When our 4 year old was 2, I noticed that her speech did not seem to be around the same as other 2 year old children, so I went to my doctor to voice my concerns. I was advised that she was doing fine and to not be concerned as
she would improve with her speech as she grew older. The other problem that we faced with her, was that she would snore so loudly, that you could hear her from the other end of the house. So, she would fall asleep, start snoring then all of a sudden, silence. Then she would start coughing.
I again went to the doctor about this and he said that she was fine and I was becoming a little bit paranoid, well, that’s how I felt. Throughout this, her speech still seemed delayed. Don’t get me wrong, she could say a few words, but it would mainly consist of baby babble. And no, I don’t go by the books where they say ‘your child should be correctly saying 150 words with ease’. As if.
I monitored this for a while, but I had this persisting feeling that something was wrong. So I again went back to the doctors and once again was advised she was fine.
After a period of several months, still delayed speech, and snoring that would put any adult to shame, I went back to the doctors and demanded a letter to see an Ear/Nose/Throat Specialist as my concern was overwhelming.
The specialist took a look in her ears and told me that one of her ears was blocked, and had been for about six months, so she was unable to hear. He also ordered an x-ray of her nose. The results surprised us.
Her adenoids were nearly 4 times bigger than their normal size but he could not see her tonsils, and the radiologists reported that her tonsils were fine. The specialists advised that my poor baby would require surgery. Grommets for her ears and removal of her adenoids as he advised me that she were also suffering from Sleep Apnoea. I was horrified. Just the thought that my poor baby stopped breathing up to 20 times a night, thus the reason for her choking/coughing when she had been snoring. But, the specialists also wanted permission for him to remove her tonsils, even though they had been reported that they were fine. He said that if he did not remove them, there was a 50% chance the Sleep Apnoea would still occur. After long discussions, we agreed to the additional removal of her tonsils and adenoids and grommets placed in her ears.
The surgery went great. Afterwards, the specialists came out and advised us that we were lucky to have given him permission to remove her tonsils, as they were 5 times bigger than what they should have been. So much for correct radiologists reporting.
Our daughter made a speedy recovery from the surgery, although she became very sick as the nurse that looked after her the night after surgery was sick, and she was coughing all over our daughter. Their excuse was they were short staffed. The didn’t even have the correct equipment to check her saturation levels, the little clip that goes on their toe, they had to use an adults one and tape it to her food, which distressed her and made the machine sound an alarm all night, so we did not get any sleep.
Her first sleep at home, we did not hear a thing. Not one choke, cough, snore, nothing. I was really weird, but wonderful. Her speech improved dramatically. With a couple of weeks, she was saying so many new words, it brought tears to my eyes.
So, if you are ever concerned with your child’s health, and you have that niggling feeling that something is wrong, please go by your instinct, because believe you me, you will be right. I can guarantee it. Don’t let happen to you, what happened to use, where we were made to feel as though we wanted something to be wrong with our daughter. Seriously, who in their right mind wants their children to be sick?
(December 2006) (
