The tonsils stand at the back of your throat as guardians of your child's body. They're there to trap any bacteria or virus or foreign matter that gets in to help your immune system respond to it. But sometimes what will happen is food bits or other things will get trapped in your tonsils, and they will grow over time. And then you end up with stones. They look like pearls almost. Sometimes they look like small dots and sometimes pretty large shiny spots in the tonsils in the back of the throat. When people see these, they're sometimes kind of alarmed. They can cause bad breath. They're usually not a health problem, but if they're big enough, they can be kind of painful. To prevent them, for somebody who's prone to them, either drinking right after you eat, and not eating within 30 minutes of that time, because when you fall asleep the saliva stop drops, that can help stop the formation. Once they're there, sometimes a water pic or even a tooth brush can help get them out. Sometimes an E&T doc can help get them out easily. The large ones though, happened once for my daughter, need to come out surgically. One of the most common ways for the tonsil stones to come out is just start coughing. When you cough, they'll spurt out of your mouth. You'll see these little white things and wonder what they are. Likely tonsil stones.