Tubes for My Daughter's Ears - Yes or No

G.,

My son has also had a tremendous amount of ear infections. His pediatrician and I decided early on that we would try to control them by managing his allergies which were the main cause. Therefore, we ended up not seeing an ENT until he was almost 4. By then he had spent much of his life on antibiotics and the ear infections had affected his hearing and thus his speech. He is 7 now and we still struggle with his ears. He has had 2 sets of tubes and will maybe have to have a 3rd although his hearing and speech are back on track. If I had it to do over again, I would definitely get the tubes put in much earlier to avoid all of the antibiotics and subsequent problems.

I would say yes... both my 2-1/2 year old twins have tubes (operation, July 2005) and their ear infections all but disappeared. My daughter also had her adnoids removed which has eliminated sinus infections; we're contimplating the same for my son.

Hi G.,

We just had tubes put in our then 20 months old ears in January. The surgery didn't take very long, and it has helped tremendously. She is daycare part time so she catches everything going around. Before tubes, every virus would have led to an ear infection. After tubes, we haven't had an ear infection since. Don't get me wrong, she still gets sick. It just runs its course without turning into a full blown ear infection where she has to have antibiotics. Every parent I talked to before we decided to go through with it has also had positive things to say. The surgery took less than 10 minutes. There is a pediatric surgery center in North Richland Hills where they give them medication to help with the separation anxiety. Within two hours we were in the car on our way home. Within four hours she was completely herself with no side effects. It is surgery so I am sure there are risks. When they wake up after anesthesia, it is not very pleasant for the first 15 minutes or so. My daughter hates ear drops so that wasn't very much fun either. Overall, I would say that we are very glad we went through with it.

I have a daughter who is 2 years, 3 months. She had a ton of ear infections when she was younger. She had a constant runny nose, cried because her ears hurt, and went from pleasant to being in an awful mood. I am not an expert by any means, but I wanted to let you know why we came to our conclusion to get the ear tubes. My daughter was having so much trouble that the pediatrician felt she wasn't hearing words correctly, therefore she wasn't saying them correctly. They felt that there might be a need for a speech therapist if the problem continued. At that point, we decided to get the ear tubes. We were very glad to have had the surgery done because we saw an immediate improvement in the ear infections (none since), her temperment, and speech. I do know that not all children have as great an experience. I hope that you get feedback on both sides to give you a balanced viewpoint, but I wanted to offer our story to you. Good luck in your research and I hope your child feels better!

G. -

I would recommend the tubes. The surgery is so....nothing...really. We put tubes in my son's ears when he was about 11 months old - he'd had 8 ear infections since he was born. Yuck.

We were so terrified of the surgery, but it was so easy. The actual surgery took about 15 minutes.

My son is still traumatized by his ear infections - he won't let anyone NEAR them for any reason. I wish we would have done it sooner - not a single infection since.

Good luck -

S.

I think that the surgery would do her justice I had a niece who recently underwent a similar surgery she also constantly had ear infections you can find out more details about the days after her e-mail address is ____@____.com she is out of town until Tuesday of next week but if you e-mail her she will respond I pray all goes well with you guys and feel free to email either of us with any questions

What is a lot of ear infections?
How many has she had in what about of time frame?

Shan

I work for PSOp in Plano, and my mother is an NP. When she recommended tubes, I put it off at first. Then when I learned he was most likely not hearing, I had it done immediately. The result was awesome; he's hearing was perfect 4 months later. The myringotomy is very minor, we were out after about an hour. Dr. Gregory Rohn is a wonderful ENT in west Plano at Presby. Good luck. Trust me, I try to avoid unneccessary surgeries, but sometimes this is a must.

A lot of times, children do get better as they get older. Tubes help Some children, and don't help others. Some have to have them put in multiple times. I waited until 4 to have my child's tubes put in. The ENT told me after surgery that she would most likely not have anymore problems since there was a large amount of discharge behind her eardrum. He was right. She has not had an ear infection since. My pediatrician gave me septra for my third child to be administered for 3 days only once she had signs of a cloudy nose discharge. This worked great and she never needed tubes, but pediatricians do not like to give antibiotics like this anymore. Good luck!

take your daughter to a chiropractor (a pediatric chiro even better) before you decide on tubes. you can find a Dr near you at
http://www.icpa4kids.com/
you can also do a search on ear infections and read several articles related.

My daughter isabela was 11 months old when she had to have tubes, started having ear infections since she was 2 months old and she would have one evrey month, after the surgery she hasn't had another one, the surgery was very fast and small and she did very good after.

I know it's a very difficult decision to put your child through a surgery and we too struggled with the decision. We finally decided to go ahead and it was the best thing we ever did for our daughter. She was 19 months old. Ear infections are so painful and miserable for the kiddo and the surgery is really very simple. Hope this helps!

My daughter was a tubes candidate - we moved here from New England to get away from the cold weather in an attempt to help prevent the ear infections, but she got another one as soon as she got here. We were told the same thing, that it was up to us to decide if we wanted to do it or not. We were taking her out of daycare to stay home and decided to wait it out a little longer to see if that helped - and it did - she has been sick twice since, but with no ear infection. I am not sure if is her age (or growth) or if it was removal from the exposure to germs, but it has been about 6 months (July 05) since her last ear infection. I was very nervous about going through with the tubes, but I would say that if her exposure to other kids and germs is high - you may want to just do it, to put you both out of your misery. I know how difficult it is going month to month with what seems like one continuous ear infection. Kind of waffly advice, I know, but I just thought I would share my experience. I have heard that tubes are a godsend for kids that get them. Good Luck!

do it - best thing we could have done with maddy grace - hope ur feeling better -

It's a HUGE decision - anything that involves general anesthesia is. Each child is different, and you have to weigh the options. I would strongly consider a second opinion. We had a different issue, but ended up using Roy Lowry (1001 12th Ave, Fort Worth, ###-###-####) and Texas Pediatric Surgery Center (next to North Hills Hospital). Both were extremely efficient, Dr. Lowry gave me great answers and the best part is little to no wait time at his office and at the surgery center. I've heard bad stories about Cook's postponing "simple" surgeries, like tubes, for the big ones, leaving your little one hungry and very crabby. Good luck - I hope I never have to make the surgery decision ever again - it's so hard!

Before you go the route of surgery, I'd look into chiropractic care for the ear infections. I take my son to the chiropractor when he is sick and have been told that should he ever get an ear infection to bring him in immediately and they can fix him right up. He's never had an ear infection before, but I would certainly go this route before surgery. Given that the ENT says it is up to you makes it sound to me like it is not crucial for your daughter and so it might be a good idea to just wait and see what happens.