The tonsils are not organs without functions to perform, yet from their frequent removal one would gather that they are inherently a menace. Adenoids are not unnatural tissues, but are natural tissues gone abnormal through wrong conditions within the body. Yet adenoids and enlarged tonsils have been extirpated by the millions - in many cases because mothers have not been informed how to nourish and care for their children in such a way as to avoid these abnormal conditions.
Why do we have affections of the tonsils, and why do we have enlarged adenoids? The answer is simple: health-destroying practices are followed by parents and taught to their children. There are many factors of living that unfavorably influence the adenoid tissues and tonsils, and in some instances every possible factor of a detrimental nature has been at work to disturb these tissues.
The average family today uses an excess of carbohydrate foods in the diet. The growing child needs proportionately more of these foods than does the adult; but naturally there is a limit beyond which a child should not be fed these fuel foods. Too much of the cereals and their products, potatoes and sugar particularly are used, and in many cases too much of the fats as well, especially cream and butter. These foods are acid-forming and they produce a catarrhal condition within the body. This reacts upon those tissues which are designed for protection through the destruction of certain waste products and through the elaboration of certain subtle substances which reach the bloodstream. Tonsils and adenoids are such tissues and they enlarge for the body's protection - not because they have gone on a strike of their own accord.
It is not only the fuel foods, however, that help to cause these conditions. Too much meat or other protein and the rich foods such as gravies, pies, cakes, desserts and so on, have similar effects. All of these foods may be taken without great detriment if they are taken in amounts that are within the body's needs, although it would be better if some of these never entered into the diet of our children.
Prominent additional causes are: failure of parents to see that their children exercise, secure enough outdoor play and enough ventilation indoors, that their elimination is adequate, their skin kept free from accumulations and toned sufficiently for normal responses to the body's needs, and to obtain adequate sleep and, during the first few years of life, adequate day-time rest.
When these "first lines defense" become broken down, the first consideration usually is to remove them. Many times all that is required is to allow them to mend. This they will do in many cases if diet and general mode of living are adjusted so as to aid these glands and tissues. There may be instances where the tonsils are charged with pus, or so diseased by frequent "infection" that operation will be required; but in the majority of cases the tonsils can be left in the body and they can be made to assume normal proportions and perform their functions normally.
The diet in such cases should be much simpler than a child usually receives. The usual breakfast provides starches and proteins and perhaps twice as many calories as are required. When there are adenoids or affected tonsils good breakfast is dry toast with a little butter, or a dry cereal with a little rich milk, some naturally sweet fruit, and a glass of milk. Of a cooked cereal is used it should be taken with a sweet fruit so that it must be masticated.
Noon-day lunches may be of any wholesome bread of hot cereal, a cooked leafy, non-starchy vegetable or two, a little salad or raw fruit and a glass of milk.
The dinner may be a starchy food, for instance a whole baked potato, with one or two cooked non-starchy vegetables, a salad and a raw sub-acid fruit. A glass of milk may be taken to complete the meal.
If the child's weight does not progress favourably on such a diet one should increase the amount of each of these foods at each meal. Simplicity in menus is important, and it is necessary to avoid an excess of starches, sugars, fats and proteins, much as these are needed by the growing child. In addition to these meals, fresh fruit may be given in the forenoon and in the afternoon; or perhaps a glass of milk at one or both of these times. Since the child will need relatively more protein while growing, nust may be provided at one of the meals, or cottage cheese may be used, or legumes such as peas, beans and lentils, or any of the other wholesome proteins occasionally. One should not forget that the best of all proteins is found in milk and in cottage cheese.
Often much can be done to reduce tonsils by the throat pack. For this, old sheeting should be used, two or three thicknesses and about three inches in width. This is wrung from cold water and applied snugly about the throat, then covered with two or three thicknesses of dry woolen flannel at least an inch wider so that all of the wet pack beneath will be completely covered. This should be applied at night so that the moist heat generated under the pack will be operative throughout the night for reducing congestion. Upon its removal in the morning the throat and neck should be bathed with cold or hot water and then carefully dried. It is well also to use a gargle if the child is old enough. A moderately strong salt solution may be used, or salt, baking soda and boric acid, equal parts - a teaspoonful of the mixture dissolved in a glass of water. The gargle may be decidedly hot, followed by a cold gargle, or at either temperature alone.
