Ear Tubes? - Dodgeville,WI

My daughter got her tubes right before her 1st birthday and she hasn't had an ear infection since. However we recently found out that she may have a milk allergy which can also cause ear infections and we are having her tested. You can google milk allergy and there is a dr. greene website that lists the symptoms.

I just recently had to take my son to the Dr. because of a severe infection in both ears. He had said that he had problems hearing also. His Dr. told me that the general rule of thumb is 4 infections in 6 months. So if Cass has 1 more in the next 2 months he will probably have to get them.

My kids don't get infections but my sisters do and she has done tubes for them. She swears by them, the kids are immediately feeling better, can hear, and sleep better. I know they've been doing them for so long and they're so routine, it's almost a no-brainer. I would think safer than antibiotics.

My nephew use to have ear infection problems and like your situation he would have hearing loss and in all of his situations he would lose the redness not the fluid. This proved to be disruptive when his speech wasn't developing as it should've. There were times his mom thought he would just ignore her and she was getting frustrated with that behavior, but he actually couldn't hear her. She had decided to get the tubes put in his ears, he was about 3 1/2. He is definately not the same boy. He seemed so much happier after the aftermath of the surgery. He could hear 100% better, he started talking so much more to where we could finally understand him/ his pronunciation and it just seemed to better him all together. I suggest YES get them done just because I saw first hand the significant changes/ improvments that it made!!!

I don't remember exactly how many ear infections my son had before he got tubes, it was more the fact that medicine didn't help much and the doc thought he might have some hearing loss. It was a very simple procedure but worked like a charm. He got tubes put in when he was about 1 1/2 and hasen't had an ear infection since then. He's 5 now.

I also had some trouble with ear infections and hearing loss and needed tubes in my ears (rare for an adult). For adults they don't even use anesthetic-just an ear numbing thing. That also worked like a charm. It was such a relief to be able to hear again and not have the infections!

Good luck!
J.

Hi H. i'm a mom of three 8,7,6 my 8 year old has had tubes in her ears,but before i had them put in she had problems with them all the time. she has had her tubes sence she was 4 and every once in awhile we still have problems with them hurting but i'm glad i had it done, at first they will hurt but after he gets use to them you shouldn't have anymore problems,but try to kepp water out of them as much as you can...

I don't personally have alot of experience with ear aches or tubes, but I've been told by my other mom friends that a chiropractor could help. I have one friend that swears it worked with her son who had constant problems w/ ear infections. The next step was tubes, but she wanted to try a chiropractor first incase it worked. Tubes would be the last step. Luckily for her it worked great. Her son hasn't had an infection since and it's been a few years since his last chiropractor appointment. So,..if I were in your shoes, I'd try this first. Good luck.

HI H.,
I've had, unfortunatly, a lot of experience with ear infections(EI) and tubes. My daughter (5) had EI for 8 months straight when she was 1. Her EI would usually clear up after a does of antibiotics but she almost always still had fluid. Then the 2nd she'd get a runny nose, she'd get an EI. We decided to have tubes put in (not really knowing about other options at the time) and she did not have another ear infection until 3 years later. Now our son, has been dealing with the same thing but he never gives any sign of an EI (except a runny nose) and he's had 5 in the last 8 months w/2 ruptured ear drums. My pediatrician said they like to wait until they have 5 or 6 in a 6 month period. After he had his 5th EI I decided to really look into all the options, including tubes like my daughter. We decided to try and take a more holistic approach. 1. It's a lot less invasive and 2. It's a lot less expensive (we had to pay $600 out of our pocket and we're not rich!) I started out by raising the head of his crib so he is at more of an angle to aid the draining of the fluid. I don't know if this really works but I did it. I also increase his fluid intake. Everytime you swallow your Eustecian (sp?) tubes open. So, in an effort to get that fluid to drain I constantly gave him H2O. At night, if he had a runny nose/cold I would put a vaporizer in his room & humidifier. I also started him on a multi-vitamin drop. Now, these were all suggestions I found on the internet and I just thought "hey, it can't hurt." Then I finally bit the bullet and took him off of dairy. It's only been 2 weeks and it's really too early to tell because it takes 1-2 months for dairy to be completly out of your system. I keep hearing and reading more and more about dairy and EI. I am happy to say that he has been EI free for 2 months and that's the longest he's gone. I'm hopeful!!
You could also look into a Chiropractor. There is a ton of evidence that this helps as well.
Good Luck to you. I know it's frustrating and worse off, it's hard when your little people aren't well.
Feel free to email me if you want to talk more about it. I've become quite EI saavy!
Happy New Year ~ S.

