My son has already had two sets of ear tubes. The second set was put in this February, and has fallen out already. He has an ear infection now that didn't go away in one ear after 10 days of Amoxicillin, so they prescribed Augmentin, which always gives him diarrhea. His other ear was no longer red, but still had fluid. The problem is, without the tubes, the fluid never drains after an infection, so it keeps getting reinfected. He had his adenoids out in February also, because his doctor thought they were swelling and blocking with eustachian tube [which was probably true, because the surgeon told me his adenoids were huge]. He has also had several tests that showed negative pressure in his ears [the eardrum sucked in], because of eustachian tube dysfunction. I'm told his eustachian tube will hopefully correct itself as he grows, but for some kids that might not be until 6 or 7 years old. Has anyone else gone through this? I know the doctor is going to recommend a third set of tubes. How long did it take your child to outgrow this? How many sets of tubes??? Did anyone's child actually have a malformed eustachian tube that required surgery? The doctor hasn't talked much about that yet because we are basically just waiting to see if it gets better as my son grows, but I'm still worried about it. Also, if your child has had many sets of tubes, how is their hearing now? I'm worried about scar tissue because even his primary doctor has said she can see some scar tissue. Thank you in advance.
This sounds crazy to a lot of people, but take him off of all dairy and see what happens. Bovine derived dairy can suppress the immune system. Google "dairy and ear infections" and you'll see a gagillion articles come up. GL!!
Have you tried cutting out dairy products? I have heard it helps a lot with reducing ear infections.
Have you tried taking him to a Pediatic Chiropractor? A good adjustment can help the flow of fluid in his ears. Might try that before you talk more surgery.
You may have other issues because of the malformation, but seriously consider cutting out dairy. If you look back at some of my other posts, you will see I was looking into the same thing for my 18 month old. She has been sick with sinus and ear infections since we switched her from Soy formula to dairy formula at 7 months. She had tubes put in last May, but we have had issues with those as well. She kept getting infections even with the tubes, and they are still getting inflamed.
We have gone dairy free for 4 weeks, allowed her to get over all symptoms and then tried to give her some cheese. In less than 24 hours she was completely congested in the sinuses. Stopped all dairy again and she was better by the evening of the next day. We tried milk the next weekend and within a couple of hours she had a raspy, phlegm cough. Stopped milk and it cleared up.
My Dr. was skeptical and kept saying it was a new virus but she could never get over them on her own, she always was put on antibiotics. As soon as we stopped the antibiotics it was right back within a week. To be honest I was skeptical about this too, but so far over the last month it has made a huge difference for her.
My dairy farmer of a father is beside himself that his granddaughter cannot have dairy. :)
Find an allergist. My son, now 21 and built like and NFL linebacker was my chronic ear infection kid. Seemed constant when he was little and we had 3 sets of tubes plus adenoids out too. I finally switched docs and happened to find a pediatrician with a subspecialty in allergies. Amazing the difference!!
Of course I wish I knew then what I know now and started with reducing or cutting out dairy at the time as Rachel said. I would have don a lot different but that's another discussion.
Chiropractic, Chiropractic, Chiropractic. I have helped so many kids with ear infections. It is wonderful, non invasive and works.
Try Chiropractic first! I've seen it help my own kids, and all but one other out of maybe ten kids stop having them altogether. Even chronic infections! Worth a try...let me know if you have any questions!
My 14 year old had "incompetent eustachian tubes" and had tubes four times. He came very close to having tubes put in for a fifth time when he was in fifth grade, and then again in sixth. He finally stopped having ear infections after that.
He has scarred eardrums (partly from all the eardrum ruptures he experienced, partly from the tubes), and permanent hearing loss in the way upper registers, where it doesn't really matter. It doesn't affect him at all in his daily life.
Your son will get through this, and should be just fine.
Find a good pediatric ENT (we liked Pediatric ENT Associates in Mpls), and figure out if your son has allergies. Runny noses were the trigger for my son's ear infections, so giving him daily allergy meds helped.
I would suggest trying no dairy before you opt for another set of tubes. Both my sister and I had multiple sets of tubes in our ears as children and now as adults as long as we leave dairy alone we are fine. If my sister has a bowl of cereal with cow's milk as soon as the next day she will have ear pain!
Also, chiropractor!
My daughter had 3 sets of ear tubes, the first when she was 5 months old, the second somewhere around 1.5-2 years old, the third set when she was 3 years old and got her adenoids taken out at the same time. Once she had her adenoids taken out, we never had issues/problems with ear aches again and never had any more ear tubes.
Has your son had issues with Strep and/or being very sickly? After the adenoids were out, our daughter kept getting systemwise Strep infections and her throat would get really bad. When she was 7 years old we opted to have her tonsils out. The Ped ENT came out after the surgery looking white as a ghost. He said not only were her tonsils way bigger than they'd previously thought they were (they went way back into her throat), but they were FULL of pus/Strep infection! Apparently the Strep infection had taken refuge in her tonsils and kept up a low-grade illness that, when it got bad enough, then burst out as a whole-system Strep infection.
Not saying any of this is an issue with your son, but it's something to look into.
ALSO, have you looked into if your son has food allergies or intolerances (you'll need to see a naturopathic doctor to check for this)? The reason I ask is because, at the age of 40, I found out I have a casein allergy (cow dairy). Once I quite eating anything with cow dairy, my asthma went away, my allergies went away, my rhinitis/sinuitis went away, and my yearly winter stuffed ears/stuffed nose/chest colds/bronchitis ALSO went away, and they've stayed away now for 4 years.
Your son might be still having issues with his ears because his body is fighting off a food allergy or intolerance and the way it's doing so is via his ears. I've heard of a lot of people who got off cow dairy and many of their health issues cleared up. It would be something I'd definitely look into.
Please take your child to a chiropractor before putting him through another set of tubes or other surgery. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Research shows that chiropractic adjustments have a higher success rate for curing and preventing chronic ear infections that any other treatment. It worked for us and for lots of other kids.
Our son had these same issues until he had his adenoids taken out and we took him off of all dairy and gluten products. His health and mood are amazingly different. We actually went and saw a biomedical nutritionist and she helps us with eliminating those products from his diet. He is basically eating whole foods only, lot's of grilled fresh meats, eggs, veggies and fruits. She said that gluten and dairy can both be fought off by the body in different ways, some get runny diapers, some get fluid buildup in ears, nose, adenoids, etc.
Oh and our sons last set of tubes actually perforated his ear drums when he sneezed. Poor guy screamed and held his ears and they began to bleed from the canal. Turns out his adenoids were so enlarged and putting so much pressure on his ears that when he sneezed the pressure just blew out his eardrums and the tubes. He has a bit of hearing loss and we are dealing with his speech now. He still does a lot of jibber jabber and his words are not clear.
OMG I HAVE A TWIN IN THE EXACT SAME BOAT AS ME YEAH. I am not alone in this sooo cool. I can't answer your questions but we are in the exact same boat word for word you described my ds to the exact point I am at now. feel free to pm me. Sorry I can't answer questions for you but I have the exact same questions.
