Adenoids in children: symptoms and treatment, photos, reviews

A healthy body of any person tries to protect himself from the attacks of pathogenic microbes. The protective function is performed by a special tissue surrounding human organs. Its special congestion is found when the nasal cavity passes into the larynx and the oral cavity into the pharynx, respectively. This arrangement of tissue allows you to keep the body healthy. Symptoms and signs of adenoids in a child is the onset of inflammatory processes in lymphoid tissue. Doctors call the inflammation of the tonsils in the throat adenoiditis.

The structure of the pharyngeal tonsil

Signs of inflammation of the adenoids in children appear on the posterior surface of the nasopharynx, where the nasal cavity passes into the oral cavity.

At birth, tonsils in the baby are not formed. They are formed gradually. Over time, the pharyngeal tonsils can become inflamed, increase in size - then they are called adenoids. In a child at 3 years of age, the symptoms of this ailment may already appear. Signs of the formation of a protective system of the body, which prevents the entry of harmful bacteria into the internal environment of a person, are sometimes manifested in the process of inflammation. The maximum size of the tonsil in the throat reaches the age of four to seven years. Approximately in adolescence, adenoids decrease, and may completely disappear. In an adult, it is almost impossible to find the remains of protective tissue in place of the pharyngeal tonsil. Although you need to know that the disappearance of adenoids in adolescence is a possible, but not necessary process. In medical practice, there are cases when adenoids are also found in a forty-year-old patient.

Causes of inflammation

The doctor of the highest category, TV presenter and author of books on children's health, Evgeny Olegovich Komarovsky pays considerable attention to the topic of adenoids. Parents who are faced with such a problem should listen to the advice of an experienced doctor.

According to him, there may be several probable reasons provoking the development of adenoids in children.

• Processes during fetal development or trauma during delivery, contributing to the development of the disease. Any infectious disease that appeared in the first trimester of pregnancy easily leads to impaired development of internal organs, including the pharyngeal tonsil.
• Bad heredity on the part of the father or mother. If parents were tormented with adenoids, their own children are likely to encounter such a problem.
• The presence of respiratory viral infections in a child requiring ongoing treatment.
• Tendency to allergic manifestations.
• Congenital and acquired immune deficiency in a child.
• Improper nutrition, excess sweet in the diet.
• Violation of the normal properties of air exchange. In residential premises, as a rule, it is very warm, dry and dusty, there are many impurities of harmful substances, an overabundance of hazardous household chemicals.
• Bad environmental conditions.

Signs of adenoid development

Komarovsky considers the symptoms of adenoids in children primarily as a violation of breathing and hearing. The nasal voice, which is formed due to the growth and gradual closure of the lumen of the nasopharynx, is also a symptom (sign) of adenoids in a child. In the photo below, you can see what the inflamed pharyngeal tonsil looks like.

In children, the symptoms do not appear as a simultaneous reaction. This is a long process. It proceeds gradually, has an adverse effect on the whole body, over time, symptoms of adenoid inflammation appear.

Treatment for children should be prescribed by a doctor. Even if the parent believes that he is well acquainted with this topic, a visit to the doctor can not be avoided. Knowledge of the symptoms of adenoiditis is necessary only in order to timely understand that the child needs medical attention. When should I act immediately? Here is a list of the most common symptoms.

• Lack of oxygen during breathing both during the day and during night sleep. In the afternoon, the child quickly begins to feel weak, physical and mental fatigue, becomes irritable. The reason for what is happening is adenoids in a child.
• Symptoms in the nose make the baby breathe through the mouth.
• Impaired breathing and hearing.
• Inflammation in the nose and nasopharynx due to adenoids in the child.
• Symptoms in the nose cause a change in the timbre of the voice. He is changing, becoming nasal.
• A change in facial expression, its increase in length, malocclusion are symptoms of adenoids in children.

Adenoiditis develops gradually, but it can be detected even at the first stages of development. According to Dr. E. O. Komarovsky, symptoms of adenoids in children may indicate that the disease was not diagnosed at an early stage. To such signs, the doctor considers the complete impossibility of nasal breathing, a noticeable change in the shape of the face. This suggests that parents did not respond to signs of an onset illness on time.