My son had cronic ear infections as well and antibiotics were no longer working, finally i insisted that our DR give me a referal to an ENT (ear,nose,throat)my DR wanted to wait but in my gut i knew i wanted my son checked by a specialist in this field. Well thank god i did! My son had significant temperary hearing loss due to the amount of fluid built up behind the eardrum, we scheduled surgery and had the tubes placed. Within a week i saw a difference in my son. My opinion is that we tend to do as the DR tells us and ignore our gut feelings but not anymore for me, if i feel that the Dr gives their prof. opinion but they dont know my kids like i do so if i diagree with the DR i speak up and get anouther prof opinion and i have never regreted doing so. good luck with your son and just remember sometimes mom DOES know best

My daugther who is now 2 years old had tubes put in in december. She only had ear infections since May of last year. But i noticed she wasnt talking like she should and took her to the dr. They did a hearing test and sure enough she couldnt hear very well. I was soo scared she was deaf, but it was the fluid in her ear drums that were blocking her from hearing clearly. The dr put tubes in her ears and boom right after that she was babbling and hearig great. She is now in speech therapy every week for one out, due to her 45% delay in speech. Things are going great she is learning more and more. I suggest talking to your doctor about tubes if you haven't already. Let me know how things go..

S.

Dear H.,
Please have the tubes put in as soon as you can. They waited until my son was almost 8 before they put his in. He now has hearing loss,and has lost important sounds needed for speech.
Once you lose certain sounds you cant get them back. My son is now 19,and struggles with speech. The surgery is done in a half hour. By the time I started to look at a magazine,the surgery was over. My son thought he had surgery on his hand,
where the Iv was in. Ha Ha He didnt have ear infections after that. Tell the docter you want tubes put in now,and that you dont want to wait until it impairs him. Hearing loss is cause enough. If I sound pushy,Im sorry. I just dont want to see another child go through what my Michael did. Best of luck to you and your family. I hope I helped. sincerly K. F.

Hi H.! I have a 19 month old son and he had tubes put in about 4 months ago, he had about 9 ear infections within his fist year and everytime he was off his antibiotics we were down at the ER or urgent care with another ear infection. He would get super sick with high fevers and it would be scary so we decided to do the tubes, I just didnt want to keep putting him on medicine either, the tubes went super fast and he was a champ at recovery, but since the tubes he has had two more infections which the doctor says the tubes arent 100% its usally almost a full year before a child would get there first one again but we only lasted a few months before our son got another infection and again we spent our Sat. afternoon at urgent care. So I guess I would probably talk to a ENT specialist about it, we had a wonderful doctor over here in Woodbury I would recommend him!! Im also going to look into Chiropracic with childs ear infections I have heard it works!!
Good luck let me know if I can be anymore help!!

I have 3 children and all 3 of them have had tubes in their ears. They are now 12, 8, and 6. Tubes was a wonderful thing for all of them. I too didn't like them being on all the antibiotics and they had side effects for the children because of all the continuous use. My son has allergies to most antibiotics now and one of my daughters developed intestinal infection because it killed all the "good" bacteria in her system. For us tubes were lifesavers and they completely took care of all the infections. Good Luck!!

My son had tubes put in about a year ago; he has not had any ear infections since then.

About 5 weeks one of them fell out and he has had two ear infections.

I myself have had tubes several times as a child and a couple times as an adult. My family has small eustacion tubes which cause them to get plugged and cause infections. Tubes keep that open so the fluid can pass through, it works wonderful.

If you are unhappy with your doctor, which I would if I was you; ask him for a referral to a specialist or if your insurance doesn't require a referral just take your son to one; I can recommend the one I took mys on too if you want.

Good Luck!
S.

