CHILDREN’S HEALTH: SWOLLEN GLANDS
Signs and symptoms
Swollen, slightly tender lymph glands are a symptom of illness or infection. If glands continue to swell, become painful and more tender, and redden the overlying skin, the glands themselves may have become infected. If the node is killed by the infection, it breaks down into pus, which may erupt through the skin as would a deep-seated boil.
Home care
Mildly swollen glands usually require treatment only for the disease or infection causing the swelling. Note which lymph nodes are swollen, look for the cause, and treat that disease or infection.
If lymph nodes are greatly enlarged, very tender, and red, see your doctor.
• In infants, swollen glands in the neck (and sometimes other locations) usually require a doctor’s treatment because infants have a limited resistance to diseases.
• Any lymph node that continues to increase in size and tenderness or that becomes reddened needs a doctor’s attention.
• Healthy children have visible lymph nodes the size of fresh peas or smaller in the sides of the neck. These may become especially noticeable when the child turns the head; they are normal.
Medical treatment
Your doctor will seek the cause of swollen glands by conducting a complete examination of all sites of glands as well as the spleen and liver. The doctor may also order a blood count, mononucleosis test, and, in severe cases, chest and kidney – X rays, bone marrow examination, and test of sedimentation rate. Your doctor will treat the disease causing the swollen glands and may treat the glands themselves by prescribing antibiotics. An infected gland may be opened and drained or removed either as treatment or for a biopsy (culture and examination).
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