Hellobee

DS1 has had two sets of tubes – 1st at 17 months and then at 31 months. The 1st set fell out after about a year. His infections would clear but fluid always remained. We also tried zyrtec to see if it was allergy related. I suspect a lot of it is, but it didn’t help. With the tubes in place, he’s had no infections. He also had his adenoids taken out with the 1st surgery. It’s definitely not fun to see your child going into surgery and then coming out of anesthesia. But overall, it wasn’t a bad experience!

So my guy was constantly getting ear infections and after a few “typical” antibiotics we tried Cefdinir which is a cephalosporin and had a bad reaction, which is what led us to the ENT. The ENT had originally recommended we wait out the summer to see how he did, but after DS got an ear infection less than a week after we first saw the ENT he changed his mind and we went with tubes.

My little one had tubes put in 24 days before his 1st birthday and his third time under anesthesia but the first time we would not have an overnight stay. This one oddly enough bothered me more than his other two surgeries, I think because I went into the OR with him for the anesthesia but once he was out I left so I was not there for the procedure.

For us the procedure took what seems to be forever it should be I think 10ish minutes (but on May 7th it will be two years ago so my memory may be off) and ours took closer to 20. He has so much fluid that it had solidified and took a lot of time to clean it out prior to putting in the tubes. But once he was out he was fine, starving but fine it was a quick recovery.

The tubes are still in and he has gotten the occasional ear infection but they are so much easier and better to treat. (1) we don’t have to do oral antibiotics for them which are killer on his little digestive system and it gives him horrible diaper rash and (2) we can give him what I call “wax melting drops” prescribed by the ENT which I think helps avoid infections. We do see the ENT every 6 months for him to check on the tubes and he is pretty amazed that they are still in but since they are working well and he does create a ton of wax we are leaving them be.

When DS gets sick (with congestion, not just a cough) we are constantly checking his ears (with just a flash light only we don’t go poking in his ears) and if we start to see the wax on that outer canal that you can see, then we use the wax melting drops for a day or so and that usually allows the fluid and wax to pass out of the ear so as to not get infected.

I should note DS did get an ear infection probably about 1-2 weeks after the tubes went in. I was devastated, because we got the tubes to avoid this in the first place. But as I mentioned the treatment was so much easier for him and us. At this point the ENT had suggested that we try to go gluten free for a little bit, because he had seen with his patients an improvement but there was no official study but it seemed that there may be an intolerance issue and not an actual allergy.

We were seeing an allergist and his numbers for gluten were negligible, but we did go gluten free for about a year because we saw improvements in his overall quality of life. After being off gluten for almost 3 weeks he was no longer snoring at night and his constant runny nose was drying up. It was a long year for the family but we re-introduced gluten after a year and there has been no more constant runny nose or snoring. And I don’t remember exactly but maybe 1 ear infection post re-introduction to gluten…hard to remember so that is a good sign.

She got tubes at 21 months. She would get infections and show no sign of them, till her ear drum burst. Poor girl. After the 2nd the pedi said to go see an ENT. He told us that really she was on the edge of them, so we could hold off or go ahead. I asked him what he would do if it was his child. He said he would have done it after the first rupture. That sealed it for us and we scheduled it right then. The procedure is super easy and fast. She was up and running around hour after, once she finally got to drink and eat for the day. The only odd thing was that she took a 3 hr nap. She was back at day care the next day. She got an infection two weeks later, but drops cleared it up in 2-3 days. She hasn’t has another in 5 months. Her speaking and language had improved so much. I think all the fluid in her ears were affecting it.

We just got our SECOND set of tubes at 2.5. She had to have her first set at 10 months which was really stressful but we literally had no other options other than constant antibiotic use since as soon as we stopped a round of antibiotics her ears would get infected again. The tubes were AMAZING, until they fell out, and then we were back to constant ear infections again, hence the second set of tubes. But both times the surgery has been extremely quick and painless for us and for her. The anesthesia is the scariest part but our ENT told us that as long as there is no history in the family of poor reactions the chances are basically 1 in a million, so that made me feel better.

Tell me more about the ear wax melting drops.

I still remember getting tubes myself at 2 or 3. I remember them asking what flavor of gas I wanted and that’s it. It was not at all traumatic for me. And I also remember my ear infections. Laying propped up on pillows and crying because it hurt so bad…

I’m glad the Flonase should help, but don’t worry too much about the tubes. Hopefully he won’t need them until he’s a bit older if that.