Diagnosis of the disease

There are several basic methods for diagnosing adenoids in children. Symptoms and treatment of pharyngeal tonsil enlargement have long been known in the medical community. Initially, listening to breathing helps diagnose tonsil enlargement. To more objective methods include:

• A finger examination, in which the ENT by touch evaluates the change in the nasopharynx and the degree of enlargement of the tonsil.
• Inspection method using a special small mirror on a long stick. This is the most unpleasant and painful method, causing the urge to nausea or vomiting.
• Endoscopic method. An endoscope is used to examine the nasopharyngeal cavity, which enlarges and transfers the image to the monitor screen. The method allows you to quickly diagnose inflammation of adenoids in children.

Symptoms of a developing ailment require immediate medical attention. The amount of time required in the future for the recovery of a small person depends on the speed of parents' response to the illness of the child.

Degrees of adenoids in children

Symptoms of tonsil disease are different. They have several stages of manifestation. Depending on the enlargement of the tonsils, several degrees of development of adenoids in children are distinguished.

Prevention

It is important to pay attention to all stages of getting rid of the disease, as Dr. Komarovsky writes: treatment of adenoids in children; symptoms and their elimination; prevention of the disease as a whole. It is necessary to organize a normal healthy lifestyle that contributes to the development and functioning of the immune system of young people.

Prevention to prevent inflammation of the pharyngeal tonsil is reduced to the basic principles:

• Increasing the body's immunity (hardening with cold water, rubbing, increased pastime in the fresh air, active sports).
• The intake of multivitamins in the winter season, fresh vegetables and fruits in the summer and in the off-season.
• Medication to avoid the development of persistent forms of the disease. Chronic inflammatory processes in the airways are the cause of the appearance of adenoids in a child.

Methods of dealing with adenoiditis

In the modern world with developed medicine, treatment is fast and almost painless. Symptoms of adenoids in a child have long been studied, methods of treating the disease are known and are constantly being improved.

Doctors use two main ways to combat the disease.

• Painless medication for the treatment of adenoids in children. Symptoms can quickly be eliminated, which parents often report in reviews.
• The second method involves surgical intervention. Doctors perform operations and remove adenoids in children. Symptoms, according to parents, cease to bother the kids soon after the procedure.

Medication method

The conservative method considers taking medication. To decide on the choice of drugs, evaluate:

• The degree of enlargement of the tonsils.
• Lack of redness and pain, talking about a chronic disease.
• The absence of disorders of the lymphatic tissue that fights the infection.

With the right choice of medicines and compliance with all the requirements of a doctor, the size of the tonsils can quickly decrease markedly. There is no need for surgical removal.

Medicines used to treat adenoids include:

• Allergy medications that reduce inflammatory reactions. Their mechanism of action is to reduce the formation of active substances that provoke allergic reactions and inflammatory processes in the nasopharynx. Anti-allergy drugs reduce swelling, pain, remove the manifestations of the common cold.
• Antiseptic agents.
• Multivitamins and immunostimulants.
• Physiotherapeutic procedures (cleansing the nasal cavity with solutions and rinsing with a variety of drugs with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects). They are carried out along with treatment with general and local medicines.

Conservative methods most often help. The frequency of positive outcomes is directly related to the degree of proliferation of adenoids. The smaller the pharyngeal tonsil, the easier it is to get the effect without surgery.

Reviews of parents who resorted to the treatment of adenoiditis in children with a medication vary. If treatment was started at the first stage of inflammation, then, as a rule, the responses are positive, since the effect was achieved, consisting in reducing inflammation of the tonsils. If the treatment turned out to be late, then, as a rule, parents and doctors did not observe a significant effect from taking medications and from physiotherapeutic procedures and resorted to the surgical method of removing adenoids.

Surgical method

The use of the surgical method is considered reasonable and necessary in some cases.

• Conservative treatment does not bring the expected positive results. Adenoids of the first, sometimes second degree, it is customary to start treating with the help of special drugs designed to reduce swelling of the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx, which have an antibacterial effect, fighting inflammatory processes. They resort to surgical intervention if during the period of two weeks (maximum month) there is no favorable dynamics from the use of drugs, the symptoms of adenoids in children intensify. See photos of adenoids below.

