tubes in ears?

Question

my daughter is 17 months old and the doctor is talking about putting tubes in her ears.She has had over 20 ear infections through out her life.How will these help and are they neccesary or is there other options?

Answer 1

my daughter has to get them too. if your daughter keeps getting ear infections she can get scar tissue on her ear drums which can affect her hearing later on in life. also, it is bad for her body to keep having to fight off infection and if your daughter is like mine, eventually antibiotics dont work anymore. the fluid in her ears is causing her to hear muffled, she can still hear, but not as well as she could be hearing if there werent any fluid. the ear tubes will help drain out the fluid in her ears and help prevent more infections. however, they do not guarantee that she will never get another ear infection, as she may still get a few, but not half as many before. it is a 15 minute procedure but young ones have to be put to sleep so that they dont move around and freak out. you do not have to go thru with it, as my doctor told me, they didnt do it back in the day and those people survived, but it will really help her in the long run. the tubes stay in about a year and then fall out on their own. and you have to be careful about getting water in their ears. the only other option which my doctor talked about was putting her on a steady course (a very light dose) of antibiotics. he said that he doesnt really like this option, but it is an option. it will just prevent infections, but will not take care of the actual problem which is fluid in the ears.

Answer 2

My 16 mo. old has them...got them at 11 mo......and my 5 yr old just had to get them.....GO FOR IT!!! They made a HUGE difference in the baby's little personality....she's no longer cranky...she does not wake up at night anymore. There are no more antibiotics (which means no more diarrhea from the antibiotics!). They don't put them under w/ general anesthesia......so don't worry there...they just use a little gas. It took less than 10 min. With both kids you'd never know they had surgery...no pain afterward. The ear infections stopped for both my girls. If they do get an ear infection, fluid will drip out of the ears and you will know they are infected. The MOST, MOST important part is that if your daughter keeps the infections, she is probably not hearing well and therefore, won't be developing her speech well enough. Both of my kids showed hearing loss before the tubes and normal hearing after...I thought they heard fine! But the audiologist tests showed otherwise. Another problem w/ many ear infections are ruptures...the ear drum gets so much fluid behind it a hole pops through it...my 5yr old had 2 ruptures....fortunately, hers healed on their own. However, many ruptures don't heal and they cannot be repaired until the child is 4 or 5 yrs old and by then they have spent many years with hearing problems (which leads to speech problems). Long term use of antibiotics are very bad for people. I am a NERVOUS wreck of a mom and I can assure you the tubes are OK!!!

Answer 3

Tubes will help with infections as it will allow most of the fluid to run freely from behind the ear drum.

My daughter had to have tubes at 15 months because she too had had over 20 ear infections by then.(we'd get one cleared from one ear only for the other one to become infected)

Since getting the tubes she has had fewer ear infections...only 7 in the last year...and she has started talking amazingly well.

I do not believe there are any other options. I was not a big fan of tubes either(I think they are put in way too many times when unessesary...they tried to put them in my middle daughter's ears after only one ear infection) but her having so many infections was not good either....they have caused lots of scar tissue and even though she is not totally deaf she still has problems hearing because of it. Generally the tubes only last around 6 months- 1 year but they can put ones in that last longer....my daughters have been there for 18 months now and show no signs of falling out.

Answer 4

My son had tubes at the age of 10 months. He had alot of ear infections and stayed grouchy before the tubes. After the tubes it was like he was a new person. He is almost 3 now and had never had an ear infection again. I am so thankful the dr put tubes in his ears.

Answer 5

My son was breast fed until 1 1/2 and never got sick then as soon as I stopped he got 8 infections in 6 months and they put tubes in his ears, now he is 13 and had had maybe 2 infections since they put in the tubes. I was really worried but I had had them as a child also and he did great! It was a very simple thing and has had no problems since!!

Answer 6

the tubes will help about so much my 2 year old has tubes and she no longer has any infections at all. She has had 20 or so ear infections. Then we got the tubes that was 4 months ago and soo far no infections....they are great you just have to mantian proper care of them

Answer 7

I had tubes when I was a kid. Twice. I remeber the one time going to the hospital to get them in.
It helps the fluid drain from the ears. My mom said it worked wonders for my ear infections. Also, the more ear infections she gets, the more she may have scar tissue in there, which may affect her hearing.
good luck!

Answer 8

They help draining which reduces ear infections. I had tubes when I was little and I know they helped me a lot.