had listened to my gut on the first surgeon. Another story...

The pediatric ENT recommended removing the tubes (due to non stop infection) and remove his adenoids. He said more than likely he would place another set of tubes later but there was so much infection he wanted to get the originals out. It turned out to be exactly what he needed. Took his adenoids and the infection stopped. He didn’t require another set of tubes. I was so pleased.

If you’re wondering why they’re wanting to take them, ask. The doc explained to me that after so many infections the adenoids can act like sponges, keeping the infection going. It certainly changed my son’s continued infection. He’s had maybe 2 since and he’s 14.

If you have a pediatric ENT in your area, it might be wise to seek their opinion. Personally, I think they’re more qualified than a general ENT like the one who initially put my son’s tubes in.

I hope you will take my answer to heart. Your remark about your son's speech issues is important and you need to take this into account.

You need an ENT who understands speech problems, hypernasality, hyponasality, deep nasal pharnyx, and occult submucous cleft palates to help you before deciding on surgery. You can get the ear tubes done separately if you feel that you need more time to figure the rest out.

The ENT who doesn't want to mess with the adenoids has several reasons why. You should ask him or her what those reasons are. One of the reasons from a SPEECH point of view is that the adenoids are a ROOF that makes it so that the soft palate has something to reach UP to in order to make certain sounds. Without a roof, your son's speech can be compromised. Knowing whether your son has a short soft palate or a long soft palate is important in understanding the issue of the roof and how important those adenoids are to his speech.

An ENT who doesn't take speech into account, and only thinks about the issue of health, shouldn't be making this decision. Your child's current health is important. But speech problems will dog him for the rest of his life.

If you have not had a nasal endoscopy done on him, do this. He needs this diagnostic test done before ANY adenoid surgery should be done. The doctor CANNOT see his adenoids at all without this being done.

Just to let you know, my son at 2 years old had his huge tonsils removed and ear tubes placed. The doctor shaved his adenoids a slight amount because they had infection in them. I do not know how much he removed, but he said not much. My son had speech problems and hypernasality, and at the time, we didn't know why. A nasal endoscopy was not performed until he was 4 years old. We had moved and the new ENT wanted to remove my son's adenoids because of his sinus infections, but refused to do any diagnostic testing before putting him through surgery. That didn't set right with me, and my son's speech therapist found another ENT who would do a nasal endoscopy for us. It turned out that my son has an occult (hidden) submucous cleft palate. His palate is very short, and along with a submucous cleft, the adenoid roof should be left alone. His already hypernasal speech would have been even worse if I had let that doctor remove any more of his adenoids. As it was, the nasal endoscopy showed that he is adenoids were actually small and uninvolved, NOT the reason for the sinus infections. I would have been so upset if this doctor had put my child under just to find THAT out. So, the point I am making here is that it's important to have diagnostic testing done BEFORE a surgery, and you should know if there are any structural issues that surgery might cause negative ramifications for.

If I had let that doctor do the surgery, my son's already compromised structure could have been made worse, and his speech would have been worse than it already was because of it.

Sometimes you have to do your own research and have a straight talk with a doctor about it. If they ignore you and don't answer your questions, go to a different doctor. I will always appreciate the ENT who found my son's submucous cleft. None of the other doctors before that bothered to do a nasal endoscopy. Shame on them for that.

My son had his tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in at 3. Best thing I ever did. He was like a new kid. Had hearing loss. Shaving? Then you might have to go back and have them out.

my boys had theirs out at around age 5, if memory serves, but they're both grown now and i'm not sure that my experience is at all relevant with the advances in medicine since then.

what i don't see is what reason the ENT gave you for not removing them. because i'm sure you asked, right?

both my boys had endless ear infections, hearing issues and ear tubes. we were fortunate enough to have a brilliant pediatric ENT. if you don't trust the one you've got, get a 2nd and 3rd opinion.

and remember that trained medical professionals can give you much better advice than we can.
khairete
S.

Our son had his tonsils and adenoids out right after his 4th birthday.
The issue he was having was his tonsils had swelled until they were almost an obstruction.
They almost touched each other across the back of his throat.
They were not infected - he wasn't sick and he had no fever.
They interfered with his swallowing and sleeping - the poor kid snored something awful ever single night.

We did try to shrink them using steroids - and it worked for a short while - but as soon as he finished the series they swelled right back up again.
At that point I told the ENT I want them out now - and he said as long as we're in there we might as well get the adenoids out at the same time.
So we did!

It was the best thing we ever did.
He slept so silently that first night after the operation I stayed up all night just to check on his breathing.
We'd got so use to the snoring I couldn't believe how quiet it was.
He took a little longer than a week to heal up completely but he was feeling so good I had a hard time keeping him from jumping around.
He could eat and sleep - the perpetual dark circles under his eyes disappeared.
And because he was sleeping so much better - he was well rested and behaving well at preschool and everywhere.

If your doctor is generally opposed to removal and your child is suffering - find another doctor.

According to this article:
"For children 3 and older, the surgeon usually removes both tonsils and adenoids. For children younger than 2, surgeons remove only the adenoids"

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/09/adenoids-tonsi...

We've had tubes and adenoids out here.

Tubes - helped my child to hear for the first time ever (he heard a dog bark when we returned home from the hospital, and at 2 1/2 years, he'd never heard that before) and he never had an ear infection again - and with our other child, she just was pain free forever more (no more infections). Her speech had never been affected thankfully.

As for adenoids - that came later. That was due to snoring and looking like they hadn't slept a wink in months.

My nephew had his adenoids out to help with his speech but did not have tubes put in, despite having ear infections. I think his were so bad they went with that approach first. It worked. He was in school when that took place.

I suspect it is different for each child.

All our procedures went really well and we had no complications. We did have to replace a tube that was lost/fell out - that was it.

Hope that helps :)