(EN) How to know if you have vegetations.

If your child breathes with his mouth open, snores when he falls asleep and has a lot of mucus even if he is not constipated, take him to the pediatrician. It is very likely that I have vegetations.

Vegetations are tissues similar to tonsils, located behind the palate, with which we are born. Its mission is to watch over, to be a kind of guardian that protects our nose, the paranasal sinuses (they are the cavities of the bones that surround the nasal passages), the ears and the throat from infections. When they do not fulfill their mission well and an infection arises in one of these areas, the vegetations also become infected (by viruses and harmful bacteria, they grow a lot and, instead of protecting us, they infect us more.

Therefore, when the child does not improve with treatment, it is advisable to operate as soon as possible. The age at which they tend to suffer most frequently is between the first and third years.

Characteristic symptoms

When the vegetations become infected, they make it difficult for air to pass through the nose and make the child breathe poorly throughout the day and, especially, at night. To get the oxygen he needs, the child ends up breathing with his mouth open, saliva falling (after a while, it is not surprising that his lower lip and chin are irritated.

In addition, he has a lot of snot, he snores when he falls asleep and the difficulty in taking in the air gives him nightmares that make him wake up very nervous and prevent him from resting well. He also catches a cold, suffers from his ears frequently and swallows badly and with pain, so he refuses food (the worst thing about this symptom is that it can lead to delays in his development).

Treat or prevent?

Due to the possible consequences and how uncomfortable they are, it is not advisable to leave the treatment for later for fear of giving medication to such a small child or for fear of the operating room (if necessary). Before, it was thought that you had to wait for the child to see you for at least three years to start treating this alteration, but today it is known that this is a mistake.

If the child does not improve with the medication, the ear specialist should intervene.

Currently, this operation is carried out in the highest safety conditions, it is very short and the child does not take more than a day to recover.

It consists of cutting the vegetation by cutting it at its base, leaving it at the root and it is normal for it to reproduce. Even so, to avoid the discomfort that they cause to the little one and that can alter his growth rate, it is advisable to remove them as soon as possible.

With vegetations it is easier to get sinusitis.

Sinusitis is a disease characterized by inflammation of the mucous membranes that line the cavities of the bones of the face. It is produced as follows:

1) These cavities or sinuses, under normal conditions, are filled with air. However, when a child's vegetations fail to do their job of protecting the nasal passages from infection, these bony cavities fill with secretions, leading to an infection called sinusitis. Its most typical manifestations are usually: intense headache, abundant mucus, heaviness of the face, even, sometimes fever can occur.

Recovering from a vegetation operation does not usually fill more life