Tonsil removal may cure ADHD | Autism PDD

I had mine removed at 10 yrs.  My breathing was terrible.  You could here me breathing across the room.  My mouth was open all the time.  I had a head xray and it showed I was breathing thru the space of a stirer straw.

My son has problems shutting his mouth too. He says he can't breath just thru his nose.  Interesting...I am going to look into this.

My ds had his tonsils and adenoids removed over 3 yrs ago and his hyperactivity is still as bad as ever.

I completely agree that when he's tired his hyperactivity goes thru the roof, and that's also when his most destructive behavior occurs.

Unfortunately, with autism there's usually more causing a lack of sleep than just obstructive sleep apnea. 

It's well worth talking to an ENT if there is snoring though, the less health issues our children have to be burdened with the better.  I have had parents that swear their child started talking soon after the surgery, where they weren't talking before. 

 

Wow how very intresting!! My baby just went for a sleep study last week. He already has had his adenoids removed and tubes in his ears. Now they are saying to remove his tonsils I was very worried and unsure now I am re-thinking. At 10 months he has never slept longer than 2 hours and snores and turns all thru the night. Also during the day he is VERY clingy and always on the go. His sleep is so bad he has the worst bags under his eyes. Everywhere we go people ask me how he got 2 black eyes! He also never shuts his mouth! He is a mouth breather so he is always drooling! Im ganna look more into this!

THANKS! TURTLE!!

I'm not surprised at the report.  It's quite possible that a great deal of the ADHD that's diagnosed in autistic children is more the result of the tonsil issue than additional neurological issues.  Certainly something that bears close examination.

Mr. B. is having surgery this Friday to have an adenotonsillectomy, primarily because the sleep study we had done for his sleep issues showed his tonsils to be a "3+" on a scale of 1-4.  Given we've managed to alleviate other behavioral issues by paying close attention to keeping tomatoes out of his diet (since testing showed him to be highly allergic, something we were unaware of until having testing done), it will be interesting to see if there are other behavioral changes due to his surgery other than (hopefully) his sleep patterns changing for the better.

If there are, then I'm certainly going to seriously consider having my ADHD child and my dyslexic daughter checked out, since they both have sleep issues.  They've snored loudly since birth, and have never been able to sleep through the night, but it has never been as profound as Mr. B.

I don't know what to think about this. But, it does make one wonder (if this is true) about the rise in ADHD diagnoses compared with the lessening of tonsils being taken out? They used to be taken out routinely - I'm probably in the minority in my generation that I still HAVE my tonsils!

Hmmmm....

I still have mine as well.

"His own grandmother called the 2-year-old a "monster." Friends told his family that T.J. - short for Terence Johnson - was destined to be "the next serial killer"

 There's nowt like planning a baby's entire life in such affirming and joyous ways, is there? Heh, thats incredible, never woulda beleived it, but it sounds like many cases of this have occured. I wonder how much study has been put into confirming eliminating certain foods or beverages from diets with those with AS/ASD/HFA ect can improve their behavior or symptoms.

I used to not believe in the diet eliminating milk, or other dairy products, but many swear by this, of course, id assume this is only the case for kids, i wonder how adults would do, i know i dont have the greatest diet, Lots of Dr Pepper, its summer and i stock up on ice cream, make sandwiches for work with lots of cheese. I may get curious 1 day and try going a week without any dairy (but i fear itll cause me to increase my dr pepper intake, which im starting to think hurts my ability to sleep a full night, or sleep instantly, as well as the increasing fear of the ill effects in the long term of sugar and CO2).

I was always taught to drink tons of milk by mom growing up, good for teeth, muscles and bones, but maby i could have done better when younger without it, tho my teeth would not be as nice, heh.

More and more i enjoy reading these new theories, i really hope they help alot of ppl, if proven true.

[QUOTE=Turtle]
The key to making that connection is how the child sleeps. Snoring, restlessness, apnea, and gasping for breath during the night are clearly linked to hyperactive daytime behavior in very young children. And enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoids - immune-related tissue masses in the back and upper throat - most often are the cause of what's known as "sleep-disordered breathing."

