One of the things we have been struggling with is our son’s enlarged tonsils.  Every time we go for our clinic evaluation (every 6 mos.) the ENT takes a look and comments on our son’s tonsils. Our son’s tonsils are pretty big and are not in the same place as a typical child’s would be due to the cleft palate and repair. It has been discussed that we should take the tonsils out and that they have a way to take some of the tissue and use it to repair the back of his palate possibly giving him better air flow and assistance with his speech.

We have opted out for the time being.  He doesn’t get a lot of colds or throat infections since we have him (and all of us) on probiotics and a fairly healthy diet. I began researching and trying to find out if any other parents, cleft affected or otherwise, were struggling with the same thing. A dear friend of mine suggested I look into dairy possibly being the culprit. Dairy? Could enlarged tonsils be due to a dairy allergy?

Well I decided to research dairy and tonsils and to my surprise I found a great deal of information on the subject! Did you know that your tonsils and adenoids are designed by nature to act as filters for bacteria, viruses and toxins? They’re also sensitive indicators for your body’s health.

A food allergy may cause the tonsils to become swollen, especially if the food is milk or wheat. Even ingesting a small amount of these foods can cause your tonsils to become enlarged and you start to suffer from them.

Milk allergy is very common in children. If the child’s body doesn’t produce the enzyme lactase to completely digest the milk, the sugar lactose from this milk can cause gastric irritation and mucus production – which leads to tonsillitis.

After reading a great deal of information I decided that we were going to try to eliminate dairy from our son’s diet and see if that would have any kind of affect on his tonsils or health in general. This came at such a high price, you have no idea! My son was mad. He LOVES his chocolate milk, cheese pizza and ice cream…I  mean who doesn’t, right?  I had to explain to him that we were simply going to try it out and see if his tonsils got smaller and maybe his congestion from allergies would clear up. Reluctantly he agreed to this dietary change.

I hit up Sprouts and purchased Almond Milk, Coconut Milk and Goat’s Milk. I made sure to purchase the unsweetened versions that had vanilla only as an added ingredient. The Almond Milk didn’t go over so well for him and the Goat’s Milk was a definite NO. He did however, like the Vanilla Coconut Milk. I also found some chocolate coconut milks for kids that I could put in his lunch and he definitely liked those telling us that it tasted like “pudding” and he felt like it was a real treat. So for the next 3 weeks he remained off of dairy and some interesting things happened.

First, he was sleeping through the night. He has always been a restless sleeper and would get up needing water and just needing help getting back to sleep. Could it be that dairy was interrupting his sleep? More importantly, mine? Not entirely sure, regardless a fabulous side effect. We also experienced a decrease in his head sweating. He would wake up in the middle of the night with his entire head wet from sweat, regardless of the temperature in the house. After about a week we noticed that he was not waking with a wet head and soaked pillowcase. Weird, right?

After the 2 week mark he was increasing his water intake and seemed to not miss his chocolate milk after school. He was still drinking the Coconut Milk but not consuming nearly as much as he used to with regular milk. His stuffy nose seemed to be clearing up and the circles under his eyes (our pediatrician told us they were from severe head congestion due to allergies) were fading.

At this point I’m starting to feel like a bad mom for not having thought of milk as being the culprit for some of his ailments. At least I’m finally figuring some things out now…so yeah for me!

We hit the end of the 3 week mark and while out to breakfast with my parents my son decides he wants to celebrate by ordering a chocolate milk with his pancakes. I decide to let him and see what happens. At the end of breakfast he starts complaining that his stomach hurts and he wants to go home. We finish up and head home. He keeps telling me his stomach doesn’t feel good and he just wants to lay down. Hmmm…I’m thinking it’s the freakin’ milk!

I head to the store and purchase some chewable lactaid pills for him and have him take one when I get home with them. He starts to feel better but still says his stomach is hurting. We don’t let him have any more dairy the remainder of the day and his stomach feels better after awhile. After this episode he no longer wants to drink chocolate milk on his own. We start carrying the chewables with us when we are out and at home he knows that he needs to take a chewable lactaid pill if he is going to have milk, cheese or ice cream. When he takes the chewable he doesn’t suffer from the stomach pains.

The head sweating is a thing of the past and he still sleeps through the night without interruption.  At our last few check ups his tonsils have been noted to not be enlarged. The doctors still consider them to be markedly larger than normal but not red or clearly inflamed. The suggestion for surgery has been off the table so far and I’m glad we opted to go dairy free for the 3 weeks that we did. We avoided a surgery and found out that he needs the assistance of a lactaid pill in order to enjoy milk products without the side effects.

If your child experiences some of the same symptoms mine did it might be a good idea to try an elimination diet starting with dairy and/or wheat. I’m glad we did!

www.drbriffa.com/enlarged tonsils/dairyallergy

tdowell22

I live in SoCal with my husband and two kids. Love reading, writing, being a foodie and coffee aficionado. I support other moms of cleft affected children. Our family is continuing along on this journey and we seek to help other families navigate terrain we've already covered. All Smiles is what we want for all cleft kiddos!