In some cases, considerable benefit will follow-gentle massage of the tonsils. The mother's or nurse's finger may be covered with sterilized gauze or a clean hand-kerchief or sterile cotton, and then gentle rotary pressure given upon the tonsil. This should be avoided in case of acute inflammation; but in many cases are filled with a white cheesy substance, the finger may be used in the same manner to exert gentle pressure in such a direction as to express the pus or cheesy substance out of the tonsil onto the finger protection. Hydrogen peroxide and water, equal parts may be used for a gargle or a swab after expressing either the pus or the cheesy substance from the tonsil.
Another application of benefit to the tonsil is equal parts of tannated glycerin and tannated phenol. A cotton swab on a wooden applicator may be used for this, but care must be taken to express all surplus from the swab so that there can be no dripping, and to apply the swab only to the tonsil. This has an antiseptic and shrinking effect.
Adenoids, as stated earlier, are normal tissues, but enlarged for reasons that have been mentioned. They are normal to childhood but generally vanish by the time of puberty. They are located at the roof of the throat just back of the posterior nasal passages. When this adenoid tissue becomes pronouncedly swollen the breathing is affected, the child becomes a mouth-breather, the palate often is pushed upward and the teeth thrown out of line. The whole respiratory apparatus is adversely affected, for the lungs are denied air that normally should be strained, moistened and warmed by passing through the involved nasal cavities. Laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis and asthma often result from mouth-breathing.
Often swollen adenoid tissue does not respond as rapidly or as completely as do enlarged tonsils. But if the mode of living suggested is adapted, with special care taken to see that all eliminative organs function up to normal, there probably will be a shrinkage of these tissues. However, the operation for the removal of the adenoid growth is very simple, and usually there is no recurrence after their removal. This is an operation where harm extremely rarely results. If the parents cannot or will not keep the child on such a health programs as will permit the adenoids to gradually reduce, then by all means this tissue should be removed. Adenoids are a handicap to physical and mental growth and, naturally or unnaturally, they should be removed.
Briefly enumerating the most important points in rebuilding the health so that adenoids and enlarged tonsils may be reduced:
Insure that the child secures ample open-air activity, with sufficient opportunities for both day-time relaxation and night-time sleep.
Secure ample ventilation in the play-rooms and sleeping-rooms, but at night be assured that the child is amply covered for warmth.
Provide such a diet that bowel activity will be normal. Exercise will help in accomplishing this. Have the child drink freely of water, that kidney action may be normal also.
Avoid over-dressing the child, but provide it with what clothing is necessary for warmth. Codding a child is one of the best means of bringing on colds, catarrh, adenoids and enlarged tonsils.
Without abusing the child or risking over-exposure, endeavor to "harden" the child so that it can react normally to cold water and to cold air.
Of further aid in this hardening process, begin as early in childhood as possible to give the cold wet-hand rub as a tonic bath. The warmth of the mother's hand will soften the chock of the cold water, yet the latter will have a tonic affect. In time, graduate to the shower, tub or sponge bath, lowering the temperature gradually from week to week until the child can take and enjoy a decidedly cool bath. Always there must be good friction and drying at the termination of a bath, to insure reaction to normal warmth.
The diet being the most important factor, it will be necessary to pay particular attention to the foods selected, the number of meals, and the type of food and the manner in which the food is eaten. Provide natural foods as much as possible. Avoid mush-like starchy and devitalized foods, also rich foods and pastries. The child should never have anything other than whole grain products, fruits, vegetables and milk, though egg-yolks are valuable also. The child should have at least a quart of milk a day. See that all foods are masticated well and not washed down by milk or any other fluid.
Three meals a day are sufficient for any child, though a juicy fruit may be used for a "snack" if the child seems actually hungry. Never coax a child to eat. Provide the best foods for it, and if it has been an active youngster it will eat if there is nothing wrong with it, such as a developing disease, or unless it overate at the preceding meal or at the between-meal lunch - which should have been avoided.
Adults can be treated for enlarged tonsils much as has been outlined for children. Local treatment usually will help them just as it will help the child, although perhaps more slowly.
Defective adenoids and tonsils would not develop where the body properly treated, whether in childhood or adulthood. If they develop, or are developing, right living will often help to degorge them and allow them to return to a more normal condition.
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