Ear Tubes

My 4-year-old daughter has had chronic ear infections since entering daycare this past September. Currently, she is unable to hear me while she's sitting on my lap due to the buildup of fluid behind her ear drum. She doesn't have an ear infection at this point but she flat out can't hear.

We were in to have her ears rechecked at the end of February. The doctor noted that her right ear was still full of fluid and we'd have to recheck it in May. At that point, we were to discuss tubes. This week, she's been running a 103-104 degree fever and, as I mentioned above, can't hear. We cannot wait until May so I'll be taking her to the doctor this afternoon. I'm hesitant about having tubes put in her ears because of my experience with them when I was young. My mother told me the tubes I had in my ear fell out all the time and the surgery had to be repeated numerous times. Even then, I had horrible, chronic ear infections until I was a teenager.

I'm sure things have vastly improved in the 20 years since I had tubes in. I'm just curious if anyone has recently had tubes put in their child's ears and, if so, what your experience was.

I'm no help since mine were also 20 years ago, but might as well bump the post....

i got them a little earlier than 4...& my parents said everything went well with them. while i can vividly remember having ear infections up to age six or so, i haven't had one since...actually NO ear problems at all once i became school age.

good luck to you and your daughter. i know this kind of situation is painful and frustrating for everyone.

Ugh. Went to the doctor yesterday and found out she has a double ear infection and sinus infection! Poor thing is the sickest I've seen her! The doctor wants to wait to discuss tubes for another month which I'm cool with.

I have scar tissue on both ear drums (I ruptured one twice) and some mild hearing loss. I also have thickened ear drums which could be contributing to the hearing loss. I just don't want her to go through what I did :(

AH! Poor baby!! Ear infections are the worst!

That really sucks. Poor baby :(

My son had constant ear infections starting at 2, for about a year and half. My doctor also started mentioning tubes, but then decided to try something -- Zyrtec. Her logic was perhaps something that dried up the fluid (ie, the host for bacteria) would help, as opposed to attacking just the bacteria with antibiotics...

And it freaking WORKED. He did not have ONE more ear infection after that. Anytime he had any sniffles, we just dosed him for about 3 days to keep things dried up, and nothing ever progressed to the ear infection level after that. Ever!

I don't know if it will work for your daughter, but ask your doc about it. Good luck!!!

Hope she's feeling better!

Funny how this came up again because I was just talking to my girlfriend's mom about this last night.

She told us to talk to our doctor about food allergies (she's a massage therapist but is also into the holistic thing). She said she has heard that wheat allergies can be masked as ear infections. I'm not sure how much I buy into it but your story follows along the same lines.

Our doctor recommended Robitussen CF (he calculated her dosage based on her weight since it's labled for adults) because it had an expectorant and decongestant in it. He thought it would dry her ears out but we can't get her to take the stuff! She hates the taste. We've tried putting in it Cran-Grape, strawberry milk and we've tried forcing her to take it (she spit it out all over the place). Ah, 4-year-olds!

Thanks for the info, myrnaminx. We'll definitely bring it up with the doc come May.

Well, it's been two weeks since my daughter finished her antibiotics for her last ear infection and sinus infection. I'm fairly certain she's already coming down with another sinus infection (which she has passed on to our 6-month-old son). We noticed over the weekend that she was asking us to repeat ourselves often (again).

Sheesh.

awwww  poor little one!!!!!  and you!!!  I don't have much info on ear tubes; I'm just sorry she keeps getting ear/sinus upsets.  :(