Tubes

mcmullena · April 2014

Just wondered how many if anyone's little one have gotten tubes. If so how was the procedure and how many ear infections did your little one have before you got them.
Thanks for your help

jenniferraborn · April 2014

Sarah had tubes put in March 31st. She had 4 ear infections between january 14th and then. The day her surgery was scheduled she woke up with a 102.5 fever and another ear infection (#5). They did the procedure anyways which only took about 15 minutes. She was gone from me less than 30 minutes and she was fine afterwards as far as the procedure goes. Her ears were so infected at the time that they were unable to get the tubes an an appropriate angle to drain so we are currently on antibiotics for ear infection #6. We also face likely having to have the tube surgery done again or....i don't know what our other options are. The bad part with her is she runs REALLy high fevers with her ear infections.

After all that negativity, I will say that I know several people who have children with tubes and swear they are life savers and made all the difference for their child. I hope that one day I will say the same :-)

jenniferraborn · April 2014

Also , I would not have let them do the procedure while her ears were infected if i had it to do again. i wish i had known better, I just went with what the doctor said.

jenniferraborn · April 2014

The ENT was highly recommended by a lot of people. He is supposed to be "the best at what he does" so I trusted him . I feel awful that we are likely going to have to do it again. Ear infections will be the death of me.....I am SO very over them.

tamarar5 · April 2014

Can I put my two cents in? Neither of my kids have had ear infections like I did, both only have had one. BUT, if tubes are brought up, I strongly recommend you do it. My parents didn't with me-just bad timing between moving- and were never able to get another doctor to do it. As a result, i'm 33 and still get ear infections and swimmers ear all. The. Time. I mean, it's so bad that I have to wear ear plugs to wash my hair. I have scar tissue on my ears that has resulted in partial hearing loss.

jenniferraborn · April 2014

@verovladamir That is what our pedi/ENT said too that it is not all about the number of infections. Sarah's never want to clear up with the antibiotics(multiple rounds/ rosephrin shots etc) and she has really adverse reactions to the up and down fevers(a racing heart rate resulting in lips turning blue and 2 days in the hospital, and a febrile seizure last weekend which I took her to the ER for(apparently it is debatable whether that was actually necessary but I was scared)). Also , even when they are not infected, she always has fluid on her ears. So, we're pretty much just waiting for the next infection until that clears up you know? I really do believe tubes are the answer for her.

Besides infections another concern with the persistent fluid is speech problems. I know our babies are still pretty young but that is a concern as well.

kelly321 · April 2014

@jenniferraborn just to make you feel better, we were told in our infant first aid course that you should always take them to the ER if they've had a febrile seizure for the first time just so you can be sure it actually was a febrile seizure. Once you know they're prone to them, you don't have to go again (unless you feel it's necessary, of course). So don't feel bad about taking her in for a seizure, even if you were fairly certain it was a febrile seizure.

ericalee27 · April 2014

TamaraR4 said:

Can I put my two cents in? Neither of my kids have had ear infections like I did, both only have had one. BUT, if tubes are brought up, I strongly recommend you do it.

Agreed. DS1 had them put in shortly after 2 yrs old, and I wish we had just done it as soon as it was brought up when he was about 1. We waited because the EIs weren't impacting his hearing and sometimes kids age out of the EIs. But we still went through a bunch of them during that time period, some that were so bad they required rocephin shots. Once he had the tubes, no problems. Luckily DS2 doesn't seem to have as many, but if we ever got to that point, I would put in tubes as soon as brought up. The procedure wasn't bad at all and the results were so worth it.

katelyn1434 · April 2014

I worked on a pedi floor for 4 years and still float there periodically. The procedure is very quick. The challenge will be not letting your child eat or drink starting at midnight the night before. I know at my hospital 1 parents is allowed to go into the operating room with the child while he or she falls asleep. Warning: this will be a very hard moment. They generally will fight the anesthesia at this age then *boom* they're out and you'll be escorted away from them. Many moms cry and say how hard it was. So, you will not be alone if you get upset! By the time they walk you to a designated area you are basically being called back because the procedure is complete though! When they wake up they are very out of sorts and are usually very very upset. Toddlers and teenage girls tend to be very weepy after anesthesia. We keep them for about and hour to make sure they can drink and hold it down and there's no bleeding (sometimes if there is an infection going on in an ear there will be some oozing but no active bleeding) and attempt to take some vital signs. After that you're free to take your probably very clingy babe home for snuggles and a nap

All the moms I've talked to were very happy they made the decision to do the tubes. Rarely do they have to be reinserted. As the baby grows the tubes will fall out in their own. On other rare occasions do they have to be removed by an ENT.

Hope this gave you a little "insight" to what it will be like if you choose to go through with it. From what I hear it's totally worth it! Let me know if you have any other questions!

katelyn1434 · April 2014

jenniferraborn said:
@verovladamir That is what our pedi/ENT said too that it is not all about the number of infections. Sarah's never want to clear up with the antibiotics(multiple rounds/ rosephrin shots etc) and she has really adverse reactions to the up and down fevers(a racing heart rate resulting in lips turning blue and 2 days in the hospital, and a febrile seizure last weekend which I took her to the ER for(apparently it is debatable whether that was actually necessary but I was scared)). Also , even when they are not infected, she always has fluid on her ears. So, we're pretty much just waiting for the next infection until that clears up you know? I really do believe tubes are the answer for her.

Besides infections another concern with the persistent fluid is speech problems. I know our babies are still pretty young but that is a concern as well.

Whoever gave you a hard time about bringing a child to the ER after a febrile seizure was wrong. You did the right thing!

katelyn1434 · April 2014

jenniferraborn said:
Also , I would not have let them do the procedure while her ears were infected if i had it to do again. i wish i had known better, I just went with what the doctor said.

I'm also surprised they did the procedure with a high fever and active infection. On occasion there is some extra fluid from a past infection or maybe one brewing but usually they have you come back another day when it's cleared up...

mcmullena · April 2014

Thank you everyone for the advice. When my DS gets ear infections he never has a fever I just figure it out my crappy sleep and off balance. We didn't see our normal doc this time but she said to come back in 10 days to have him checked and talk about tubes. She also mentioned that they normally don't due it in the summer. Anyone else hear of this?

ericalee27 · April 2014

mcmullena said:

She also mentioned that they normally don't due it in the summer. Anyone else hear of this?

We also heard this when we waited....most kids don't get colds in summer so they don't get EIs as much and they could grow out of it all by then. Like I said in my previous post, I wish I had just gone through with it because DS1 did not grow out of it and summer was just as bad as winter for us

chimneygrl · April 2014

We had tubes done in early March. I lost count on how many ear infections we had. It started in October and we did 10 days of meds and a week after we stopped the meds we had another ear infection. This kept happening until we had tubes one. His last ear infection was on his birthday and he had a 102 fever.

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