Our ENT appt

[Anonymous]

I don’t remember if I told you lovely ladies that we were scheduled to see an ENT specialist with Ariella. The problem is Ariella keeps getting a stuffy nose and it gets to the point where she can’t breathe and breathes through her mouth. Anyway, the pediatrician suspected she might have narrow nasal passages. Well, we went to the ENT on Friday and he used the scope to look inside Ariella’s nose (my poor baby cried so much ) and he ruled out the narrowing of the passages but did say that she has enlarged adenoids. He suggested we use saline spray to see if that helps. I told him that we’ve been using saline DROPS and they are no help but he still suggested the spray. What is the difference? He wants to see us in 6 weeks to do the repeat of the exam with the scope. I’m not sure if I want to do it again. What is your experience with adenoids (if your LO had them, that is)?

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, the only thing I know is that when we went to the ENT for Sarah’s ears and decided to have tubes he said that his tube babies that are as young as Sarah wind up being his adenoid babies when they are 3 or 4 years old. Was everything OK with her ears? We haven’t had any luck with the saline stuff either. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I’m sorry that Ariella had to go through that. Poor sweetie.

Maybe the saline spray disperses more evenly (than the drops) and that’s why he thinks it will be more effective.

[Anonymous]

Ditto what Amy said, even though Taylor got her tubes, she still has gotten 2 ear infections afterwards, most likely due to her adenoids causing all the drainage. She is completely congested right now and nothing is draining out of her nose, only into her ears and throat causing more problems for her. We are keeping an eye on her tonsils since she has had 4 strep infections already and she is only 14 months old. Everytime she gets and infection her temperature spikes to 104 and we just can’t bring it down untils she gets a Rocephin injection. Anyways, with our first daughter Alexis at 22 months we had her tonsils, adenoid, and ear tubes placed all at once. The ENT said her tonsils were very enlarged and even if he just placed tubes most likely if we did not decide at that time to removal the adenoids she would still get infections! Her breathing has been so much better since and only has had 1 ear infection (fungal) post surgery and that was over 1 year ago, she no longer snores and she does not have the constant snorting noise when she breaths! You use to be able to hear her sleeping rooms away, but now it is so quiet, it took a long time for me to get adjusted to this! 9months is really young though, does the ENT want to remove them now or wait? I know a little boy who’s adenoids are so enlarged that his face is not able to expand the way it should, his face, nose especially is growing flat and wide because the ENT said his adenoids are growing so big that it is pulling his face in the opposite direction and not letting his face grow the way it should, but that is just and extreme case,by all means am I comparing that to Ariella’s! The little boy is less than a year old as well, and the Mom doesn’t want him put until for surgery just yet. But she is struggling with her decision due to it is causing growth problems. I hope Ariella gets better soon, we also have no luck with saline sprays as well, but Taylor does have a nebulizer from when she had Pneumonia so when she gets really bad, I just put saline in the neb and have her inhale that, it seems to work clear up some of that congestion.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that he’s concerned about her adenoids, but is probably worried that it’s too early to take them out, but instead of explaining that to you he just jumped to the “what to do instead” stage.

My doctors considered taking my tonsils and adenoids out several times when I was a child and I often wish that they had. I still have problems with them as an adult.

[Anonymous]

Sue and Amy, her ears are clear. The pediatrician told me that they’re fine and the ENT confirmed it. The ENT doesn’t want to do anything as of yet. She MAY grow out of it (DH and I had them as children as well. DH had them removed 3 times and I outgrew them). The only thing he told me is that babies that young usually do not have that problem (it’s closer to the age of 2 when they start having adenoids problem).

Christine, I know I felt so bad for Ariella and DH was terrible at holding her down (he can’t watch her get shots for G-d’s sake ). I tell ya, women are much stronger.

[Anonymous]

marianna, i think it would be a good idea to see a ped ENT rather than a regular ENT. if the enlarged adenoids are a real problem for her, the ped ENT might be willing to take them out sooner. our local ENT does not take tonsils and adenoids out until children are 2 yrs old and he doesn’t keep them overnight. when sylvia had her tonsils removed, the ped ENT told me that they were touching when she went to sleep. she sounded like she was struggling for air sometimes when she was asleep. because she wasn’t sleeping well, it was causing her to continue to be FTT. sylvia stayed in the hospital, on an IV, for 2 nights. the ped ENT also gave us her home phone number so we could call her if we had any problems after we went home. i thought we might have to take her into the ER for IV fluids, but she finally started taking enough in.

i think we would have had some real trouble if we had gone to the regular ENT.

[Anonymous]

Christine (kevieb), I THOUGHT he was a ped ENT. When I asked him if he was and he said “no”, I was very upset. I, too, want to see a ped ENT. I wonder if my insurance will pay for a specialist.

[Anonymous]

Alexis had her tonsil, adenoids removed, and tube placement with a Regular ENT and he told the nurse, if she was feeling better and drinking we could go home that day! Yeah right, my reflux, eating aversion child eat or drink after that surgery? What are you nuts, she never even did that very well prior to the surgery. Anyways, thank goodness her Peds MD is a good friend of mine and knows Alexis’ situation very well, she steped in and took over, Alexis was hospitalized for 3 days for IV hydration and IV pain meds. The ENT only RX oral medications, antiboitcs and pain meds! Anyways, needless to say, I was not happy! Well, don’t ask my why I took Taylor to him after my experience with Alexis, I was desperate since she was so so sick, he did put tubes in her ears, minor surgery. I discussed with him about her frequent strep and congestion, but he doesn’t want to do anything until she is 3 years old, he would not even look at her adenoids while she was under for her tube placement. So I took the advice of all the ladies on the forum especially with Christine’s experience with Sylvia and took her to see a Peds ENT. I was much happier, the first thing he said to me is, Yes, I have removed tonsils and adenoids in children less than 1 year old, but there has to be a very good reason such as sleep apnea vs. strep, but if her tonsils swell up really bad to the point where they are touching with her strep throat I have no problems removing them since they are causing breathing problems. He wants to see her the next them she has strep to evaluate her tonsils, especially since she is known to spike such high temperatures that do not go down with tylenol/motrin. It is definitely worth looking into, if you can get a second opinion from a Peds ENT.

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