CLEVELAND -- Thanks to antibiotics, children don't get their tonsils out as often as they used to.

But treatment can't help the thousands of children whose tonsils have to be removed because they're just too big.

Ynalis, 3, was a little loopy from her pre-operation medication, but she's used to being tired, because she doesn't sleep well at night.

"She snores and was gasping when sleeping, so I was really worried about that," said Sally Morales, Ynalis' mother.

Ynalis is like so many other children who needed their tonsils and adnoids removed because they're just too big.

"It's uncomfortable," said Dr. Peter Koltai of the Cleveland Clinic. "Think of having a Swedish meatball stuck inside your throat on a regular and ongoing basis -- how would you feel?"

Koltai, a pediatric ear, nose, and throat surgeon, feels pretty good about what he can do for kids like Ynalis. He pioneered the partial tonsillectomy.

"We're just getting rid of the part that's in the way," he said.

No surgery is easy for a parent, but Morales knows it will make life easier for her little girl, so she agreed to have the operation done on Ynalis.

During the surgery, Koltai used a tool that both cuts and suctions.

"We'll begin the tonsillectomy on the lower pole, and literally, just eat it up," he said.

He scraped away about 90 percent of the tonsils and took the adnoids with them.

Koltai said that leaving some tonsil behind should cut down on the amount of bleeding later; bleeding is one of the big drawbacks of traditional surgery.

Another big difference for partial tonsillectomy patients happens when they go home. The recovery time is much shorter -- a couple of days, as opposed to seven to 10 -- but the way they recover is pretty much the same: lots of Popsicles and ice cream.

There are only a handful of doctors around the country who can perform the surgery. Koltai has done about 300 of the surgeries; his first was in 1996.