ENT Conditions In Children

There is technically no recommended age for a child to undergo surgery for snoring! What is most important is to have the child properly examined to find out why he is snoring, assess how severe the snoring is and finally, how badly it is affecting the child. The concern is that your 5 year old may be suffering from a condition called paediatric obstructive sleep apnea due to his enlarged adenoids and tonsil tissue. This means he may not be breathing adequately at night while asleep so that there may be abnormally low dips in his oxygen saturation levels.

thanks for the D2D. It is not always easy to tell the difference between a common cold and sinusitis.

thanks for the D2D. Yes, there are. The most important first step is not to dig your child’s ears with anything, including cotton buds, as this may accidentally injure the delicate skin inside or puncture the eardrum, which could lead to a permanent hearing loss. The earwax inside your child’s ears contains natural oils to keep the skin moisturized and healthy. Young children are at risk of suffering ear, nose and throat infections as their immune system is still not fully developed as an adult’s.

Thanks for the D2D. Swimming to prevent swimmer’s ear! Swimmer’s ear occurs when water enters the ear canal and irritates the delicate ear skin, giving rise to an ear infection (otitis externa). This can be quite painful and uncomfortable as the ear may feel blocked. We usually treat swimmer’s ear by cleaning the ear out carefully and applying some antibacterial ointment inside or prescribe some eardrops. From my patients’ own feedback, they have found wearing customized swim earplugs very useful in preventing swimmer’s ear (see picture).

thanks for the D2D. Whether your child is at risk of permanent loss of hearing with recurrent ear infections, really depends on what part of his ear keeps on becoming infected. If it is the outer ear canal which becomes infected, then any swelling of the skin will temporarily block his ear and lead to hearing loss but this usually returns once the outer ear infection resolves. However, if it is the middle ear that keeps on getting infected, basically eardrum-related infections, then there is a (small) risk that this might lead to a permanent hearing loss in the future.

When you say your son was diagnosed with a middle ear infection, this usually means that he had an infection of his eardrum with possibly some infected fluid trapped behind. If a short course of antibiotics doesn’t help, then the usual treatment is to have a tiny ventilation tube called a “grommet”, inserted into the eardrum to improve the ventilation of the middle ear. In young kids, this is done as a short and very safe day case procedure asleep under general anaesthetic.

Hi Emma, Thanks for the D2D. It may not always be easy to tell if your child might be suffering from an ear infection, especially if they aren’t able to speak properly yet. But the parents of my kiddie patients with ear infections have told me that they were worried about their child tugging repeatedly at his or her own ears, or trying to stick their fingers into their ears, so that was why they brought their child to see me for a thorough checkup. Occasionally, kids with ear infections may be in pain or run a fever. They may also be more grumpy or cranky than usual.

Thanks for the D2D. Snoring in children is quite common but in about 10% of children who snore, this may be a sign of underlying airway obstruction leading to problems with sleep-related breathing or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA in children is mostly caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids but suffering from a blocked nose due to allergy problems may worsen the breathing when asleep.

From your photo, that white lump on your left tonsil looks like a mucous cyst (collection of trapped secretions from your tonsil glands). It may also be a tonsil stone. Both these conditions are commonly seen in people who suffer recurrent episodes of tonsil infections, such as yourself. The fact that you have suffered from nasty tonsil infections for so many years puzzles me as to why you have chosen to continue to do so, when there is a relatively straightforward solution: remove those tonsils as they are the source of your infections!

It is quite common to notice your toddler covering his or her ears and it is usually nothing to worry much about. The top reason for little kids to do this is because they feel overly stimulated by too much sound or loud noises. Pretty much what we would do too as adults if we heard irritating or loud sounds around us. So it is a sort of protective reflex. The next most common reason is that they may feel scared and this may represent an emotional reaction to what is going on around them.