Neck Lumps and Lymph Nodes

If you rub your kiddo’s neck, you will notice some pea-sized bumps that are movable and rubbery feeling under the skin and on top of the muscle. These are called lymph nodes. Lymph nodes act as traffic stops for your immune system. Your lymph fluid carries white blood cells and other immune system helpers around the body, looking for and collecting invaders. As they pass around your body, they go through these lymph nodes. If the cells in the lymph nodes recognize some bad players for your body, then that lymph node will start the immune response and make more targeted white blood cells to get rid of those intruders that are most likely in the general vicinity of that lymph node. So it makes sense that the most likely time for us to see or feel them is when our kiddo is not feeling well and mounting an immune response. 

When the infection is properly fought off, the lymph node will usually return to a size that is not noticeable or palpable. But sometimes, the lymph nodes will remain a bit enlarged to be ready to help fight off a similar infection faster, and that is OK. As long as they are still about the size of a pea or small marble, mobile, rubbery, and singular (meaning they don’t feel like a bunch of grapes that are cemented in place or to one another), then we just let these lymph nodes be. Most people have at least a dozen or so of these normal reactive lymph nodes around their body by the time they are in elementary or middle school.

Sometimes these lymph nodes can themselves get infected, this is called lymphadenitis. These lymph nodes will be large and tender to the touch and sometimes get red-looking. If this happens, the pediatrician should do a good physical exam and see if we need to treat the lymph node with antibiotics.