After years of chronic respiratory problems, I finally took my daughter to an ENT and found out that she needs to have adenoid surgery. I was wondering how other kids have done with this surgery, and how the results were. How was their recovery? Were the long term benefits worth it? I'm sure it will improve her quality of life, but surgery makes me nervous. Just need some reassurance. Also, my husband is convinced it causes weight gain because that happened after he had his out. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Good Morning!
My daughter just had this done a few days after Christmas. She had her 3rd set of tubes put in and her adnoids out. She did perfectly fine. She was a little groggy the first day because of the anesthesia but she was her normal self the next day. She didn't even have any pain.
Good luck!
My son had them removed when he was 6 and had his tubes out at the same time. He had a rough time with it because of the anesthesia - this runs in our family; none of us do well with anesthesia. He also had extremely severe headaches for a week. The doctor told us that this is a rare side effect of having adenoids taken out. After the headaches went away he was fine. I'm still glad we had it done, because he was having terrible ear infections and sinus trouble all the time. As for weight, he's a string bean.
Both my kids have had this done. DD was 14 months old and DS was about 2. I can't tell you how much better my kids felt after the surgery. DD was running around and did not appear to be in pain at all. Gave her tylenol just in case. DS had a problem with staying awake right afterwards which was a concern to the doctor. We got home around 5 p.,m. and he was just fine. No weight gains either.
Perhaps you husband was able to taste food afterwards and couldn't stop eating?
Our son's went well. He had severe tonsilitis and the doctor recommended removing both his tonsils and his adenoids (even though they were affected) at the same time, saying in time the andenoids would have to go anyway. So you might want to ask about that considering your feelings about surgery. It may be well worth it to only have one surgery and be done with it.
Recovery lasted about 2 weeks. The first week was just down time and healing, the second week was scab watch for the tonsils. For some patients there may be bleeding when the scab falls off.
After that, smooth sailing.
I don't know if there are diet requirements for just adenoid removal. Since ours had his tonsils out he couldn't have milk products (causes phlegm which is problematic after surgery) and of course nothing sharp, acidic, or spicy.
Keeping them resting and quiet will be the biggest challenge. Before surgery round up movies, any special foods, and quiet games and activities so they won't run around too much.
As for the concern about weight gain...no problems here. Our kid is as skinny as they come and remains stick-like to this day. He had his surgery two summers ago.
My daughter had them removed at 18 months. She was constantly congested, had lingering nasal/upper respiratory infections, snored, etc. and the x-rays showed really large adenoids. The outpatient surgery was very short (maybe 20 minutes) and she did great. Was literally running around once we came home from the hospital (we made her rest as much as possible), had no noticeable pain and was 100% back to her normal self after a good nap. Best part was she didn't have another nasal infection for nearly a year and no more snoring! I've never heard of adenoid removal causing weight gain, but maybe ask your ENT if that's ever an issue. Good luck with your decision!
My youngest had them done with tubes just after he turned 4 and for him he was bouncing off the walls before we even left the hospital. No pain meds were needed and we even went ice skating after I took him out to lunch. You would've never know he just had surgery.
my son was 3 when he had his out, along with his tonsils. He had tubes 3 times before that, and recovery time was nothing really. He wanted to go out to eat that night and we did. He was sleepy later on, but no biggie. He started doing better in the ear dept after that, no other issues, or too many trips to the dr because of ear aches, etc. It was good for him, and he is 13 now, and skinny as a rail.
Our daughter had the same experience as Elaine S. Never heard of weight gain as a side effect.
Our daughter was mostly tired from the medication she was given.
ha! My 2.5 year old had them removed and tubes put in the same day - get home and he is RUNNING like nothing happened - honestly, kids bounce back quickly. I did my best to make it a movie/lazy day but he wanted very little of that - but LOVED that it was mashed potatoes and jell-o day!
I had my adenoids (and 8 teeth) removed when I was about 8 or 9 I think. I remembered it really sucking for about a week.. but that was mostly because of the painful missing gaps in my gums from the teeth removal and having a hard time eating. The actual adenoid removal wasn't that bad. I didn't experience weight gain, and I haven't ever head of that being a factor. Even so, it is largely a lifestyle factor that would help the weight come off if it is a cause. This article makes a lot of sense in that aspect, it is apparently fairly controversial:
http://children.webmd.com/news/20110201/tonsil-removal-ma...
My son suffered badly from sleep apnea so last year he had his unbelievably large tonsils and adenoids removed. The recovery was rough and it took 7 days before he was eating again. But I think that was because of the tonsils not the adenoids. Now he sleeps peacefully, is able to eat better, and his overall mood & attention span has benefited greatly from the surgery. He has not gained any extra weight and is in fact quite small for his age...I would not think that removal of adenoids=weight gain...but I have never looked into that claim. If your doc has a specific reason for wanting to remove the adenoids and you believe it might help your daughter's health I would go for it. Best wishes and blessings!
my son was 4 when his tonsils/adenoids were removed. Hard to tell what the recovery would have been with just adenoids.
He was silent for days....totally rare for him. Even after 2 weeks, he still preferred not talking! I was told (by other moms) to expect setbacks on Day 5 & 10....& that's pretty much how it went. He was lethargic & miserable on those days. We returned to daycare after Day 10.
