Have you found a swelling in the middle or slightly to the side of your child’s neck, usually round or cord-shaped, slow-growing, soft, well-defined, with no adhesions to the surface skin or surrounding tissues, and moving up and down with your child’s swallowing movements? However, the child will not over-represent to you any particular discomfort? However, sometimes there may be an infection and the skin on the surface of the lump may be red and poorly defined, and the swallowing may be painful. Or maybe your child has a small hole in the neck with a yellowish mucus or purulent mucus coming out of it for a long time? Don’t worry, your child may have a congenital thyroglossal cyst or congenital thyroglossal fistula. Congenital thyroglossal cysts and fistulas are the most common congenital malformation of the neck in children, and are also known as midline cysts and fistulas because they are often located in the midline of the neck between the lingual foramen and the superior sternal notch. The disease most often develops in children and adolescents, and cysts are more common than fistulas, and in a small percentage of children the malformation can become malignant. If you find that your child has any of these problems, please bring your child to the hospital promptly. The doctor will take a detailed history and perform a professional examination, and do an ultrasound of the soft tissues of the neck to help determine the morphological characteristics of the mass and to assist in diagnosis and surgery; ultrasound of the thyroid gland will help to exclude the possibility of ectopic thyroid gland and to clarify the diagnosis; enhanced MRI of the neck is used to understand the nature and extent of the mass and to assist in the diagnosis; the five tests of thyroid function will determine whether the patient has hypothyroidism; and if necessary, a nuclear scan will be needed to If necessary, nuclear scan is needed to assist in the diagnosis. The doctor will make a preliminary diagnosis based on symptoms and signs such as the location of the cystic swelling in the anterior cervical area and the movement of the tongue with extension, and the clear, slightly cloudy, yellow, thin or mucousy fluid that can be extracted by puncture. ultrasound and MRI will help to further clarify the diagnosis and understand the exact size and shape of the cyst and its relationship to the surrounding tissues, and guide the surgical plan. In terms of treatment, if your child does not have an infection, then complete surgical removal of the cyst or fistula is the primary method of eradicating the thyroglossal cyst or fistula. If your child is in acute infection or has an abscess formation, then the abscess must be drained and the infection controlled before elective surgery, and the surgeon needs to be consulted for the exact timing of the surgery. Successful and satisfactory treatment is what every doctor and parent looks forward to most. However, you need to understand that thyroglossal cysts or fistulas have a certain recurrence rate after surgical removal, and recurrence may increase the chance of cancer, so further treatment options should be decided based on the final pathology results. Finally, I hope that the above information will be helpful to you and your child, and I sincerely wish your child a healthy and happy growth.