Looking for Information About Tubes in Baby's Ears

Hello, my son had tubs in his ears at 6 months. He never had any other problems with his ears. It took about 40 min. I say get it done as soon as possible to avoid speach delays.

I have a 3 1/2 year old and an 8 month old. Both were PLAGUED with infections. One after the other, antibiotic after antibiotic. I think the 8 month old had it even worse than his older brother. We put tubes in Sam's ears (the oldest) when he was 8 months and plan to have tubes put in Jake's ears this Thursday. It was the best thing we ever did and I have no reservations about doing it again. I even asked our pediatrician how soon we could do it for the baby even before his ear infections kicked in.

I really liked our ENT (Dr. Michael Biavati on Walnut Hill in Dallas). He does the procedure a couple days a week out of a hospital in the mid-cities. You go in very early, he talks with you and your child for a few minutes to make sure the child will go with him and the anesthesiologist. And then it literally takes 5 minutes. My husband and I hadn't even made it back to the waiting room before they told us we could go get Sam. He was a little loopy because they do have to put them under anesthesia but there were absolutely no side affects. I stayed home with him that day but we were back to normal (minus the ear trouble) the next day.

I would say without reservation DO IT DO IT DO IT. Your child will feel better and sleep better and so will you.

Incidentally both of Sam's tubes fell out around Christmas this year, as expected. I just happened to notice these very very tiny greenish 'beads' on his ear.

I too have a son named Austin! 16 months. We finally put tubes in his ears at 12 months. I was absolutely terrified. The longest part was waiting to go into surgery because you can't stop thinking about everything that can go wrong. The surgery itself took less than 2 minutes - seriously - then he was kept in a little room for another 10 minutes or so until he started coming out of the anesthesia. Then we all went into a communal recovery room where the nurse keeps an eye on him until she's confident there is no allergic reaction to the anesthesia - about a half hour. My little guy became hysterical once coming out of anesthesia - (they say because it disorients them and makes their vision blurry). He screamed and screamed for a half hour and I cried and cried not understanding - then he fell asleep, woke up an hour later and hit the ground running. Not a single ear infection since. I highly recommend having it done. Feel free to ask me anything about it, I'll be happy to help. Good luck.

My daughter had tubes put in at 15 mos after having monthly ear infections all of her life. She never had another infection after the tubes. The procedure literally takes minutes and once the anesthesia wears off you would never know that they had anything done. Also, we were told to not worry about ear plugs, that it wasn't necessary.

Hi, both of my children have had this surgery and I honestly wish I had done it sooner. My son was 8 months old and my daughter was a preschooler. Both had undetected hearing losses (temporary) from the fluid build up in the inner ear that came with the ear infections. You can't always tell when a baby is not hearing the full range of sound...this is especially important during this age in development when the groundwork for speech is being laid.

The surgery takes just a few minutes. If it were a grown up, anesthesia wouldn't even be required...but you obviously can't tell a baby to lie still. The hardest part is being separated from the baby for 20-30 minutes..but again, the actual surgery is only a few minutes.

The other thing to be prepared for is when the baby/child wakes up from the general anesthesia..children and babies cry A LOT when they come to. They are NOT in pain, it just an effect on the neurological system and is totally normal. I wasn't told that with my older one and thought something was really wrong with her. It was just a side effect of the surgery.

Both kids stayed about an hour after the surgery and then brought home. They are done cryng by then and will probably just have a good nap.

The relief is immediate and they will automatically hear better. The procedure should prevent most ear infections,although my son still gets them. The tubes just helps the infection drain out and prevent fluid build up. I learned that using the ear plugs (places in the outer ear) during swimming and bath time is cruical to prevent water from getting in the ear and will go a long way to preventing future infections.

Anyway, it is a very minor procedure, but I totally understand and agree that it is scary having such a young child have an operation. Also, I learned that even if your child seems to pick up on sounds in the house....they still may be missing certain ranges. This happened with my son and my daughter. My son is a bit speech delayed due to it, but nothing permanent and he is catching up quickly.

Good luck and I hope this helps!!!!

My son was also plagued with numerous ear infections and had tubes put in when he was 10 months old. Dr. Michael Biavati did the procedure. The procedure itself lasted about 7-10 minutes. It actually took longer to administer the anesthesia and let it take effect. They take you to the prep room and squirt a syringe of the anesthesia up the baby's nose and let it take affect. This is all done while he is in your arms. They then take the baby from you and do the procedure which is an incision in the ear drums....insert the tubes and take him to the recovery room where you are waiting. The tubes cleared up his ear infections immediately. The tubes stayed in approximately 14 months before they fell out. Once the tubes fell out he started to experience ear infections again so we had to have a second set of tubes inserted. This occurs with a small percentage of children. He has had this set almost a year and is doing fine. At the time the second set of tubes were inserted we had his adneoids taken out also. For our son...this was a necessary procedure. It relieved him of the pain he was experiencing with the infections, took him off antibiotics, and allievated any impact he might have been experiencing with his speech/language development. Each child and situation is different. For us, it was a good experience.

M.,

I would not recommend putting tubes in your child's ears. I would highly recommend chiropractic. It does wonders and is non-invasive and could save a lot of pain and discomfort for your child. My husband is a chiropractor but his office is in dallas. I will try to find someone closer to wylie. If you would like to contact him directly, his name is Dr. Kevin Smith, ###-###-####, Trinity Family Chiropractic.

Might try a natural approch first. Theraputic massage to help drain ears. See The block center website. Dr.Mary Ann Block has book and video on ear infection natural treatments. Also your child could have food allergies causing them. Your doctor can do a blood test. That was the case in my children. Both were alerigic to milk and wheat. When I took milk and wheat out of the diet and did the massages the ear infections stopped. Can not hurt to try those first before getting tubes. Good Luck

The nephew and my son were plagued with chronic ear infections, as well. My nephew ended up getting tubes, but my pediatrician recommended a product called GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract), which remedied my son's problem before having to get the tubes. GSE is a natural antibiotic that wards off all kinds of infections (my son has been on it for almost 3 years now, and he hardly gets a sniffle). He gets three drops of it in his orange juice every morning and he can not detect the taste. The GSE is available at Whole Foods market and at Central Market for about $13 - I have not had to replace my original bottle yet, and it has been almost 3 years. Hope this helps you. Good luck!

We had the same problem altho not in the summer. We determined that the surgery was a better alternative than all of the medicine and sick time. I believe it's bad for a child in ways other than health to be sick all the time. The surgery takes about 20 minutes and there is almost no recovery time. My daughter's tubes only stayed in for about 8 mos so keep in mind they don't last a full year and you need them to last thru March....

Hi, M.. It has been my finding that everyone's with this is different. My daughter had this procedure done while under general anesthesia during her tonsilectomy. Recovery time was very quick, and we haven't had a problem since. However, I've spoken with other moms who have battled this many times because the tubes kept falling out prematurely.

Good Luck!