My son has had four sets of ear tubes. If he did not he would constantly have ear infections. He just turned three. He usually gets the sets every six months. He just had a hearing test with this last set and nothing is wrong with his hearing. He is a little groggy and scared after he gets out of his surgeries, but other than that everything works out wonderfully. Generally when his tubes fall out he gets one or two ear infections, but usually the tubes are replaced almost immediately. Anyway, I wish you luck. I love our ENT and I love children's hospital as they have always been wonderful with him

I'm actually suprised that tubes weren't mentioned with the last infection! Anything over a week is way too long, and after the second week of not getting better - tubes should have been brought up then. How long it takes a child to recover from an ear infection is more of a key factor than the number of them that they get. I suggest having him seen by an ENT - ear/nose/throat specialist.
The actual procedure of getting tubes is very quick & easy. The doc always had the tubes in before the coffee pot in the waiting room was done brewing. They put baby to sleep, pop in the tubes, wake him up after, and you're home before Nick Jr is over. There's no special diet or anything like that for after care.
A good ENT will have a hearing test done prior to the procedure, and after. This is done by another specialist inside the clinic. They put baby in a room (on parent's lap if it's a child under preschool age) and have different mechanical animals make noise in different areas of the room. If the child hears the noise, he'll look that way. They also test the pressure of the ears, before & after surgery. These tests are more to make sure that the tubes are doing their job than anything else, but does test for possible hearing loss from the infection.
Tubes do pop out easily, and may need to be replaced. Tubes don't prevent infections, only assist in faster healing times. The tubes allow the infection to drain out of the ear canal, instead of sitting in the ear. My son's infections were so thick that they popped the tubes out. The small hole that remains does do the same work so tubes won't be replaced right away if that happens. My son actually had tubes in, 3 times in one year. But, after that year was up he stopped being sick so much and didn't need tubes again (he's now 5).
The ENT will also give ear plugs for bathing and things like that. We used to always just put a little vaseline on a cotton ball for baths, when we would lose the plugs.

My son will be 3 in June and has been going through the same thing every fall/winter. Starts late Sept and doesn't stop until January or so. He has a speech delay and is in speech therapy and his hearing is a very important part of that therapy and his success. Because an ER doctor wouldn't treat him with antibotics (because in Europe they don't use them-sorry, but I am not in Europe!) my son was living with hearing loss due to fluid on the ear for 6 weeks. Now the fluid has almost gelled up and we have to hog tie him to get nasal spray in his nose everyday until it is cleared. And we have been doing this every day for 5 weeks. Don't accept NO for an answer from your doctors about antibiotics. It's not like these kids take them all year for years on end....it is a few months every year and it is necessary for these kids who suffer, and I believe suffer is the correct word, from chronic ear infections. Please be a good advocate for your child! Well, just wanted to tell my story and hope it helps at lease one child to not live what my son is living through now.

HEY H.,
I'M NOT SAYING DON'T HAVE THEM GET THE TUBES BUT I HAVE THREE GIRLS 22,15, AND 6. WHEN THEY WERE ALL LITTLE THEY HAD EAR INFECTIONS ALSO BUT THEY ALL GREW OUT OF IT AND HAVEN'T HAD ANY EAR INFECTIONS SINCE THEY WERE ABOUT 3 YEARS OLD. I NEVER HAD ANY OF THEM GET TUBES THEY JUST GREW OUT OF IT.
J.

Hi H.! My youngest son, now 15 mos., had ear infections for almost 3 months straight last year. He was constantly on antibiotics, and just miserable. We saw an ENT and an audiologist, and they both recommended he get ear tubes. He had the surgery last March, and has been completely fine ever since. He's had colds here and there, but it's never gotten to his ears. I was a little scared having my baby have surgery, but they did a great job. I don't know where you live, but we were at Children's Hospital, and Dr. H. Murphy did the procedure.

I hope this helps! :)

C. A.

I faced the decision on putting tubes in my sons ears. But i was fortunate enough that he grew out of it. But his were caused by teething. But I did meet people who have had them done, and the vast majority of them swear by this proceedure. You want to be very careful with antibiotics, your child can develope an immunity to them. Being a mother of 6 children, I would have it done if my child was having problems like the ones your child is facing. If you are unsure, share your concerns with the Dr. They would rather you share them, then to have something done that you are not comfortable with. Or you could get a second opinion. But I would do something quick so there is no more hearing loss than what is already there.

My daughter had tubes placed when she was 10 months. They were a God send. She had 8 ear infections in her first 10 months of life and tubes were the only way to go. She had some issues during surgery, because she had an adverse reaction to the anesthesia, but otherwise everything went fine. She is 3 now and has not had an infection since.

