Adenoid Hypertrophy

The nose is blocked. Not just a little — permanently. The child breathes through the mouth, snores at night, sleeps restlessly, wakes up exhausted. The voice sounds nasal, as if speaking through cotton wool. Infections come in series, middle ear inflammations accumulate, hearing becomes muffled. In the nasopharynx, hidden behind the nose, sits a tissue that swells and blocks the airway — the pharyngeal tonsil, commonly called "adenoids."

Medically, adenoid hypertrophy is an enlargement of the lymphatic tissue in the nasopharynx. It occurs particularly frequently in children between two and six years old — the immune system is still maturing, the anatomical conditions are narrow. Inflammation (adenoiditis) often accompanies it. The psychosomatic perspective asks a different question: What does it show when tissue swells precisely where air flows in? When the airway narrows from the inside?