Guidelines For Removing Tonsils

It's always tough to tell when a child's tonsils need to come out, but new guidelines can help you and your doctor decide.

In some cases the new guidelines say it's better to wait, but in other instances it might even help some behavior issues.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology, those are the ear, nose and throat doctors, just published new guidelines that aim to give doctors and parents more information about when a tonsillectomy is something to think about. According to them, most children who get throat infection after throat infection don't really need to have their tonsils removed. Instead they recommend careful monitoring and watchful waiting.

However, something that might be a little surprising is they do suggest that removing the tonsils could improve problems tied to poor sleep. Large tonsils can interfere with sleep because of snoring or even childhood sleep apnea. This poor sleep can cause a variety of issues including bed wetting, slow growth and hyperactivity. It can also be one cause behind poor performance in school. And removing tonsils in these cases can help improve those issues.

The goal behind these guidelines is to keep tonsils around if you can, but also to give everyone pretty good guidelines as to when they should come out.