Ear Tubes

[irvinerealtor]

To tube, or not to tube, that is the question...

Does anyone have feedback on this process and any stories to relate?  Mrs. IR2 and I are wrestling with the issue for our youngest child, who has had some health issues for the past year or so.  I've done some research but still have not really been able to weigh the pros and cons.  The pediatrician that we work with, along with the ENT specialist, both stated that it is a middle-of-the-road issue, and basically up to us to choose.  That's tough, as we've not gone through this before, obviously.

Any feedback is appreciated.
Thx,
IrvineDad

 

[IrvineRes]

IrvineDad,
Our son had tubes inserted when he was 3 years old after about 6 or 7 ear infections in one season.  We tried all kinds of conventional and unconventional treatments before finally "giving in" to tubes.  It worked for us great.  Our son was loosing his hearing due to constantly plugged ears.  Hours after tube insertion his hearing was back to normal.  Tubes came out in about 15 months and in this time period we did not have even 1 ear infection.
I would highly recommend it if all other measures are unsuccessful.
The only drawback to this procedure - general anesthesia for the child.
You can PM me if you would like more details.

 

[davenlei]

IrvineRealtor,

Our son had chronic ear infections (6+ in one year) and by the age of two and a half we noticed his speech started to be affected by the inability to hear clearly over half of the time.  Our doctor (Irvine Pediatrics) recommended tubes since it was now causing other issues. 

So the lowdown is it is more traumatic for the parents than the child.  The child will be under general anesthesia for about 20 minutes.  In the waiting room I was freaking out the whole time.  Pacing back and forth.  When the procedure was done, the nurse warned me that my son will most likely be uncontrollably upset because of the twilight confusion and how the anesthesia will make him feel.  When he was brought out, he was absolutely freaking out and nothing calmed him down (he is usually a very quiet and calm child) for about 15 minutes.

The positives are that it was a very short procedure and the effects are almost immediate.  Within a few hours, my son was speaking clearly and enunciating properly again since he could hear well.  He never realized that he had tubes in his ears and it did not bother him at all.  After about a year the tubes fell out on their own and the holes in his ear drums seal themselves up fine.  Another great note is that he never had an ear infection again. 

One thing you do have to be careful of if you get the procedure done is that the child cannot swim underwater or put his head underwater since the water could go through the tube into his middle ear.  We took him to the pool all the time still but just had to be careful of his head going underwater.
 
In the end, would I do it again?  ABSOLUTELY!  I wish we did it earlier rather than have him go through all the ear infections and the pain associated with it.  My wife agreed that if our second child had more than 3 ear infections in a year, we would request tubes to be put in.  Fortunately, my daughter never had an ear infection so it did not have to be considered.

 

[frank69m]

Did you get a 2-3 Pediatric opinions? It was weird because one doctor said we needed tubes and we went to another who did a hearing test said, nothing wrong with my daughter's hearing.  We decided not to do it and after a year and a half, nothing wrong. No ear infections for over a year.  How many ear infections has your kid had and has he or she used a lot of anti-biotics? Eventually, they will grow out of that phase, but I would base it on 2-3 opinions and the number of ear infections he or she gets.

Plus, the hearing tests they do are dumb. The kid sits in a room and looks right or left depending on where the sound is coming from in a sound-proof room. If the kid doesn't look, then they deem it as an issue. Uh, what if the kid just doesn't want to look? After all, kids do whatever kids want.