"What I look for is the child who comes in with typical ADHD symptoms - he's hyper, not listening, acting impulsively, hitting other kids - but who also has trouble sleeping," Parkinson said. "If the parents notice, and the child is congested and breathing through the mouth, that makes me wonder if the tonsils are the source of the whole problem."

[/QUOTE]

Very interresting!  Thanks for sharing.

I found this article :


Tonsil removal may cure ADHD behavior in kids
The Associated Press
Aug. 12, 2007 11:14 AM

TUCSON - Little T.J. was a monster. There's no other way to say it.

Extremely hyperactive, the toddler ran around in circles, destroying everything in his path. He choked the cat and dragged it by its tail. He bit the teacher and hit other kids. He got kicked out of day care and banned from friends' homes.

His own grandmother called the 2-year-old a "monster." Friends told his family that T.J. - short for Terence Johnson - was destined to be "the next serial killer."

"He was so out of control, I was at my wits' end," said his mother, Heather Norton. "It is hurtful to realize nobody likes your child. Even my family didn't want him to come to events or reunions. Everyone kept telling me he's got to get help."

That was then.

Today, as T.J. gets ready to turn 3, he is a changed boy. Lively, to be sure, but affectionate instead of mean and aggressive.

"It's a total turnaround - this is a different child," his mother said. "He's a normal, active toddler now. He responds to punishment for the first time. He gives us hugs. He says, I love you.' He's learning to share. Everybody notices the difference."

A frontal lobotomy? Electroshock therapy? Powerful drugs? No.

T.J. had his tonsils out.

As medical studies are beginning to confirm, the removal of a child's tonsils can, in some cases, significantly improve, even cure, severe hyperactivity often diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Now affecting more than 2 million U.S. children, ADHD most often is treated with controversial psychoactive drugs, sometimes taken for a lifetime.

But in a significant number of these children - as many as half of those with an ADHD diagnosis, in one study - simply removing the tonsils also has removed the diagnosis, by restoring normal behavior.

"Sometimes you get really great results, sometimes you see partial results in these children," said Dr. Damian Parkinson, a psychiatrist who has been working with T.J. at Pantano Behavioral Services. Parkinson was the first to suggest T.J.'s terrible behavior might be related to his tonsils.

The key to making that connection is how the child sleeps. Snoring, restlessness, apnea, and gasping for breath during the night are clearly linked to hyperactive daytime behavior in very young children. And enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoids - immune-related tissue masses in the back and upper throat - most often are the cause of what's known as "sleep-disordered breathing."

"What I look for is the child who comes in with typical ADHD symptoms - he's hyper, not listening, acting impulsively, hitting other kids - but who also has trouble sleeping," Parkinson said. "If the parents notice, and the child is congested and breathing through the mouth, that makes me wonder if the tonsils are the source of the whole problem."

That's pretty much the story of T.J.'s young life.

"He never slept through the night, since he was a baby," his mother said.

Always, T.J. snored - so loudly his older brother had to move out of his room - and had a chronically runny nose. But never in her wildest dreams did his mother think any of this was linked to T.J.'s behavior.

Unlike older children and adults, this lack of restful sleep - and resulting oxygen deprivation - does not produce daytime sleepiness and fatigue in very young kids. It tends to make them hyper.

"Chronic loss of sleep can drive kids crazy, and the less sleep they get, the more crazy they get," said Dr. Brice Kopas, T.J.'s pediatrician. "T.J. was impossible. He just could not sit still, for even a second or two."

But what has been less clear, until recently, is the direct effect of tonsil and adenoid removal on easing, even eliminating, full-fledged ADHD, in children who have sleep problems.

In one recent study, at the University of Michigan, 22 children with ADHD and sleep-disordered breathing had adenotonsillectomies. After one year, 11 no longer battled ADHD.

"These improvements are remarkable because hyperactivity and inattention generally are expected to be chronic features in affected school-age children," the researchers wrote in a report published last year in the journal Pediatrics.

