As odd as it sounds, doctors and researchers are discovering that young children diagnosed with ADHD who also have sleep problems (likely brought on by not being able to breathe correctly while sleeping, due to enlarged tonsils) can benefit from tonsillectomies. A study out of the University of Michigan showed that 50% of the children with ADHD and sleep-disordered breathing in their study improved to the point where they no longer had ADHD.

This article discusses the theories of doctors as to why there’s a link. Much has to do with sleep deprivation. This concept is incredibly pertinent for those of us parenting traumatized and post institutionalized children, who very often have sleep issues.

When LuLu arrived home, her tonsils were so enlarged that they touched when she was laying down, making breathing almost nearly impossible. How long she’d been that way, no one knows. She didn’t have an active infection, per se, but the ENT recommended immediate removal. We did – and in hindsight, we should have waited.

Here’s why: we didn’t fully grasp the traumatic effect of the surgery on a child only in our home for one month. She didn’t understand us, had no real bond to us, and was now injured (after the surgery it had to hurt) by us. If I knew then what I know now, I would have waited at least a few months, even though the tonsils were definitely part of the problem.

While sleep deprivation is a huge piece to why removing tonsils may be reducing or eliminating ADHD symptoms in so many children, I think there’s another factor to consider…just what does it mean when your tonsils are enlarged.

What are tonsils and adenoids? They are glandular masses at the back of the throat designed to catch incoming germs and “sample them” as a way of protecting the body and activating the immune system. Conventional medical wisdom shows that a person can survive without tonsils and adenoids, and that in many cases has fewer sore throats. And if the tonsils are chronically swollen, due to infections, they do cause breathing problems. As part of the lymphatic system, tonsils are involved in fighting infections, by making new white blood cells.

But the question remains: what happens to the germs entering the body that the tonsils no longer “catch”? Well, having the tonsils or adenoids removed does NOT keep a child’s body from being infected with bacteria or viruses. It basically means that another area of the body becomes infected instead. And since one of the common offending bacteria is streptococcus (such as strep throat), it is worth noting that the strep bacteria can infect the body in a variety of ways (including PANDAS, which can produce Tourettes and OCD symptoms).

So, knowing just enough to be dangerous about the whole biomed field and how the immune system, digestive system and neurochemistry all works together (or problems in one area cause problems in another), I have lots of questions about why removing tonsils is curing ADHD. Instead of the sleep deprivation issue (or perhaps in addition to it), does removing chronically infected tonsils in children with ADHD tip the balance of the child’s immune system in such a way that their brain chemistry changes for the better? Or is the opposite true. Does removing tonsils make a child’s body more susceptible to becoming infected with bacteria and viruses in other ways?

Are there reasons to retain your tonsils? And are there methods of reducing the size of the tonsils so the child’s sleep-disordered breathing resolves? Or is surgery the best (or only) way?

A 50% success rate in resolving ADHD symptoms though is definitely reason to sit up and take notice. And for parents whose young children are suffering, it gives hope that life will get easier.

Three Tonsillectomies: Will They Cure Special Needs?

Tonsillectomy: Not Braces nor ADHD