Piggyback off Tubes in Ears.....

I had tubes in my ears at age 11, so no, your child is not too old. However, sometimes if you wait, their eustacian tubes can correct themselves (mine obviously didn't), but the concern there is that they will have already had speech issues by the time their eustacian tubes are fully developed so its preferred to get tubes before then, if that makes any sense.

Ear drops will clear away outer ear infections, but not 'deeper' ear infections.

Saline spray in the nose (or a netti pot) can clear the sinuses by flushing them out. It works very well for the sinuses but does not help the ear properly drain fluid.

My son had tubes put in when he was 6, and he's been so much healthier since then (he had his adenoids taken out, too). While the tubes are in, if he gets an ear infection, we just put drops in his ears to get rid of the infection. He doesn't have to take any antibiotics. He's only had 1 ear infection in the almost two years that he's had tubes.

Try chiropractic first! I've seen it work on my own kids and at least ten others I know personally.

Most ear infections are BEHIND the ear drum, so "ear drops" don't do much for clearing away an infection.

You are never too old for tubes... my mother (at 80+) had gone through MANY sets of ear tubes in the last 20 or so years......

With my son, even after he got tubes at 14 months, he still had ear infections... so the ENT figured it was starting in the sinuses... so he prescribed one of the nasal steroid type prescription sprays... and as long as we kept up with that, he was fine. He did outgrow the ear infections, and at 20, probably had maybe 1 or 2 since he was 4?

The neti pots/nasal saline rinses may help, but I don't know how much......