We had a similar story to yours. My daughter had her first ear infection around 6 months. We first tried Amoxicillin, which didn’t clear in, then moved to Cefdinir, which didn’t clear it. We finally ended up with shots of Rocephin. The shots were so painful for her that I swore I would never do that to her again. At that point we were recommended to the ENT and she got her first set of tubes at 10 months. The surgery took about 10min and was a complete success. She took a nap and that afternoon was back to her normal self. Fast forward to this past November, she was 28 months at this point and the tubes had fallen out. Between November and March she had 4 ear infections. I couldn’t wait to get the tubes replaced! I of course was scared about anesthesia and recovery, but since we had such a positive experience last time I felt more confident with the procedure. In March she had her second set of tubes and adenoids removed. The surgery took a little bit longer due to the adenoid removal, but still was only about 20 min. She ate a popsicle and then we were discharged. By the time we got home, 20min later, she asked if she could play outside.
Hands down – tubes are the way to go!

@J&Gmommy I am not sure what the name of the prescription is (I don’t carry the RX with me), but it basically thins the wax out so that it is more liquid-y . It does not liquify the wax but certainly thins it out so it can move. Some people just produce more wax and a thicker wax than others so it is a tool int he ENT’s arsenal.

I know both boys have a lot of wax and for my eldest (not the one with tubes) his wax was so bad that we had to have the ENT remove it it was an in office procedure but we had to use the drops 3 times a day for 2 days prior to the visit. That office procedure was BAD worse than then the surgery for the younger one actually.

My son had tubes at 2.5 years old. If I could go back in time I would have done it sooner. We REALLY wanted to avoid tubes, well surgery, and tried to wait it out for quite a while. At the time of his surgery he was way behind his age for speech development (one or two, hard to understand, words at a time), had really poor balance, and was averaging at least one ear infection a month for the previous 6 months.
The surgery itself was really quick. The worst part was his confusion coming out of the anesthesia but that only lasted about 30 minutes at most. He was bouncing around later that day. We also noticed a improvement in his hearing that same day. The ENT said he had particularity bad blockage and estimated that it was causing 60%-70% hearing loss. That afternoon he kept putting his hands over his ears then pulling them away with an amazed expression on his face. Testing out his new hearing, I guess.
The next couple of months after the tubes he FINALLY had the “speech explosion” everyone had been promising us for what seemed like forever.
Since the tubes he’s had one ear infection but it cleared up with drops from the ENT. He went from constantly being on antibiotics to having zero since he had the tubes and it’s been a year!
If my second son has recurrent ear infections I won’t think twice about asking for tubes. Best thing to ever happen to my son.

This is so timely! My LO is 7 months, and we’re on ear infection # 3.

# 1 – amoxicillin worked
# 2 – augmentin worked
# 3 – cefdinir FAIL. We got a Rx for zithromax this afternoon…he has been extra fussy and trying to rip his ears off all week. (not a cute “I discovered my ears!” but a violent yanking that has turned them red)

It is already in the mid-80s and dry here in TX, so our ped says we are past “ear infection season” but if we get another one or if this doesn’t clear, we need to see an ENT. Fingers crossed the Zithromax works and we are done for a while!

Poor kid! We’re having the same problem – more than 10 ear infections in the 1.5 years DS has been in day care, and they keep coming back. We went to an ENT and were told his adenoids are enlarged, and may have been for a very long time. So he’s on a longer course of antibiotics, and keeping our fingers crossed they clear the infection and nothing more drastic is needed. If summer ever really happens (I have my doubts this year…) we’ll make sure he spends a lot more time outdoors and on the beach, that made a big difference for me when I was a kid.

@Mrs.Maven: DS had a bad reaction to the Cefdinir too. Ugh! Making sure to stay away from it now.

My daughter got ear tubes in both ears at 13 months after 4 infections in 3 months — and the last 2 were in the summertime, when they aren’t as common. She never showed any symptoms, so a couple times the only sign was her eardrum rupturing. Continued eardrum ruptures and the impact to her hearing were a big concern to me, so I was totally in favor of tubes. They were THE BEST. All of our ear infection issues immediately ceased and I felt like she could finally stay healthy for more than a few weeks at a time.

The procedure itself really wasn’t that bad and honestly, while I was nervous about it, I was also really really looking forward to the promised relief it did end up providing. We had it done at an outpatient center and were probably there for ~2 hours in all.

My daughter was only out of our sight for about 20 minutes — it’s very quick — and she was back in my arms before she woke up. They had warned us she would be angry coming off the anesthesia and she was, but she perked back up quickly. We had it done in the morning (the hardest part was not being able to feed her before we went) and she was acting totally normal by that evening.

They fell out ~6 months ago (when she was 2-2.5). She’s only had 1 ear infection in the last 6 months since the tubes fell out, so I’m hopeful she won’t need another set.