Tonsillar Hyperplasia in Children

When your child's tonsils become visibly larger, much changes at once. The child snores at night, breathes through an open mouth, sleeps restlessly. During the day they seem more tired, sometimes more irritable, sometimes quieter than usual. Eating takes longer, certain bites are avoided. The voice and its quality shift slightly — as though the air no longer moves as freely through the throat as before. Medically speaking, this is a hyperplasia of the palatine tonsils: the lymphatic tissue in the throat grows larger, often in combination with an enlargement of the adenoids behind it. In the first years of life, some increase in size is normal — the tonsils are part of the developing immune system. It becomes hyperplasia in the narrower sense when it restricts the airways, disturbs sleep, hinders swallowing, or accompanies recurrent infections.