My 6 month old will be getting tubes in a month and I welcome them. He has had 4 ear infections. The last one was in his left ear, which was found while he was still on antibiotics for an ear infection in his right ear.

They allowed my daughter to feel good and allowed us not to worry, or lose sleep at night because of all the nights she cried with ear pain until we could be seen by the doctor. I also like the fact that she isn't always on antibiotics. They really hurt her stomach on threw her whole body out of whack.

Good luck to you and your son!

If he is having hearing loss due to the ear infections I would highly recommend seeing ENT, if you have not already! my daughter has had tubes since about feb 2006 and has not really had a problem since, she did not get to the point of hearing loss. I was pretty poactive. I have been through this myself and I am also a nurse but I would see ENT if it were my child. The procedure is really about 5 minutes and by evening of the night of the procuedure you will not even know your child had it done they will resume normal activity. It is harder on us parents than the children! If the fluid is retaining the best way is tubes. Good luck and I hope this helps! M.

My son had many ear infections. I brought him to a chiropractor and $1000 later, ended up getting tubes put in. The chiropactor did say if he had allergies the adjustments might not work. I wish i would have had the tubes put in sooner. Would have saved on money and ear infections. He's been ear infection free for almost 1 ear.

HI, I HAVE 2 OF 5 KIDS THAT HAVE HAD TUBES PUT IN. MY 71/2 YR OLD SON HAS HAD TUBES TWICE. ONCE AT 11 MONTHS AND THEN AGAIN AT AGE 4.HE WAS NEVER ONE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE PAIN AND THE ONLY WAY I KNEW THAT HIS EARS WERE INFECTED WOULD BE WHEN THEY WOULD PERFERATE. THAT IS SCARY, KNOWING THAT EAR INFECTIONS ARE PAINFUL. WITH BOTH THE BOYS THEY HAD NUMEROUS INFECTIONS, BUT I REPEATEDLY ASKED ABOUT SEING AN ENT DO TO THE FREQUENCY.MY SON WHO JUST TURNED 6 HAD TUBES AT AGE 2, HE HAS NOT HAD ANY EAR INFECTIONS SINCE. BUT MY 7 1/2 YR OLD SON HAS. HE STILL DOES NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE PAIN UNTIL IT IS ABOUT TO PERFERATE, THEY ARE JUST NOT AS FREQUENT. HAVE YOU ASKED YOUR CHILDS DOCTOR ABOUT SEEING AN ENT? AND HAVING THE ENT CHECK HIM? HAS HE HAD ANY HEARING TEST DONE BY AN ENT? SOMETIMES IT TAKES THE SUGGESSTION FOR THAT TO HAPPEN. IF YOU HAVN'T THEN I SUGGESST THAT YOU LOOK INTO IT. ESPECIALLY IF THE ANTIBIOTICS DONT WORK IN CLEARING IT UP. 5 WEEKS IS A LONG TIME FOR AN INFECTION TO STICK AROUND. I HAVE BEEN THERE MYSELF, AND THINK THAT SOMETIMES WE NEED TO TELL OUR DOCTORS WHAT WE THINK AND MAKE SUGGESSTIONS. I HOPE ALL GOES WELL FOR YOU. AND YOUR SON.

Hi H.. I didn't read all the replies, so this might be a repeat of another post...but

Just a thought, if your son uses a pacifier, he should be weaned from it asap.

My 3rd daughter had TERRIBLE ear infections. The doctor told me it was time to stop the pacifier and see if that was the culprit. Sure enough, we said "bye bye" to the pacifier (I cut off the nipple, told her that binki was broken but she could keep it if she wanted. She carried it around for two days. Then she threw it away herself and was fine without it.) She never had another ear infection after that.

If he doesn't use a pacifier, I'm of no help at all ;)

Best wishes for a speedy recovery :)

I would recommend chiropractic care first. We haven't encountered this problem and hopefully never will (he did get diagnosed last night with a single one but probably due to his cold). I know of people that this worked well for.

Either route you choose - good luck.

My son is almost 20 months old. He has had tubes in now since last May. In his first year he had numerous ear infections most of the time in both ears at the same time. In between infections he always had fluid in both ears. His Pediatrician recemmomended tubes after he turned a year old. Since the tubes he has only had one ear infection and that was just a few weeks ago. My husband and I are both glad we had the tubes put in. He sleeps better at night since they were put in also. Good luck with your decision. Where are you from? I am from Green Bay and I could recemmend a good ENT Dr.

