Ear infections and tubes

financialdiva · November 2013

6 weeks ago DS2 had a fever. Took him to the pedi, he had an ear infection. Antibiotic #1 was given. About 2.5 weeks later at his 9 month well visit, he either still had or had another ear infection. No fever, no crankiness. Antibiotic #2 was then given. She told me to follow up 2 weeks later, which we did. Ear infection was there, and so antibiotic #3 was given along with a dallergy to dry him up. No fever, no crankiness. 2 weeks later, which brings us to today, another follow up, another ear infection (or the same one) and antibiotic #4. Plus a referral to an ENT to talk about tubes. I go back on Monday to see if its getting better and if it isn't, she is giving him antibiotics in a shot form over three days. I don't even know where to start. I know this isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but we are now talking surgery on my teeny tiny baby boy and the idea of that makes me want to cry. But pumping him full of antibiotics over and over again isn't good either. I was going to call tomorrow to try and schedule and appt with an ENT. Those who did tubes, How many ear infections did LO have? Anything I should know? Anything I should ask the ENT about? Is this really early to be talking tubes? DS1 had one ear infection his whole first year, and that was the only time he was on antibiotics his first year, so I have nothing to really compare this to. Any and all advice is welcomed.

financialdiva · November 2013

Holy wall of text! I swear there was paragraphs. I tried to edit as well and it won't let me. Stupid IPad! Sorry!!

nursebride2be · November 2013

Ds1 had 5 ear infections back to back his first year of life oct to February. We would finish a round if antibiotics have a week off and then be back on them. He was never really bothered by the ear infections. We did tubes and he hasn't had another eat infection ( now 3.5 years old). It was the best decision we made. The surgery took literally 30 minutes, he slept the rest of the day and was back to himself the next day. And two days later he got a cold that would of before given him an eat infection and he did great.

ccam · November 2013

I think we're heading toward tubes too....

Samiantha101 · November 2013

I had several sets of tubes as a child. They never helped with the infections
To this very day, I am extremely cautious about water in my ears. I hope to god that my dd needs tubes. I will absolutely be seeking a second opinion if a nte specialist recommends tubes because of my horrible experience.

djm31012 · November 2013

i think we will be heading twd tubes as well. DS is 9 mos old..he has been on 2 diff antibiotics, did the shots once and still has fluid in his right ear. same as you--not bothered, i do see him pull at it occassionally throughout the day, but totally happy and in a great mood. we are going back for a check around Christmas, and if the fluid is still there we will talk about going to see a specialist. My pedi calls it "planting the tube seed" as in...we are talking about it...but not quite ready to take the plunge. From what I know, the whole thing is not a big deal, and so so common. I am in the same camp as you and so sad about it....but I dont think its really that big of a deal and only helps them.

mb314 · November 2013

DS had 4 or 5 ear infections from the time he was 4 months until 13 months. He had trouble clearing the infections and trouble with the fluid not draining from his ears. So for us, it wasn't just the number of infections, but the fact that fluid was building up in his ears and he wasn't hearing well. We were referred to an ENT when DS was 13 months, and a hearing test showed he wasn't hearing well. I didn't want him to develop speech delays, and our ENT said that DS was a text book case for tubes.

I understand your concern - I was not on board with putting LO under for surgery at first. But for me, the risk of him developing speech problems and delays made the surgery appealing. Also, I didn't want to go through another cold and flu season with many ear infections. It wasn't fun for him or me.

FWIW, the surgery was really quick and easy. The hardest part was that we couldn't give DS any solid foods for like 12 hours before the surgery, and any liquids like 6 hours before. He was grumpy! They took DS from us, and I swear it was only 10 to 15 minutes later before the doctor came back and told us the surgery was over. We got to see him about 15 minutes after that. All together, he was only a part from us for about 30 minutes. He was grumpy when he woke up, but drinking some juice and then nursing helped him cheer up. After a good nap, he was back to his usual self.

Sunidaze · November 2013

We had 5 ear infections by her first birthday...first set of tubes a month later (July 2012). Surgery itself was over in no time, she recovered quite well. Unfortunately, we had a couple of issues in the months following (tubes to not guarantee there will be no further infections) and she had a second set of tubes placed in April 2013 along with an adenoidectomy. No issues since.

ss265 · November 2013

I personally haven't had any experience with ear infections and tubes but I did hear about a kid that had continuous ear infections to the point where his speech was delayed because he couldn't hear very well. Take it with a grain of salt though but you might want to discuss this with your pediatrician.

*sparky* · November 2013

DS was different in that he did not start getting ear infections until he was 5 or 6, but we eventually had to get tubes for him. The doctors just kept putting him on stronger and stronger antibiotics and as soon as he would get another cold, he would have another ear infection. His did bother him a lot and he would wake up screaming and inconsolable in the middle of the night. The tubes were a miracle - he has only had one ear infection since and it was from water getting trapped in the tubes when he was swimming a lot this summer.

I do agree w/ss265 that recurrent ear infections in young children can lead to hearing issues and therefore speech delays, so that is a good reason to try to get the ear infections under control. My DS did fail a hearing test at school and that was when the ENT finally agreed to do tubes (he was hoping DS would grow out of it since he was outside of the noral age range for ear issues).

The surgery itself takes 15 minutes or less. IMO, it is good to do it young, because your LO will not even know what is happening. My DS did have trouble coming out of the anesthesia and was really agitated for about 10 minutes or so until he was more coherent. After that he was perfectly fine.

GL!

KayteeGee · November 2013

Late but chiming in to tell you tubes were the BEST thing we have done for DS.

His EI's sound like your son's. I started to write more but it was a novel and you don't care.

Honestly, we tried everything b/c my DH was averse to surgery. We did chiropractic, as we had heard that sometimes works. It really didn't make a difference for us, but it might for you.

Finally, audiologist did two sets of tympanic tests two weeks apart that proved that fluid just wasn't draining - EVER... said for DS it was like hearing everything underwater. We had noticed that his speech was behind his peers (enough to call early intervention), audiologist told us in one ear she estimated 75% hearing loss.

We did tubes almost a year ago. It's been WONDERFUL. He has had just 1 EI since. He is - on the whole - so much more "healthy." His speech is near perfect.

RE: water - our ENT (whom I love) told us not to worry about it unless he was submerging his head more than 24" ... so we stopped swimming lessons, but we still played in our pool all summer - DS was FINE. We don't do ear plugs for bath either - we don't do them at all.

My advice is to find an ENT you trust. Ours is our second. DS also has giant tonsils and the first was WAY too quick to want to remove them too. Our ENT also had on-site audiologist/testing... VERY helpful in figuring out your "breaking point" because for us it was those two tympanic test two weeks apart.

SO GLAD we did tubes, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have gotten them sooner.

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