As a result of this and other recent studies, "doctors conducting healthy-child checkups should always ask about snoring, poor sleep, behavioral and learning problems, and look for physical signs such as enlarged tonsils and adenoids," reads a summary of the issue published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June.

And if all those signs converge, surgery is really the only option, said Dr. Sanford Newmark, a Tucson pediatrician who practices integrative medicine, using both mainstream and alternative therapies.

"There really is no other way to deal with it. The tonsils and adenoids are what obstruct the upper airway when a child lies down to sleep, so you have to get them out if that is happening."

Missing this in young children can mean profound, even life-threatening effects - including heart and lung damage, and permanent cognitive deficits - if disrupted sleep persists for five years or longer.

"That's what clinched it for us. As soon as we heard that, we knew we wanted the surgery for T.J.," Norton said.

And so, the "little tyrant," as he was sometimes known, had his tonsils and adenoids out in April at University Medical Center. His surgeon, Dr. David Parry - Tucson's only pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist - had found them "grossly enlarged."

Tonsils and adenoids swell when they mount an immune response to fight germs.

"Once that is done, they should go back to normal size, but in some kids they don't," Parry said. "That may be the result of a chronic low-grade infection that goes undetected."

The positive effects showed up almost immediately, his mother said.

"Right away, he started sleeping through the night, for the first time in his life. No snoring, no gurgling, no sleeping all over the bed," she said.

"When his behavior changed, we just didn't believe it at first. We thought it had to be the pain medicine. But it's four months later now.

"He's a normal child."

Turtle39307.2315740741

Jacob had his tonsils and adnoids out at 5yo. That was one of our first interventions for behavior. He never had a sleep study either. His older sister had hers out 6 mo earlier. She had always snored and was a very "sleepy" child. Plus---her tonsils were a "4"--kissing. (they were touching each other)

I decided to look at the other kids' and Jacob had one of them midline(4) and the other was about 2-3. That with his behavior---they got taken out! After the surgery, they told me it was good they came out----as soon as they laid him back on the table, they completely blocked his airway. They turned out to be the same size also.

Never "changed" his behavior at all!

I hear they can shreank the glands now but ins. won't pay for that but will the surgery.

We were told Saline the nose 2 times a day!

Dairy isn't necessary vegs. have calcium also.

My husband has obstructive sleep apnea.  I do not believe EVERY claim made for the benefits of treatment, but I DO believe there are many huge ones.  Good sleep can certainly make a world of difference to ME -- so why not a two year old?my son since he was born suffers from his throat and he is seeing a specialist this year because he keeps getting throat infections and tonsils get swollen every 2 -3 months and high fevers. he might need them removed and by the way he is very hyper!This is a very interesting post. This is all brand new to me. I am going to do
some research on this one.
The medical world is just realizing how important the tonsils are.  They're a vital part of the immune system, without which a person may be more likely to get cancer, frequent viral infections, and other illnesses.  The only time they should be removed is in the case of serious, repeated infections, which can lead to scarring.  Almost everyone at some point or another has has an infection that affected their tonsils, but this is no reason to have them removed.  When the tonsils swell, it just shows that they're doing their job filtering out germs and helping to fight infection.

Well--I totally disagree with you on that one!

My 2 kids with tonsils out never had any infections. They just had big tonsils---like dh. My oldest actually has a really small throat. Her tonsils really didn't fit in there. She snored since 2y and was always tired. She never got good sleep.

I believe my kids have good enough immune systems to fight off virus' without their tonsils. I'd much rather have my kids able to "breath" at night and get good sleep!

We went to the Dr. yesterday and he did recommend that we remove his tonsils and adnoids.  I am waiting for a call back to schedule the surgery.  I am hoping to do it the week of Thanksgiving so he won't miss school.  He gets upset when he misses school.We have a doc who SWEARS that removal of sugar removes add/adhd - the child can still have natural sugars, such as fruits, but NO junk food - it works - really -  know people this has actually worked on!!!!!!!!!!
Copyright Autism-PDD.net