tubes in ears

kgarvey

My son has been sick for over a month with a sinus infection & ear infection & now recently, respiratory issues. He's had the antibiotic shots & about 4 other medicines the doctor has tried. I am starting to wonder if tubes would help him. If your child had tubes, did it help & what was the series of events leading up to scheduling surgery? Is it simply having lots of ear infections or just being sick in general? Thanks so much!

Mrs.BLG

My friend's son has them. They had them put in due to chronic ear infections. He didn't have them put in until he was 4 though. They recently fell out (a little over a year after having them put in) and he the ear infections started instantly. He had to get them put back in when he had his tonsils out last month.

And yes, it did help him....once he had them in, he didn't have any more ear infections.

rylee1

I'm not going to be too much help but I wanted to say I feel your pain!!! We are just going through our first ear infection, but I had a ton when I was little.  My mom has written down that I had 18 ear infections before I was two and had tubes in twice.  All I know is that the tubes definitely helped..I know my mom also hated sending me off for surgery but there wasn't really another option.  Good luck and I hope it all works out!

kellenickle

DD got her tubes 6+ weeks ago. She had chronic ear infections (7 in 5 months and most of the time they were double) and had to do multiple antibiotics for all of them. Anytime she got a cold (which seemed to be all the time thanks to daycare) she also got an ear infection.

Since getting her tubes she has had 2 colds and NO ear infections. So, not sure if it helps with the getting sick in general part, but definitely with the infections.

The procedure itself seemed super easy. They used gas to sedate her and the whole thing was over in 10 minutes. She was a little drowsy afterwards, but after a nap was perfectly fine. No discomfort as far as we could tell. 

lukeslady05

Our DS is on his 4th ear infection since the end of Jan. and we are on another round of antibiotics. Our pedi said that he will check his ears in 3 weeks and if they had not cleared up we will do the tubes. He seemed on the fence about it because of the season- He said that he didn't want to push the tubes b/c we are getting out of the cold season- It is VERY frustrating- I feel your pain.. But I did want to say that I have a cousin that had them and he did not have an ear infection anytime after that. The surgery was very quick and I think it is becoming more routine now.

JoshnEllen

I am wondering if we are headed for tubes.  DD had her first ear infection (double) on 2/17 (also hospitalized with RSV).  One side never cleared up and she ended up on a second round of antibiotics.  Last friday I took her in to be checked since she was tugging and batting at one ear and not sleeping or eating well.  She checked out ok.  Then sunday she started getting a cough and tuesday morning she woke up all snotty with a fever.  Today I took her in to be checked and sure enough.....another ear infection and bronchitis.  Poor little girl has spent more days on antibiotics than she has been off of them in the last 5 weeks.

**At the suggestion of our doctor, we are starting DD on probiotics.  After being on antibiotics so much, a lot of the "normal" bacteria that belongs in their little belly can get messed up.  Keep this in mind if your kids end up doing multiple runs of antibiotics.

kgarvey

what kind of probiotics & where do you get it? i want to ask my dr about it tomorrow when we go in...thanks!