What are polyps, how do we treat them and when they can be dangerous. Doctor: “Don't treat your kids based on internet advice”

Polyps are actually called adenoid growths and are formations of lymphatic (defense) tissue located behind the nose. This tissue becomes inflamed whenever the child has a cold, being, like the tonsils, a first defense gate against microbes.

“Many parents are referred to the ENT specialist to find out whether or not their little one has 'polyps'. These are actually called adenoid vegetations and are made up of lymphatic (defense) tissue located behind the nose. This tissue becomes inflamed whenever the child has a cold, being, like the tonsils, a first defense gate against microbes”says Dr. Ioana Delia Horhat, primary ENT doctor in Timișoara.

Therefore, the doctor claims, the more often the child catches a cold, the more there is a possibility of these “adenoid vegetations to increase” and by their enlargement to produce nasal obstruction, viz “impossibility to breathe through the nose, as well as abundant mucous or muco-purulent secretions, snoring, oral breathing congestive or serous otitis media.”

The complications they can cause

According to the doctor, usually, the adenoid growths regress/involute with the growth of the child, until at 15-17 years it is as if they were not there.

“Particularly, there are so-called people who show a predisposition towards chronic inflammation of the adenoid vegetations, of the tonsils. These children develop chronic adenoiditis, i.e. the permanent inflammation of the adenoid vegetations (not only in the episode of acute illness), which over time, through the nasal obstruction they produce and, implicitly, the resulting hypoxia, creates problems in the child's psychosomatic development. The child develops rickets, malformation of the chest in the hull, malformation of the facies: (maxillary prognathism, gaping mouth, circled eyes, sunken in the orbit, ogival palatine vault, viciously implanted teeth). Also, the little patient shows attention deficit and delay in intellectual development”wrote Dr. Ioana Delia Horhat, primary ENT physician, on Facebook.

What do we do with a child who has frequent colds?

First of all, the doctor claims, it is not good to abuse antibiotics.

“I often hear parents telling me . Then a lot of attention must be paid to the hygiene of the nose (teach the child to blow his nose, one nostril at a time, and use the vacuum cleaner only when it is not possible otherwise), as well as the environment in which we keep the child (leave the house ventilated! dry the laundry in the balcony, not in the house; give the child a shower, not a bath and the most important: take my child to the kindergarten/nursery; keep him at home until he is better, meaning he is no longer feverish, no longer has nasal secretions, it is possible rest, don't cough)”claims Dr. Ioana Delia Horhat.