child post tonsillectomy recovery age 6

I am a 14 year old girl and had my tonsills out yesterday July 11th.  Aparantly I am doing surprisingly well.  All I take is tylenol as I want it, which is barely take.  I have only taken it 4 times throughout all of yesterday and today.  I can sleep through the entire night. The only thing that driving me crazy is how my tounge hurts.  The best thing for me is to have an ice pack around my neck and have it cold. It works wonders! (:  Also for everyone have a tonsillectomy soon get a humidifier and keep it by you. It keeps your throat moist so you don't wake up crying.  The most frustrathing part of it all is how I can barely talk so when I need something my family either can't understand me or thinking I'm whining. Basicly I am eating  anything that I want. I had some spaghetti today, bologna, and a chicken wing.  My advice is just to stay positive about it. If it hurts to swallow then find something that makes you happy, look at it and just look at it to distract yourself from the pain.  Oh and, the day of surgery, minimally get up. Everytime yesterday I even stood up I would throw up.  Good luck to everyone about to get a tonsillectomy or any type of ENT surgery!

I am an 11 yr. old girl and i got my tonsils and adenoids .

Day 1: I woke up and felt bad, they had a tube in my left hand pumping fluids into me and I ate a popsicle and drank a small amount of water

Day 2: I woke up and I tried to drink some water but I had a terrible taste in my mouth which stopped me from drinking and It was hard to take my medicine because swallowing is hard

Day 3: I tried some ice cream but it left a filmy taste in my mouth that I could not get rid of so I tried sherbert but the spoon was to big and it hurt to open my mouth

My advice: don't try to brush your teeth and even if you do don't use tooth paste. Do not drink or eat any dairy products it will leav a film that takes a while to get rid of. Do not use big portions because you will be stuck with a whole lot of left overs. Keep water available in the freezer or leave ice in a cup out to melt but just find a way to get super cold water.

Thank you for everyone who has posted here.My son is scheduled for removal of tonsils and adenoids. I wasnt sure how it will be. All  of your posts helps me. I will let you all know IF I decide to go ahead with his surgery.

My daughter had her tonsils removed on Friday-9th-2012- She woke up from the surgery, screaming..crying so hard she couldn't breath. Hyperventilating where they had to actually give her meds to calm down...after a few hours and me holding her (shes 9) like a baby in my arms she was much better to go home. Recovery was easy for the first few days..But then horror came...every night shes in massive pain.. so we are doing the Motrin every 4 hours as told, and 2 hours after that we are giving her the lortab. Shes Not eating..drinking alot ..But i don't think enough. Shes having a hard time with pain. Its more worse now then it was after. The massive ear pain has started..and the breath..Omg..IT really makes me sick to even have to be near it. I'm worried shes loosing to much weight..In the beginning shes had tonsil problems for months before they decided to do anything about it, its been so bad that she lost 5 pounds in a week because it was so infected. well now shes lost about 6 pounds since Friday..shes eating alot of pop sickles and stuff like that, we have tryd soups, mashed potatoes, eggs, Everything and it just plain hurts her. Im really lost on what to do for her at this point. We are waiting for a call back from the Dr so maybe he can tell me what we can do. Im also thinking  shes got an ear infection because shes got drainage. I feel really bad about this happening to her..shes in so much pain and depressed because she wants to eat But cant :( I hope she feels better soon because this is the hardest thing any mother has to go through 

Oh parents all I have to say is REALLY make sure that your child NEEDS this procedure. It is a very sad and painful recovery. And not to mention all of the complications that can come with it. Just please be informed, Thank You

I finally decided not to have this procedure for my son. He was scheduled to have this on Apr05/2012. But after seeing all the posts and talking to his pediatrician I decided against it and wait until he is 8-10yrs old when the Andenoids and Tonsils start to shrink. He has been much better in the last few weeks as the weather is getting little warmer.Hoping for the best.

my little girl aged 5 having them out 2moz this was helpfull thank you x

i am going threw the same thing now HELP

Thank you so much. My 4 year old daughter is having the procedure in 2 hours and my husband and I are nervous wrecks. But after reading all of these posts it calms us down a bit, and now we know what to be prepared for!! So glad I stumbled upon this website. I will post how she is doing later :)

My 4 year old son had his tonsils & adenoids taken out 6 days ago.  The doctor said that he had HUGE tonsils and they needed to be taken out because of sleep apnea.  Surgery went well and although he work up a little cranky, after sleeping he woke up in a decent mood.  We went home a few hours later and the rest of the day went well.  He was receiving tylenol with codeine every 4 hours to control the pain.  I did wake him up at night to give him his medicine, but it was extremely difficult.  For him to take on tsp of medicine, it took me about 30 minutes to get him to take it.  This continued for 3 nights...and frankly, I am exhausted.  During the day, he has been acting alright.  Trying his best to eat a little soup, popsicles, jello and mac and cheese.  He understand that he needs to take little bites, but it is difficult.  He is still not sleeping well.  He was waking up every 2 hours, often times with night terrors, so switched him to just tylenol as the Doctor felt this may have been a reaction to the codeine.  Last night was his first night/day with just tylenol and he only woke up once with a night terror, but did wake up two other times with pain in this throat and ears.  An ice pack and tylenol was sufficient to take care of this.  He is still in pain during the day and I am still giving him tylenol every 4 - 6 hours depending on how he is acting during the day.  He is very hungry, but is afraid to eat, as it usually hurts.  He is still having popsicles and soup, but is wanting more substantial food.  I am really hoping he turns around the next day or two.  He has been such a trouper, but it pains me to see him this way and so exhausted.  

