Recent Visit to ENT

Both of my girls have had tubes and it worked wonders for them. Don't worry, everything will be fine.

Don't worry about tubes. I was so worried and it was fine. The process is quick, the baby comes back a little upset and then they are fine. My daughter fought ear infections for two years and we finally gave in and she has been so much better. It also is great for flying since their ears don't pop.

My son hasn't had tubes but I have several friends whose kids have had them (all around 1 year old). They have said their babies were completely different children afterwards - much happier, not sick as often, etc.

Fluid builds up the in the ears because the ear canal that drains into the throat is pinched. It is a common problem with small children. The healthier alternative to tubes in the ears is to take your son to a chiropractor. Particularly one that specializes in family practice. Having your son's neck in alignment opens back up the ear canal tubes and lets the fluid drain. Children that are adjusted regularly rarely need to have the tubes put in unless they have a malformation of the ear canal. Chiropractics is just as effective, if not more effective and then you don't have to have surgery.

T.,
My middle and youngest sons both have had tubes. The middle son did not have tubes until after he had constant fluid and ear infections for 18 months (from 1yr old to 2.5 yr old). As a result he was speech and language delayed and is still at 11yrs old behind his peers academically. My youngest son had his first set around 18 months and would go on to have 3 more set by age 5. He is right on track academically. For both of them the number of infections dropped substantially. Recovery time for my boys was relatively short. Back to normal by the very next day.

Good luck to you and your little guy.
K.

My daughter had tubes put in before she turned 2. I am so glad. She has not had an infection since then and she is now just over 4. She had no pain that I know of after the surgery but screamed like nobodies business just after waking up from the surgery. It was decidedly not a hurt scream but a very angry scream. I think she was just disoriented. Once we left the hospital she was her happy little self again.

My daughter had a lot of fluid in both ears - which led to lots of ear infections. We took her to an ENT at about the same age as your son and they suggested tubes as well. We were very nervous about it - but decided to go for it. The fluid in her ears also caused a speech delay - my daughter has been in speech therapy since she was about 18 months - now 3 1/2 yrs and she's still delayed in her speech (but not nearly as much as she was). It took a little while for her to adjust to being able to hear with the tubes (instead of like she was underwater with all the fluid) - but once she did, her speech took off and she's talking up a storm now... We have only had 1 ear infection since (she got tubes at 2 yrs) and we used antibiotic ear drops to clear it up (she didn't have to be on oral antibiotics - which also gives her horrendous diaper rash). Getting tubes has been worth is for us.

T.,

I am reading everyones support of the tubes and comments that their kids never had ear infections after having them placed. Both of my little girls had almost constant ear infections one year (to the point that the antibiotics were becomming a concern for one). Anyway, both had the tubes placed almost 2 years ago. For my girls, they GREATLY REDUCED the ear infections, but we still get some - in fact one has one now <g>. It is the quickest surgery you will every have to take anyone to. Before you get comfortable in the waiting room, they are finished. The hardest part is explaining that he cant eat or drink that morning, and sometimes little kids can get a little wild when they come out of the anesthetic. Neither of my girls ever complained of pain after the surgery, and it is kind of neat that you don't have to guess abt ear infections anymore...most of the time you know because it is actually draining out of the tube.

My pediatrician and ENT are a little more cautious than some regarding ear care with the tubes, though. My girls wear plugs any time that they are swimming or even playing in the tub. For swimming, they wear headbands so that the plugs dont fall out.

Goodluck. I don't blame you for being nervous. I know that I was.

S.

My son kept getting ear infections and fluid build up and had to have tubes put in his ears. The procedure is done and over pretty fast. My son did not have any problems after that. I would not worry to much because I also have several friends who kids have had tubes in their ears and every one of them turned out good with no problems.

T.,
It depends. I am only a mom of three, so not an expert. If he visited the ENT it usually means that he has had chronic ear infections. Generally, fluid is not a big deal. You did not mention whether or not they did a hearing test to determine how well your son is hearing. My oldest had to have tubes. Not really a big deal, but I try to avoid un-necessary procedures. As the mommy, you have to be his advocate. If you have a good relationship with your pediatrician, I am sure they will have an opinion for you. Check with them. If the ENT and ped doctor think the fluid is part of the speech problem, the tubes sound like the correct route. My daughter's speech improved tremendously after the tubes were inserted.

