Tubes - Catoosa, OK

Three of my children had tubes placed in their ears and it was the best thing I could have done for them. There were no more frequent ear infections. Also, my youngest daughter's speech was not up to par, until after the tube placement. She couldn't hear well enough to learn how to talk clearly. It was very scary for me - but it was the right thing to do.

J.,

I am a mother of a 3 year old little boy and when my son was 1 he had to have tubes put in. They really did work for him. He went from having an ear infection every month to none at all. Like I said he is 3 now and his tubes have fallen out and he still has not had an ear infection. You do have to be very cautious with tubes, anytime they are around water they are suppose to have ear plugs in their ears and the kind my sons doctor recommended were Mack's wax plugs because they can form to their little ears, they sell them at Walgreens. You are suppose to keep the ears dry because if they get an infection when they have tubes their ears drain and that is not good. But like I said I took care of my sons ears and he never got an infection after his tubes.

Best of Luck!

K.

Pleeease take your toddler to a chiropractor before you have surgery! They can help teach the ears to drain the fluids so that it doesn't build up and turn into an ear infection. There are even pediatric chiropractors. You do have to make sure you find a reliable one. This is much easier procedure for both of you.

I have 4 kids, three of which have had tubes put in their ears, they needed the tubes because they kept getting ear infections, they did work, my kids now 18, 14, and 12 have never had an ear infection or any other problems with their ears since they had it done. They all were little when they had it done. It is an outpatient procedure and the tube is no bigger than a grain of rice. All of their tubes fell out on their own, which i did not know they did until the doctor said they were gone. I would highly recommend u having the procedure done. If the reason for the tubes is recurring ear infections it is best, the reason i say this is every time they get an ear infection it scars their eardrum and the scarring can make them go deaf if it gets bad enough.

My daughter got her first set of tubes when she was about 19-20 months old. She had had about 20 ear infections (she had a cleft palate as an infant). Antibiotics were no longer working. Honestly, she needed the tubes a lot sooner than she got them. They worked wonders! They only stay in for about a 1 year and then your doctor will determine if she needs a second set put in. My daughter will get her second set put in soon. The surgery takes about 15 minutes. There is a slight chance that after the surgery your child will be hysterical for about 15 minutes. It's caused by putting the child under and into a VERY deep sleep and then waking them up (they are not in pain). My daughter did this. After the surgery they will give your child tylenol and you will be required to put drops in their ears for a few days. My child returned to preschool the next day. Honestly, she was fine by noon. It's very easy. But it did work well for us. She's had one ear infection over the past year and it is because her tube is out.

My daughter is 13. When she was 2 she had 6 ear infections in 4 months. It seemed like we would get one cleared up and a week later she had another one. I was constantly taking her to the doctor. We went to an ear,nose, and throat doctor and he suggested tubes. The surgery took only about 30 min. and she has only had one ear infection since. We did not have any problems with them and they come out on their own, so you don't have to have the removed. The only restrictions she had was for the first few months after they were put in, she had to wear ear plugs while swimming.

My son just got tubes last week. He is only 9 months old. He was having a terrible time with ear infections. I was scared too, but it really was not that bad. They only had to put my son under for about 15 minutes. The procedure is very quick. My son was very cranky though afterwords, but they told me that was because of the anesthetic. Good luck and I hope it works out.

alex has had three sets of tubes done. They do work if they also look at the other little things. For instance the first set of tubes put into alex helped the ear infections but he still couldnot hear. So the dr. went in and took adnoids and tonsils out so he is a lot better now. So you should ask the dr. about all of the other little things to see if it will help your daughter so you dont have to go through all of that three times like i did. Just a suggestion I went through three surgeries and some people i talked to got it done all at once. It is easier on the kid and your nerves to ask the dr. about it.

