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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Ear tubes - pros and cons
Lily will be 2 at the end of the month. She has had NINE ear infections in the past nine months. Crazy. So her pedi suggested we see an ENT, which we did on Monday. He said she is a candidate for tubes, but he also said most kids stop having such chronic ear infections once they reach 2.5.
My husband and I are torn. I don't want Lily to be in pain, and I want her to be able to hear clearly. But I'm really not sure about tubes, especially at her age. I was really for the tubes after meeting with the ENT, but I've done some reading and now I'm leaning more toward a wait-and-see approach.
I'd love your input - if your DC has had tubes put in, or if it's been recommended and you've held off.
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Re: Ear tubes - pros and cons
I am so happy we had tubes put in my son's ears. He had 14 ear infections that we knew of and was beginning to have hearing loss. Did your little one have a hearing test when you saw ENT?
Once we found out he was having a hard time hearing due to all the fluid, it was a no brainer for us. The surgery was quick and the recovery was very easy. Watching him " go to sleep" was the hardest part. He was up running around that afternoon. We also had his adnoids out at the same time, but for other reasons.
He has always had a hard time sleeping, and no sleeps through the night!
Please let me know if you have any other ??, my son had it done last month.
Thanks for your thoughts. Lily's speech is great, but she is not a good sleeper or eater. I am wondering if those things would improve with tubes ...
My son had tubes in when he was 18 months and it was, by far, the best decision we have made thus far. He had 7 ear infections in as many months. I felt like he was constantly taking antibiotics and we were always at the doctor's office.
He is now almost 3 1/2 and still has the tubes. He has not had an ear infection since getting the tubes.
And ditto the previous poster, the procedure was quick, about 20 minutes, and he was the happiest kid ever a few hours later.
Good luck with your decision.
GET THEM.
They typically fall out after 6 - 12 months. That will get you through flu and cold season this fall/winter, and then hopefully she will have grown out of the problem.
DS is on his second set of tubes, and they're the best decisions we've ever made. I can't imagine how horrible things would be if we hadn't.
As it is, DS is being evaluated for EI next week because he's so far behind on speech from ear infections and not being able to hear.
To me, it should be a no brainer. The surgery lasts literally five minutes, they sleep off the anesthesia and are back to normal within 24 hours (for DS, it was only a matter of hours before he was back to normal).
Just adding my similar opinion - T got tubes at 13 months after 7 infections in 6 months. If we could have a do-over, I would have had them put in earlier! He hasn't had one ear infection since. I was nervous leading up to the surgery, of course, but it barely phased him and he was his usual self a few hours post-op. If they fall out, and he needs more, I will have no qualms about doing it again.
p.s. his hearing was affected by the repeated infections, which was a big factor for us doing it. Since then, his hearing is perfect.
Good luck to you!
My son is now 7 and has had 2 sets of tubes. He started getting ear infections at 18 months. Small euestation tubes run the in family. My ds just failed his school hearing test. We took him to his ENT and did a hearing test with Audiologist. We found that he has a hole in his right ear drum. We aren't sure when his tubes actually fell out. His hearing is fine though. Dr. mentioned if it doesn't heal they want to patch it. If it's less than the size of a pin head why would you want to do more surgery? Especially when the "patches" seem to cause more issues.
My daughter is 5 and her 2nd set of tubes recently fell out. She is has hard 2 infections in 2 months. She just told me her ear hurts and it's only been 2 weeks since she has been off the meds for last infections. We were told she needs a 3rd set. We aren't going to do it yet. I am going to look into other things since usually my family has seemed to outgrow it by age 5. Dr. also wants to put in 4-5 year tubes which are bigger and will cause larger hole. I will not do that.
I have heard Chiropractor's can help with ear infections in children. I tried it with my children when they were small but since ours was just a herditary thing it didn't work. For my daughter though I think I will try it again with maybe some acupuncture or acupressure also. I am going to do everything else that is natural first. We will do a hearin gtest too jsut to make sure she is hearing okay.
Good luck and I wish you will,