I wish you much luck. Feel free to contact me if you need encouragement/support.

My daughter had tubes put in her ears a week after her first birthday. She had been battling ear infections for months and I decided we should just get it done to aleviate the problem. I was a bit nervous, too before the surgery, but, in the end, I am glad we made that decision. She had no more ear infections and the tubes stayed in there for about a year. To be honest, we could see a difference in her "speaking" and her ability to hear things better almost right away. She started to talk more. So, it was one of the best "first" decisions we could have made as new parents. The procedure is rather quick and they really recouperate within a day or so. I didn't see my daughter in any pain after it either. I hope this eases your mind a bit. In the end, it will be all worth it and you will see results rather quickly. If you have any other questions, please feel free to message me. :-) Good luck!

Hi,
My name is T., I am a mom of a 2 year old boy and expecting a girl in July. I too had to have tubes put in my sons ears at 18 months old, and I will tell you, they are a god send. After dealing with ear infection constantly for 10 months, he has had one ear infection in the last 9 months. I also had to have him recircumcised so I had both procedures done at the same time and he did fine. But also as a nurse I now that the procedure of tubes and the tongue-tied procedure are very simple and fast. Your son probaby won't even need an IV. As parents, it is harder on us that the kids.

Hope I helped

T.:

Hello and good morning! Congratulations on your marriage (it's soooo good to hear people are happily married!) and your job. I do understand about missing your baby.

Now about the fluid and the tubes. In my opinion, this is NOT bad news. I think it's great that they caught the fluid before hearing loss was done. My youngest son had tubes in his ears at one year and it was a life-changing experience! My son was cranky from the day he was born (Prematurely - he had had pneumonia and other complications). He couldn't lay on his back and for the first year of his life had to sleep sitting up.

It will be OKAY! The tubes will help him out. I would ask if the surgery could wait until after summer so he can go to the pool.

THe surgery literally takes 15 to 30 minutes. I was more upset than he was and he was soooo happy within an hour after his surgery.

Take care and God bless!

Cheryl

My daughter had tubes put it at around 13 months old. She is now 4 and has never had an ear infection since. Prior she averaged 1 or 2 a month sometimes in both ears at once. The surgery only took about 30 mins start to finish and she didn't seem to mind at all and was not in pain that we could tell.

Best Wishes!

I not sure if this helps but my nephew(was about age 3) had tubes put in and remarked how loud things like the traffic and car radio was on the way home from the surgry.I dont remember anymore ear infections after and he is 21 years old now.

both my boys had multiple sets of tubes (they inherited my crappy ears) and i still have mixed feelings about it. their ear infections were SO severe, and their hearing so compromised, that i really don't know what else i could have done. on the other hand, i don't think i gave homeopathic and alternative remedies much of a chance because i was so frantic to get them relief. and the tubes DID help.
i guess i just tend to think that we all rush to 'help now, anything just NOW!' even when we don't know what the long-term effects are. case in point, the antibiotic resistant bacteria we have so carefully created. my kids both have scarring from the tubes, and one of 'em still has hearing on the very low end of normal and always will.
impossible to say how they would have turned out if i had held out on the tubes. but i do think that too many of us hustle our babies off to surgery without sufficiently exploring other options.
congrats on having a job you love! do you know how few people can say that?
:) khairete
S.

I had tubes when I was about 9. My oldest has tubes at 18 months. Her speech was very bad - not talking at all really. Ear infections all the time. I think I was at the peds office every other week. It got to the point she would scream turning on his street. She ended up developing a very high tolerance to ear pain since she spent most of her time with ear infections. My husband was against tubes but I told him what was more cruel - her thinking it was normal having ear pain 24/7 or going for a short procedure and having that pain go away. We did the tubes and within a week she was talking in complete sentences. She didn't have an ear infection for quite some time after that. I think she was probably 7 before she got one again. I will say she still has a high tolerance to ear pain. The only way I can tell if she has an ear infection is she runs a very high fever very fast. Like 98 to 102 in about 45 minutes. She has burst an ear drum before because she just can't feel that it hurts until her ears are really infected. Whe she tells me her ear hurts I drop everything and take her straight to the doctor. She also has a small amount of hearing loss in one ear due to all the infections she had when she was younger. I would advise if your doctor says it's a good idea to do it. Personally I wish I could have convinced my husband much sooner about having our daughter's done.

