when to remove tonsils?

amother

Tue, Jun 29 2010, 12:36 pm

My DS has been getting strep contstantly. 6 times in the past 6 months. I have an appointment at the ENT in a few weeks, but I was just wondering, does anyone know based on experience, how many times does the child have to get strep in order for them to require the surgery, or what other criteria do they base it on?

c.c.cookie

Tue, Jun 29 2010, 12:49 pm

It used to be more than 4 cases of strep in a year, but it's not like that anymore. My son had strep pretty much straight for a year - he'd come off anti-biotics, and a week or two later he got it again. The doctors don't want to do surgery unless the tonsils are really big and causing sleep apnea. They'd rather give him anti-biotics long term (very small dose) for a few months and see how that goes. We did it for six months, and as soon as he came off it, he got strep again. The doctor still wanted to wait a year (with low dose of anti biotics) but I pushed for surgery, because the strep and the anti-biotics were both really affecting my son negatively. (It caused hyperactivity for some reason. I could always tell when he had strep before he complained or had fever because of the hyperactivity.)