ADENOIDS
What They Are
How To Recognize Them
What To Do For Them
KEEP WELL SERIES No. 2
TREASURY DEPARTMENT
UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
1919
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UNITED STATES
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
ADENOIDS
Nature intends that we should breathe through the nose and has soarranged matters that the air is strained, warmed, and moistened as itpasses through the nose. This is very important.
Unfortunately about 10 per cent of all children have adenoids whichinterfere with free breathing through the nose. So many serious resultsfollow this condition that parents should learn something aboutadenoids and their treatment.
WHAT ARE ADENOIDS?
Inasmuch as adenoids are tucked away up behind the palate, and aretherefore out of sight, it may be well to study the picture shown above.
The air passes into the lungs as shown by the arrows. At the placemarked "A T" nature has provided a kind of moist cushion which helps tofilter impurities out of the air. This cushion is formed of what doctors[4]call "adenoid tissue" and is similar to that which makes up thetonsils. When this adenoid tissue grows abnormally large it forms whatare known as "adenoids." From the position of these adenoids as shown onthe diagram it will readily be seen how easily they interfere withproper nasal breathing.
WHAT ADENOIDS DO.
One of the first results of the growth of adenoids is mouth breathing.When this condition develops, the air breathed in reaches the throat andlungs in an unpurified condition. Moreover, it is not sufficientlywarmed or moistened. In a short time, therefore, such children begin tosuffer from repeated colds, and show the signs of a beginning of nasalcatarrh. Unless proper treatment is now undertaken the condition soongets worse, and the child's nasal breathing becomes more and moreobstructed.
Children who suffer from adenoids are usually pale, oftennarrow-chested, and altogether are not as strong and robust as are normal children.
But this is by no means all of the harm done by adenoids. They affect[5]the voice, disfigure the facial expression, interfere with hearing, giverise to night terrors, open the way for serious invasions by diseasegerms, and, through the development of chronic nasal catarrh, may leadto loss of the sense of smell.
The alteration of the facial expression is often so great that the childlooks stupid and sometimes even half-imbecile.
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