Hi. I don't know if you are open to alternative methods, but they work very well and are safer than antibiotics. I'm including some links if you want to read up on things. They are now recommending that antibiotics not be used right away because it can cause problems with the child's health. There are some alternative things, such as homeopathic, etc. The one thing that I do want to recommend it chiropractic adjustments. Aligning the neck allows the musculature to relax which will enable the Eustachian tubes to drain. I've been getting my daughter adjusted since she was a week old. It is very safe. I see Dr. Marina Alterman in Bethesda. Anyway, I hope that you little guy gets better soon. Here are the links...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/1...

http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/150/1/Con...

http://cbs11tv.com/health/chiropractors.children.illness....

http://www.icpa4kids.org/why.htm

http://www.icpa4kids.org/testimonials/earinfections.htm

By the way, I am chiropractor as well, but am not currently doing the adjustments. I focus on alternative therapies (nutrition, homeopathic remedies, etc) so if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

____@____.com
M. Bunker, DC

the biggest risk about the tubes is the anesthesia so if ENT does them both at once that would be great. my daughter two sets of ear tubes. she also had her adenoids removed the second time. recovery time was minimal. i kept her home from daycare on the day of surgery but she was acting totally normal. now for us my daughter had a lot of ear infections and mild hearing problems caused by fluid in the ears. she talked so much better after the tubes were placed. and the bonus is that changes in altitude were no problem so flying for us was a breeze. good luck! btw, if you do choose the surgery route the hardest part for us was the 15 minutes of screaming while my daughter was coming out of anesthesia.

Having tubes put it is nothing and wouldn't you rather do it all at once than have him have to go through it over and over again. Also, if the fluid doesn't drain on it's own, it starts to effect their hearing and speech, imagine if all you heard was underwater, because with enough fluid in the ear, that's what it sounds like. Also, my son's fluid couldn't drain, so it kept getting infected, which will happen if it hasn't already, extra fluid is a breeding ground for bacteria, so you can be in for continual ear infections that can rupture the ear drum, that happens enough and it will permanently effect their hearing. Tubes are not the immediate course anymore, so if you think it's too hasty, see an additional ENT for a second opinion, but the surgery isn't bad. It's worse on you than them. My son was playing be the end of the night of surgery and was fine after that, plus the fluid was so much better. Good luck!!

If you want to avoid tubes, try chiropractic first. It really works! Sometimes they just need their neck adjusted. They also show you how to massage the neck in a special way. It totally cleared up my daughter's ear infections and no drugs or surgery! We go to Dolmat and Geheren Chiropractic. They are at Thalia and V.B. Blvd. Their number is ###-###-####. We see Dr. Dolmat and he is awesome! Good luck!

Both of my kids have had tubes several times, I'm sure the dr told u it is a simple procedure and it truly is, most hospitals allow u to stay with your child right up until they take him/her to the operating room, and they come get u as soon as they wake up from the procedure. This is truly a simple operation and trust me you and your child will benefit from having this done, lots less ear infections!! Even though its hard try not to worry to much, most ent drs have done this 1000's of times and they are wonderful drs. Good luck!

TUBES ARE THE BEST!!!!!!! My daughter had multiple ear infections as a baby. She got tubes when she was 1. She has had 1 ear infection and has been barely sick since she got them put in. The procedure is super easy and REALLY fast. I walked out from the room and went to the waiting room and picked up a magazine. They called our name right then. The entire thing was about 5 minutes.
My son is going to the ENT on Wed and we are hoping they put tubes in!!!
Good Luck!!

Hi T.,
My youngest had to have tubes put in her ears when she was 11 months old. She had suffered with constant ear infections for several months when they finally decided that she needed them. The scariest part, for me, of the whole thing was having to let the nurse take her to the surgery room. It was rather fast, the whole thing took about 15 minutes from the time they took her back until they called me to come to recovery to be with her as she woke up. She was definitely a different child after the surgery. She has only had 3 ear infections since then, and she is 4 now. She does not get sick as often as she did before, and I even noticed a difference in how she ate compared to before the surgery. I know it is scary to think that your little one go into surgery, but it is fast, and you will only be away from him for a very short time. If you have any specific questions, feel free to message me on here and I will be more than happy to answer.