J., my dr told me my son needed tubes in his ears when he was 15 mos old. I started asking around and my neighbor happened to be a chiropractor. I took him to a wonderful chiropractor that deals with children and he hasn't had an ear infection since (he is 3 1/2 now). Interestingly, I took him to his regular dr. for a check up at 2 yrs old and she asked about the ear infections and I told her I took him to the chiroprator. She told me that usually doesn't work, and then proceeded to look in his ears and told me he had another ear infection. I took him to an ear, nose and throat dr after that and he said he didn't see any signs of infection. Told him he was seeing a chiropractor for his ears, and he said to keep doing what we were doing because it was working. He recommends seeing a chiropractor before tubes to all his patients. May want to give it a try before the tubes, if it doesn't work you can always get the tubes done. If it does work, yippeee!!

My daughter had tubes put in back in May. The tube in her right ear is not draining correctly. We decided to switch drs. and are now going to Childrens Mercy and seeing Dr. Eyen, who is great, but he is going to have to replace the tube in her right ear. So for us it hasn't worked so far but hopefully after replacing the tube we will have better luck. Everyone else I know that has had tubes haven't had any problems and showed great improvement. I think it just has to do with my family's luck.

It depends on how chronic the fluid/infection problems are. Whether you get the surgery done or not, be sure you keep her ears clean and healthy, and I mean the eustacian tubes inside. There are probably natural ways to do this, I don't know. But I do know that if the tubes keep fluid in them, she will end up with a mild hearing loss. I was a deaf/hard of hearing teacher and have personally seen this happen. It's correctable, but her language level can be delayed if she's hearing things like it's underwater 1/2 the time.

My 16 month old, who was four months early, so he looks like a 12 month old, just got tubes, and it has made a HUGE difference. He started speech therapy right before he got his tubes, and we could definitely tell how much better he was hearing. He's only a few weeks post-op, and already he's making more sounds, voicing more consonants. I think it is one of the best things we did for him.

I worked for an ENT who did tubes. And let me tell you it takes a whole 15 minutes to put them in and did wonders for many many little ones. It helps the ears drain properly so that the wax doesnt get "caught" in there and get infected. We had patients that would get 2 sets in their course of ear infections and we had kids that only had to have 1 set because it worked that well. They do fall out eventually, usually about 5 to 6 years of age, and it happens naturally. Hope this helps!

My son got tubes when he was 1 year and 2 months old and it was GREAT! He was having ear infections every month for 7 months straight and I am so glad we got it done. He was having alot of hearing problems before hand and was over 75% deaf from the ear infections and gunk in his ears but now he's talking up a storm and hears perfectly. He got them in both ears and they are supposed to stay in for a year and he sticks his head underwater in the bath, etc.

My daughter had tubes put in at 1 1/2. Dr Eyen did the surgery and he is wonderful. She had double ear infections every month during her first ear. Since the tubes she has never had another ear infection. The surgery was over before I was done preparing my coffee and she was fine later that afternoon. I strongly recommend it.

I was scared to have my son get tubes since he was only 16 months old, but they were completely worth it. The whole procedure takes a very short time--under 30 minutes start to finish--and it has relieved him and us of the chronic ear infections. The only draw back is having to wear ear plugs any time they are in water. Other than that, totally worth it. I saw that one person recommended a chiropractor to drain the ears. I don't know much about that, but if it was my child, I would rather have a 30 minute procedure done that causes no pain and no side effects than take them to a doctor every time they need to have drainage, especially if it is uncomfortable. Good luck in your decision, whatever you decide. Like I said, tubes were the answer for us.

