Problems related to adenoid and tonsils are mostly encountered during childhood. When this lymphatic tissue gets big, they can block the airway. When they get big, they can cause some symptoms such as snoring, sleep apnea, sleeping mouth open, and difficulty in eating and swallowing.
So, why is your child’s snoring or sleep apnea important? Let’s explain this now. For newborn babies nasal blockage is vital. At later ages, problems in nasal breathing might not be vital but cause some serious problems. In the sleep tests conducted, it was found out that nasal obstruction causes impairment in the quality of sleep and insufficiency in the level of blood oxygen. This condition affects children’s growth development negatively.
It was also observed that nasal obstruction leads to learning and behavioral disorders. Of course, this does not mean that every child who snores and has nasal obstruction will have such problems. However, some of the distress will be experienced. Developmental disorder of upper jaw, sleeping mouth open all the time and orthodontic problems occur in children who cannot do nasal breathing properly. When you have adenoid infection, chronic postnasal drip and cough, repeated or incomplete recovery of middle ear infection and sinusitis can be observed. In addition, big tonsils lead to sleep apnea.
So what should be done when children sleep mouth open, snore, suffer from apnea, have night sweating and restless sleep complaints?
First of all, an ENT specialist should examine the patient. It is important to find out for how long the patient has been having these symptoms. If the symptoms appear out of the blue, this condition might stem from an infection or allergy, so there is no need for an operation. However, if you are not ill, if the symptoms have lasted for long and if there is no other reason that will cause these symptoms, then you need to get adenotonsillectomy. I know it is very hard to decide on adenotonsillectomy as parents. I find it necessary to remind the following for parents who have difficulty deciding:
- If there is an airway blockage because of adenoid or tonsils, it must be fixed.
- If it is a chronic blockage, surgery is the only solution. It won’t pass by as the child grows up.
- Relief after the surgery is nearly 100%.
- Immune system problems or other illnesses do not depend on the removal of adenoid or tonsils.
It is sometimes necessary to observe the condition during medication treatment. However, if there are findings mentioned above and if your doctor recommends surgery, you shouldn’t be indecisive. You should’t forget that this illness harms the child indirectly and the treatment will increase the child’s life quality.