For over a year my 5yr old has been having problems with her sinus and reaccuring high fevers (toping out at 104.6 multiple times) and flu like symptoms. After seeing a specialist for the last 4months,and antibiotics after antibiotics, the ENT decided that it was her adnoids and that they needed to be removed and along with it her tonsils. A week beffore surgery she was running high temps of 103-104.6 and vomiting so they gave her a 5day antibiotic that would continue to work for 5days after she stopped taking it (which was two days before surgery) Surgery went well, drs and nurses said she was the best theyd ever had. She was calm, awake and having full conversations and drinking juice. She even walked out of the hospital (she didnt want to be carried or wheeled). Day 2 spiked a fever of 104.6 again. She didnt want to eat anything and hard to get her to take more than a drink of anything even on the tylenol w/codine. They put her on another antibiotic (now she had one before surgery, and an iv antibiotic durring surgery so this is the 3rd one in less than 10days) and she seemed better, eating a little more and drinking. Now this morning, day 6, she wakes up screaming in pain about her throat (which this is the first time shes done more than say "mommy my throat hurts)..he head doesnt feel hot or anything. I calm her down and give her a dose of the tylenol with codine. Not even a hr later she throws up all over the place and is burning up. When i check her temp...103..she is complaining about her tummy hurting and just looks miserable. After calling the dr and by her directions..I gave her another dose of tylenol (which actually equals the total dose that the dr prescribed but i had only been giving her 1/2 because the pharmisist reccommended it). Her fever broke and now shes just sweating alot..at this point I am not sure if she had this mornings episode of fever and vomit because she may be getting dehidrated or if there is something else not right with the surgery, or healing, or the problem is something completely different. Ive heard alot of pain in the throat and ears but not so much or at all with tummy aches, vomiting and high fevers. In addition she has lost 5lbs in the last 5 days. Today we are going to take her to the ER and have a full work up done to make sure there isnt something more serious going on. I knew she would be sore and home for a week but never imagined there would be this many problems with having the surgery.

My daughter did the exact same thing. She was put on many many diffrent kinds of antibiotics, Also, she did vomit etc the same to and lost a total of 25 ponds within 2 weeks cause of it. They can give you pils for vomiting. They should have sent u some with some but some docs dont think about it. Hope she gets better

My 5 year-old daughter and 7 year-old son had their tonsils and addenoids removed 4 days ago.  My son did great on the day of surgery and on the 2nd day.  My daughter struggled with nausea on those two days so therefore, she did not fare well.  Since then, the symptoms of each have completely switched.  We were rotating Loratab/Motin every 3 hours and even waking them in the night.  I cannot explain to you the amount of aguing we've had over the medication.  So, today we tried giving the Loratab and Motrin together every 6 hours so we don't have to fight the meds.  We've had such an awesome day (Day 4 post op).  My advice to parents:  Keep the pain under control -- use the meds, even if they aren't in pain.  Wake them in the middle of the night to give a dose of pain meds and encourage them to drink.  Mornings were the worst for us!  Let them eat whatever they want, whenever they want, whereever they want!  One thing I've learned is that this is emotionally draining for mom -- they cry, I cry.  They won't take the meds, I beg, beg, beg until I lose it and yell.  Then I cry due to the guilt!  Moms -- be ready!  Watching your child while they are in pain and not being able to help them or force them to do anything is a slow form of torture!  Take advantage of the good hours -- play games, send them outside, stock up on movies!

My 6 year old son is 5 days post tonsillectomy today.  If I had known then how hard the recovery was going to be I don't think I would have let them do the surgery.  Day 1 the surgery went well.  He woke up fine, and was home within 5 hours.  Stayed on his hydrocodone and the pain was somewhat managed with it.  Day 2, ear ache started, hydrocodone only worked about 4 hours. . . (we could only give it every 6) Started him on motrin to help cut the pain.  It helped a little and we made it through.  Only eating ice cream. . . but drinking lots of water as per doctor orders.  Day 3, worse pain, but we made it through. (we wake him up at night to give the pain meds, but still he has to get up to take a hot shower, which is his favorite form of pain relief).  This is day 5 and it's 4 am.  He's in the shower talking/crying to his Dad.  So much pain.  It's a Sunday so I can't call anyone but I wonder if he needs some antibiotics.   But my big take home is if I had only known, how hard recovery was, we would have never done this.  I'm so anxious for that magic day when he no longer hurts!  I had a big trip planned on Wednesday and I have already canceled it.  That will only be day 7 and there is NO way I'm leaving him as I know he'll be painful still.  Sigh.  I'm very regretful. 

Hi Amy - and others - thanks for the posts! Amy - IT WILL GET BETTER! Just remain calm and positive. Your son will feed off of your energy and will begin to feel better.