Foods to offer toddler with tonsillitis?

What foods do you offer your little one when they have tonsillitis?

Anything at all IMO. DD2 had severe tonsillitis 3 years ago & didn't eat or drink for a week. Custard, icy poles, yoghurt.

More important than food though, is hydration. Doesn't matter what they drink, although water is best, as long as they are drinking. It's so painful to swallow that you might have a better chance by using something like juice, or cordial. Purely to get those fluids in. Ice, icy poles.

I stress a bit over tonsillitis, after our experience :( DD was in hospital for 5 days & I was bribing her with everything under the sun. Milkshakes, lemonade, coke. I tried everything & nothing worked. She also had glandular fever at the same time, so pretty full on.

When my DD had severe tonsilitis she wouldn't eat anything but drank a lot. I offered her yoghurts, icey poles and even custard some of which she didn't want.

Is your DS on antibiotics? After a couple of days DD was right as rain.

offer normal foods as well - i used to get tonsilitis all the time, and remember the GP saying if i could eat, i should, and mum was told to always offer a normal meal. if i didn't eat that, then to look at other options, but it was important to offer normal food so that i didn't get to the point i wouldn't eat normal food when the pain eased

if you're not getting much in, fluids are important and probably look at options like hydralite etc so they are at least absorbing the fluids etc.

soup that has been heated then cooled is good too. noodles/pasta that is soft etc

a lot of it is going to depend on what your own child wants i guess

If they are not eating you can give milk fortified with skim milk powder as that provides enough protein to stave off starvation. Adding a similar blend to sloppy smoothe bland foods like scrambled egg, mashed potatoes, custard etc also works well. Try to time meals about 45 min after you've given pain killers as the pain level will be lowest then. Good luck and I hope your LO is feeling better soon.

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, he's on antibiotics (a fairly strong dose - 4ml, 4 times a day). The doctor also advised to give him ibuprufin (pain/inflamation) and paracetamol (fever). Last night he picked up a little with drinking - I bought some Ribena which gave a little more incentive for him to drink.

I woke up just before midnight to a little voice calling for mumma and boy was he hot! I gave him his dose of antibiotics then the ibuprufin. Used a wet flannel to try and cool him and gave him sips of ribena. After half hour I gave him paracetamol because his temp wasn't coming down (it was at 38.9 taken under the arm). After another half hour I put him into bed with DH and I (we have a lovely big kingsize!) with a bottle of milk. He probaly drank around 100ml before drifting off to sleep. When my alarm went off this morning he was sleeping soundly (he seemed to be sort of panting last night with the high temp) and was also sweaty - fingers' crossed this means the fever has broken.

DH called a little while ago letting me know that he had woken up from a nap and had some jelly but is still very clingy and refusing any "real food".

Be careful with things like yoghurt, ice cream, milk etc. It can coat the tonsils and add to the infection. I used to get chronic tonsilitis as a teenager before having them taking out and was always advised against dairy. For something soothing you're better off giving him icy poles. Agree with BG's comment that the sooner he can eat normal food the better, even though the poor little guy won't feel like anything for a while.

Hope he's feeling better soon.