• There is an overgrowth of adenoids corresponding to the second or third stage of the disease. The last and penultimate stages are characterized by difficulty in nasal breathing so much that the child is constantly experiencing a lack of oxygen, his metabolic processes and heart function are disturbed. Adenoids can be the source of the emergence and reproduction of other infectious microorganisms. Tonsils of increased size can completely cover the lumen of the nasal sinuses, which leads to respiratory failure by the nose. Then air does not enter the body through the nose, but through the oral cavity. Excellent conditions are created for the occurrence of infectious diseases.
• Hearing impairment occurs. The growth of tonsils can negatively affect the organs of hearing, as the lumen of the nasal sinuses narrows, adenoids do not allow air to flow normally into the auditory tube. With inadequate ventilation of the nasopharynx, hearing impairment occurs, unfavorable conditions are created for the development of infectious processes in the ear cavity.
• There is a respiratory arrest at night. This happens due to the retraction of the tongue during sleep in a child. When breathing through the oral cavity, the lower jaw drops low, and the tongue provides obstruction of the larynx.
• Detection of adenoids in adults. At present, it is known that adults, like children, can have adenoids, but this can be understood in view of the different structure of the nasopharynx of an adult only using an endoscope. If adenoids have been diagnosed in an aged patient, then removal surgery is necessary. The use of a method of treatment with medications in this case is extremely rarely gives favorable results.

The operation to remove adenoids is performed in a hospital with the following steps:

1. Before the operation, an examination is performed to prevent side effects. The oral cavity is examined using an endoscope to determine the degree of damage and the volume of surgical intervention. General studies in laboratory conditions of urine and blood are also prescribed.
2. After that, they begin to perform an operation performed under local anesthesia or general anesthesia of short-term action, in which the child falls into sleep for a short period of time. The operation is performed with a device called an adenotome. Removing adenoids is a simple operation. The child is released home after a couple of hours.
3. The patient is prescribed a home regimen for several days with limited physical activity.

Contraindications for adenotomy are:

• Diseases of the circulatory system (hemophilia, leukemia).
• Disorders of the cardiac system.
• Thymus enlargement.
• Infectious and inflammatory diseases (otitis media, bronchitis, lung diseases). Thirty to forty-five days after the removal of inflammation, adenoids are removed.

The simple operation is not one hundred percent evidence of its safety. Adenotomy is not an emergency surgery. Its essence is the partial removal of the enlarged pharyngeal tonsil. There is always a chance of recurrence of symptoms of adenoids in children.

In Russia, adenoids are usually operated on under local anesthesia, although removal can also occur under general anesthesia. Multidisciplinary clinics use different types of anesthesia for surgical interventions, depending on each specific case. According to parents, under general anesthesia, the child does not experience fear and horror, but doctors remind that there are disadvantages to anesthesia: after it, pain in the head and muscles, vomiting can persist.

Adenotomy can be performed without anesthesia. It is possible. Adenoids have virtually no pain receptor endings. Anesthesia, as a rule, is necessary for a clear fixation of the child's head. When choosing a drug, the age of a small patient, the presence of other diseases of blood vessels, the heart or nervous system, and the size of the tonsils are taken into account.

Reviews of the parents of children who have gone through the removal of adenoids are reduced to stating the facts of a noticeable improvement in health: a decrease in the number or absence of infectious diseases after surgery, an improvement in nasal breathing day and night, and the disappearance of a nasal voice. Most parents advise you not to postpone the decision to surgically remove adenoids if there is evidence for this.

ethnoscience

In addition to the medicinal and surgical method, folk healers can also be used in the treatment of adenoids in children. Excellent and quick results from the use of folk remedies are visible when adenoids are small. Medicinal plants can help:

• reduce swelling of the nasal mucosa,
• remove the pronounced severity of the inflammation process,
• facilitate natural breathing through the nose.

For the treatment of adenoids, the following traditional medicine is used:

• Tincture of anise herb.
• Beetroot juice.
• Collection of oak bark, St. John's wort grass and mint leaves.
• Aloe juice.
• Thuja oil.

It is worth noting that the use of folk remedies may not be useful when it comes to large adenoids that block almost completely the passage of the sinuses. The only possible treatment tactic in this case is the medical removal of adenoids in children. In this case, alternative methods cannot serve as the basis for the correct treatment of adenoiditis. Remember, there are medicinal plants that, when interacting with medications prescribed by your doctor, can cause various adverse reactions in the body. .

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It is noteworthy that many doctors also speak well of folk remedies and apply some of them in their practice. But at the same time, doctors are reminded of the dangers of self-medication and urged not to take such funds as a complete alternative to traditional medicine.