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My 18 mos old baby girl has had 6 ear infections in the last 12 mos, and four of them in the last 6 mos so it is being recommended that we have the tubes put in her ears. After the doctor visit I came home and read my American Pediatric Childcare book and it doesn't sound like they are all that convinced they are necessary, or that they are beneficial. What is your opinion or do you have any experience you can share with me? Martha
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I am definitely in favor of the ear tubes. My daughter had one ear infection after another and was prescribed sooo many antibiotics in her first year. Finally she had the tubes put in when she was 10 months old and we have not had an ear infection since, in two years! At her recent appointment with the pediatrician they told me that the tubes had fallen out and were just sitting there in her ear. They just fell out in the last few weeks because at our previous appointment they were still in. The pediatrician said that is unusually because usually they fall out within a year but an indication that she really did need them and that they were effective for her because of the way that her ear is shaped. I'm so glad that we could leave the ear infections behind and the surgery was easy, breezy. She was back to normal the next morning.
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Another vote in favor of the ear tubes!! Our son had them put in at 15 mos. It was non-stop ear infections from about 8 mos to the day they were put in...we actually had to postpone the surgery until an infection cleared! After they were put in, he did fabulous! And now at 3.5, almost TWO years after the surgery, he still has one in place!
Another huge thing we overcame after ear tubes was his speech delay. With all the ear infections, it was affecting his hearing and he at age 2, he was one year behind in speech. He still gets therapy now, but is a talky talky and a completely different boy.
Fortunately our DD has not had this problem, however, being a medical provider (Physician Assistant) and having had many friends and family members who have been through this I am in favor of them if there are repetitive infections. If there are too many infections you can get hearing loss in addition to speech delay. Also having to use antibiotics so much contributes to antibiotic resistance (antibiotics becoming ineffective against bacteria that they used to be effective against). I say if there are multiple infections and you have seen an ENT who agrees then they can be super helpful. Sometimes they do fall out as the child grows and have to be replaced. Sometimes they do not have to be replaced, but don't be surprised if they do have to be replaced at some point.
My son went from having SEVERE, recurrent ear infections on almost a weekly basis to having 1 or 2 once or twice a year. He was 10 months old when he had them put in. They fell out naturally at around 2 years old. He is now going to be nine, and (knock on wood) hehas had maybe one ear infection in 8 years. It was the best decision we could have done for him at the time.
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Our son had 2 sets of tubes. First set when he was 2, another set a yr or so later. They worked so well, it was amazing the difference they made.
When he was in 2nd grade he came home from school one day with pus pouring out his ears, I'd NEVER seen anything like it. Massive double ear infection. They did a hearing test, and he had negative pressure in his ears, and the teacher just thought he wasn't paying attention, he couldn't hear. They did a cat scan of his sinuses and found out his adnoids were huge. I'd never even heard of adnoids until then. So we did tubes again plus took out the adnoids and he has been ear infection free. He was 7 when this was done, now he's 17. It's been great. SHelley
My vote is a yes, they help. You risk permenant damage to their hearing with recurrant infections. My son got them at 8mo and hes 16mo now. He'd had 6 infections in 4 months at that point. He's only had one infection since then and once he got them, everything changed. He started talking more, slept better and was so much happier.
I was told for 2 1/2 years that tubes were not "necessary" anymore, nor benefiicial. My son had very limited hearing from 6 mos - 3 years, when I finally got the nerve to switch pediatricians and ENTs. He actually heard sounds he hadn't heard before the day he had the surgery. He is now 9 and has just caught up with his language and reading, as it also affected his reading ability.
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Tubes are a life saver!!! My son had 4 infections in 6 months & 2 different meds. after he became immune ot one of them. If a persons ears are infected they can't hear clearly. My son now needs speech therapy to make up for the time lost during all the infections. I say go for it & keep an eye on the speech.
I don't honestly know when the whole tube thing started - but I can say that I had them put in at age 4 (nearly 30 years ago), I had ear infections one after another from the time I was a baby and the Dr REFUSED to give my mom a referal until that point - and that was only because a friend of my mom's was a college professor at a medical school and was able to get me independently tested. I had over a 80% hearing loss at that time - I was getting by with reading lips, and no one knew it. I struggled through elementary school, espcially with reading, but was very fortunate to have a reading specialist work with me. I ended up needing 3 sets of tubes, adnoids out, and then when I was a teenager tonsils out and sinus surgery. One thing I stress to people that have kids with ear problems is that I could not adequately communicate, as a child, the amount of pain and discomfort I was in from the ear and sinus problems. The pressure of the mucus alone, and the reverberating noise that it did cause was horrible. Oh and BTW - the best ear plugs we ever found - Silly Putty, I swam on swim team and all - and it stayed in - the custom ones were outgrown too quickly and the waxy ones never stayed in.
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marthavmommy
My 18 mos old baby girl has had 6 ear infections in the last 12 mos, and four of them in the last 6 mos so it is being recommended that we have the tubes put in her ears.
After the doctor visit I came home and read my American Pediatric Childcare book and it doesn't sound like they are all that convinced they are necessary, or that they are beneficial. What is your opinion or do you have any experience you can share with me?
Martha