Adenoids
ADENOIDS The adenoids have been called the “watch dogs of the throat”. Like the tonsils, they guard against respiratory infection in the young child, but like the tonsils they sometimes become infected and swollen themselves. Adenoids are lymph glands situated at the back of the nose just where the air passages join those of the back of the mouth or pharynx. The lymph system is the body’s defense against infection and the lymph glands, such as the adenoids are full of so placed that any infection breathed in through the nose is filtered by them and hopefully killed sometimes, however, things can go wrong. CAUSES Adenoids are present from birth, but on the whole they disappear before puberty. They are most obvious from the age of one to four. This is because between these ages the child is continually deal is known about how the adenoids become infected, but any respiratory germ can affect them. Once they become damaged, chronic infection may set in. If the adenoids are recurrently infl...