Hi J.. My 7 year old son had to have tubes three times, he was also 2 at the time. He always had fluid in his ears. We also noticed he wasn't really trying to talk that much and it seemed like he couldn't really hear us all of the. The first time after his tubes fell out he was still having a lot of fuild in his ears. Then we tried it again and the samething happend. The third time was a charmer. They also took out his adnoids. They were enlarged. That seemed to do the trick. After he had the tubes in he could hear really well and he started talking a lot more. Of course before the tubes we did try all of the antibiotics and allergy meds. We started off with our pediatrician and then went to an ear nose and throat doctor. Tubes were the last resort. The procedure is so quick we didn't even have time to sit and have a cup of coffee. He was fine. I am thankful we had it done. I hope that helps.

i have three kids and one needed tubes. she had chronic ear infections and it was horrible. we had tubes put in when she was 15 months and it was an easy surgery very short and painless, she was back at daycare the next day. not one ear infection since (she's 21 months now)

Hi J.-

I have to agree with Teri on trying chiropractic first. I'm a pediatric chiropractor, and I have ssen so many kids with damage to their ears b/c of tubes. I've also seen so many kids stop having ear infections after chiropractic care. You MUST find a chiropractor who works with children. One of the easiest ways to do that is to go to www.icpa4kids.org and click on find a doctor. All the doctors listed have additional training in working with infants and kids.

I hope you find someone to help.

Yours in health-
Dr. Alyssa

I know that chiropractors in most cases can prevent your child from having to have tubes. My chiro has worked on my kids since birth. I would find a good chiropractor that has experience w/ children. My chiro does a technique where he pulls on the ear and it drains the fluid. You can actually hear it snap and drain. I just had it done last Friday to my 14 month old. It is a little uncomfortable for them, but he had immediate relief that 4 rounds of antibiotics could not touch (in both ears).

It is worth a try to not put your child through a surgery.

Good Luck

I have 3 children and 2 of them have tubes. My oldest which was 4 when he had the tubes put in. To this day he has not had an ear infection other than swimmers ear and that was my fault. I thought that they had fallen out threw the years and we had went to a water park for vacation and he didnt have ear plugs in and with the pressure of the water on the rides he ended up with swimmers ear. Now as for my other son he is 2yrs old and we had it done when he was a baby. It started out that he had fluid on his ear since he was 2 months old but no infections until 4 months later then it was an ear infection every month on the same day. It then became a problem so we opted the surgery. We have had to replace them both since one had fallen out and he had gotten an ear infection and the other was moved slighly out of place. All this is due to him getting older and his ears are growing. They do sometimes have to be replaced. The one thing I have learned though is if you get just a little water in the ear it will drain and you will need to get an ear drop to clear up the water. If it is draining thats good in a way because you know it isnt just sitting there waiting for an infection to start.
Like all other responders have said it only takes a few minutes and the surgery is over and recovery is better than you think. What freaked me out was having to put my child under. I dont think any parent looks forwards to that. My oldest flew to florida just hours after his surgery and he did great. Thats one other things too if they have tubes in their ears when u fly they dont get the pressure like we would.
OK I will stop here and hope the best for you and your family.

If your daughter has chronic ear infections, her ear is probably populated by a biofilm of resistant bacteria. When a biofilm forms, there is not really anything antibiotics can do anymore and tubes are your only hope for relief.

http://www.med.yale.edu/yfp/news/child_0906.html

<rant> Personally, I think that the medical community has been creating these biofilms by administering antibiotics to children with ear infections. I think it causes the strains to become resistant and therefore chronic. My son has had two ear infections and I chose not to treat him with antibiotics despite how much pain he was in because I felt I was choosing a long-term solution over short-term pain relief. We just stayed up and comforted him all night long through his two bouts and they have never returned. I am extremely nervous about putting antibiotics into our bodies and all over our skin, and I will not do it unless it is a life-threatening infection, because if we keep on this path, sooner or later all bacteria will be superbugs and everyday infections will become life-threatening. When your hand gel says it kills 99% of bacteria, what do you think is happening to the other 1% that is resistant to the chemical? They are thriving and multiplying into the space left when the weaker bacteria died. Scary. </rant>

Hi J.,

I am a mother of 6 yr old twins. Both my son and daughter have had 3 sets of tubes. They have also had their adnoids and tonsils out. I noticed that after my daughter had her adnoids out her speech was 100% better. I took her out of speech therapy due to it. I don't like for them to have the surgeries but it has really help out. They have less ear infections and the hearing is so much better. I hope this has helped.