M. Kasper
____@____.com

Have you looked into Chiropractic care? My son is going to one at the moment to clear up fluid in his ear. It has to do with how the C1 veritabrae (sp) is aligned and it can cause the ear tube to not drain properly. If your in the Hopkins area I can recommend a good office.

My daughter is 5 and I will guess has had atleast 10-15 ear infections in her life. Everytime she got a cold it happened. I made the mistake of taking her all over town, and to multiple convienant urgent cares so it wasn't documented easily enough for her regular pediatrician to see the pattern so no tubes. It seemed after 3 years of age they vanished like she outgrew it. She hasn't had a ear infection in 2 years. I was horrible at letting her have a bottle with water in it everynight at bedtime and took that away at 2.5 years old and that's when things seemed to get better as well.

Both of my children had to have tubes put in their ears. My son was around 2 yrs old. He had so many recurring infections...it seemed as soon as we finished with a dose of antibiotics, within a couple days it was back. One day, he was sitting on my lap, looking the other direction. I said something to him and got no reaction...did the same a little louder, finally (scared to death) I touched him, he looked up and said "what mom". He had no clue that I was talking to him. That is when I insisted that they do the surgery. The longer you wait, the more scar tissue forms on the ear drum. Each time the ear drains...it is actually your babies ear drum bursting. It does heal but it leaves scar tissue.

My daughter followed suit with infections...but we did not wait for her to lose her hearing before getting the surgery done. The results were awesome. I must say it was a bit difficult with bathing and keeping water out of the ears but it was so awesome for my babies not to be in pain...what a difference.

Two of my three sons have had ear tubes. Both had a significant amount of ear infections before the tubes were put it and my youngest had hearing loss. I would bring it up to your doctor and/or get a referal to an ENT. I think they say 6 infections in a year.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the CDC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16140545/
http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/files/GetSmar...
all discourage treating ear infections with antibiotics.
There is a book called 'Healing Childhood Ear Infections' that I used for my own child 15 years ago that gives very specific reasons why 3 in 4 children do NOT have to get ear infections. It tells you how to heal, and avoid, ear infections and has the same advice...more than 10 years before the orgs above came to the same conclusions.
It works. My dau had one year ache in 15 years that required pain relief, and never had an ear infection that required an antibiotic (not that doctors didn't try to push AMOXICILLIN at every turn). She's had antibiotics twice in her life, not for ear infections. The only hearing loss she has is selective!
Demanding antibiotics is dangerous! The CDC currently considers antibiotic resistance the most pressing health concern we have, http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/anitbiotic-re... and part of the problem is parents demanding antibiotics when they aren't appropriate without understanding the serious ramifications of such an action.
It is the cycle of antibiotic treatment that creates recurrent ear infections and so often leads to tubes.
In reading the responses, I see that a lot of ear infections started very early. I didn't see if anyone stated if they were breast or bottle feeding, but bottle feeding increases the risk of ear infections by at least FIVE TIMES (as well as other diseases that are painful, possibly dangerous and expensive). Avoiding giving babies possible allergens for at least the first year(including milk, peanut, corn, wheat soy which are in the top ten allergen list) is important also. All formula sold in the US contains one or more of the these. http://www.truthinlabeling.org/formulacopy.html Most have a base of cows milk (and many of you already know that you aren't supposed to give cows milk to babies in the first year...how much sense does that make?)and if it's not a base of cow's milk, it's soy...with corn syrup, corn starch, corn oil, soy oil, peanut oil. Once you understand how most allergies develop, it's no wonder we have such a huge increase in childhood allergies.
If you can break the antibiotic cycles and avoid allergens, you can save your children a great deal of pain and yourself a great deal of money, lost work and sleepless nights.
K. Wildner
____@____.com
www.kimwildner.com

H.,
My daughter was just 6 weeks old when her ear infections started. She had one after another after another. I wanted to have tubes put in so I took her to an ENT doc and she had her first set put in when she was 7 months old. It took care of the problem until they fell out! She had to have more put in when she was 14 months old and they also burned off her adnoids. She still has the tubes in and we have been ear infection free since! I think tubes are a great thing to do if your child has such chronic infections.
If you would like the name of a good ENT doctor let me know, mine was wonderful!