What could be causing a swollen neck lymph node in a toddler. I know you are not doctors, but if you've had that with your child, please share what you've done and what can be done and if I should worry about it. He has a slight chest cough, cold, so i am thinking it is his body fighting infection.
how swollen? If it is pea sized its not swollen. my son has a cluster of pea-sized nodes in his neck that you can see but none of them are bigger than a pea they all move around. Dont mess with it as that can make it worst. If it is bigger than a pea it is probably the infection he is fighting off.
Yes, probably just the infection. If it does not go away after he is well from the cold then it could be a concern.
Well, whenever I wonder about medical stuff like this I google it!
This seems like a good read on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymph_node
I wouldn't worry. Very likely just fighting a cold!
Could be his tonsils...that's what alerted us to have my great nephew checked out...and that's what it was!
My son has enlarged lymph nodes behind his ears since birth and we were told its no big deal. He is 15 and they are still there. With your baby being sick I say that's why. My 4 yr old is on day 4 of a snot slinging cold and although there's no fever she is miserable and her nodes are enlarged. I give it 7 days and if she's not better we will go to the doc. I would offer up the same advice. Hope everybody feels better!
Swollen lymph nodes ALWAYS mean that the body is fighting something. Theres no way to know if its serious, or nothing big without a doctor or tests.
Even then some doctors can be stumped. I had swollen clavicular lymph nodes for over a year, went to specialists.....had tests. NOTHING anyone could tell me. Luckily they are diminishing.
My daughter just had this in October. Unfortunately in her case she got an ear infection and strep at the same time. Lymph nodes work to remove bacteria from the head...head colds, strep throat, ear infections, etc. (ENT). When doing their job sometimes the nodes do become swollen as they are fighting the bacteria. In some cases, esp with toddlers, the lymph nodes start to get overworked and can't handle the workload that an older child or adult's nodes can handle.
Sometimes, the nodes will win the battle and the infection will go away on its own without antibiotics. Sometimes administering an oral antibiotic at home is needed in order to clear out the infection completely. And unfortunately in our case, my daughter's lymph nodes got so overworked (mind you, this happened within a couple of days and previously her only symptom was slight fever for 1 day) that she ended up in the hospital.
Basically she woke up overnight on a Wed AM...couldn't get her back to sleep. She was running about 100 fever. Treated her with motrin because she seemed uncomfortable, and then at the end of the day she seemed like she was having trouble moving her neck. I called the pediatrician because I was freaked out about meningitis...they told me that as long as she wasn't vomiting and could put her chin to her chest it certainly wasn't that. And that maybe her throat was sore so that's why she wasn't moving her neck well and to keep an eye on it of course. First thing the next morning she still wasn't moving her neck well (side to side or up and down), and her node on the right side was visibly swollen. I took her into the dr right away and they ended up sending us to the Children's ER for a CT scan.
Once a node gets overworked, it becomes infected itself instead of draining the infection out of the body. Then the bacteria starts to spill over into the soft tissue behind the node, and if not caught in time, can form an abscess. What's so dangerous about that is that it will continue to swell as the nodes become more inflamed, and pose a threat to block the airway. So it's treated aggressively. In our case they were able to treat it with 3 days of IV antibiotics...had we waited any longer there was a chance they would have had to go into her neck surgically and drain the bacteria out.
Hope your case is nowhere near as severe as ours was. Sorry for the super-long response, just thought I'd share everything I know about it.
My son has had a swollen lymph node on the back of his neck since he was 2. Two doctors (and my nurse practitioner friend) said it was probably from a previous infection. It rolls around and hasn't changed in size. He still has it but I'm not concerned.....
My friend that works in the health industry has had a swollen lymph node for the past 5ish years, and it's nothing...
If you are worried, get it checked~
My daughter had one when she was 2 years old and she had a slight cold also. I ended up taking her to the hospital brcause it kept growing. They dosed her with antibiotics and it stopped growing but didnt go away so i gave permission for them to drain it. She fell asleep and they drained it with a needle. She is fine and they said it was just her body doing its job. The best part is since she hsd so much antibiotivs pumped into her she didnt get sick for almost 2 years afterwards.
you are right most likely. My daughter had two of them swollen on the back of her neck and I freakedout. I called the doc at night on the weekend, google searched, etc It was just her way of fighting infection. They were gone a month later. Watch it, feel it to get a good idea of its size and keep an eye on it so that it doesn't grow. If it grows or doesn't go away, take him/her to the doctor.
