Tubes in Ears - San Antonio,TX

My DD is on her 2nd set of tubes, and fingers crossed this time no problems. She is so happy now, no ear infections, no pain and she hears everything, No kidding as soon as we got home from hospital she was sitting on the couch all confused and was like "whats that noise" kind of freaked out. It was the washing machine downstairs!! She had never heard it before!! Also one day we were in the garden and again she was like "whats that noise" we finally realised she could hear someone getting there grass cut like 3 streets away!! We could barely hear it! Her school work has also improved dramatically. We don't regret it at all. :-)

Love them! Both kiddos had them and had their adnoids taken out. Daughter 14 months and son 5 months and 2 yeaers old. Best thing I could have done for my bundles of joy. They are 22 and 18 now and no ear infections!

I like Mary's answer... my son is 13 months old and no anitbiotic has helped for his endless ear infections; he needs tubes too. Lucky for me, I already have an ENT I love and trust... I'm interested in hearing the rest of the responses... and unlike some of the other mom's, I'm NOT worried about the anesthesia.

I can give you a first-hand experience, but the baby is a thirty-one-year-old Army Captain now. At about eighteen months he was having recurring infections and he wasn't learning to speak very well, and I thought I'd better ask about it. The doctor recommended tubes. It was outpatient surgery and my son had absolutely no bad effects from it. As a matter of fact, by that evening we were noticing a difference! He had been learning to speak based on what he was hearing, but he just wasn't hearing everything. AND... all his ear infection problems disappeared.

You would do well to talk to the ENT about your concerns. Pick the doctor's brain and get all the answers you can. You won't be the first person with these thoughts, and good doctors welcome questions!

The hearing loss is not caused by the tubes but by having fluid in the ears for too long that causes permanent damage. The reason for the tubes is to drain the fluid- preventing ear infections and hearing loss. My DD had tubes put in at 10 mos after 30 out of 45 days with a 103 fever, 5 antibiotics plus rocephin shots tried. Her infection was antibiotic resistant. She has only has 1 ear infection since then (it has been nearly 3 years) and it was in 1 ear and treated with antibiotic DROPS only -- no oral antibiotic (thank the lord). Not saying everyone's ear tubes experience is as great as ours but it was a God-send for us! She was under anesthesia and getting the operation maybe 30 minutes from start to being in the recovery AWAKE with us. Good luck and IMHO get the tubes before she suffers any permanent hearing loss! Best wishes!

Well I personally advocate for tubes if your child has chronic ear infections. It is not uncommon that the typical treatment of Amox or Augmentin won't work as bugs are building up resistance. A lot of doctors are even going so far to NOT give antibotics for these ear infections. It's a scary situation in itself.
We weren't even offered tubes until our son was almost three. Partly because they only last for so long before falling out. It is a really quick and common procedure. I wish we had advocated more on the tubes because when our son finally did start anotating his vocabulary he struggled. He had to go to speech therapy for a year in school and we STILL have to help him pronounce words correctly because he reverts back to what's comfortable.

It's important to do it now because they are learning how to speak through listening to others. If the sound is all garbled by gunk in the ear, the sound doesn't bounce off correctly. Does that make sense?
Anesthesia is scary for anyone, including when it's our baby.If you ask your ENT what is expected, they will help calm your anxiety. Good luck and hope it helps. It did for ours! He never had another ear infection after that.

they can get ear infections with tubes but it is very very rare. the anestesia depends on the anestesialogist my first one did great my second one was a nightmare when he come out. the hearing loss is rare but with my oldest i was told no loud anything aroung him cause his drums are wide open and he couldnt stand anything to loud so expect to lower the volume of your tv. my oldest did great with his his words literally went up 150 in a week. now my second has a hearing loss. we did his tubes early to avoid speech and stuff but it didnt work. now before you panic hearing loss runs in his dads family. his tubes fell out in one ear early and he has a double ear infection and the tube in his other ear is useless. the anitbiotics arent working on his ear infection.

so we are going to have to get rid of the ear infection and redo the tubes. and go from there. take it one step at a time. I am also doing the chiropractor wtih my youngest. in any case he will get a second set I am not going to hope his hearing loss is not permanant I am going to give him every chance I can by redoing the tubes. my oldest kept one tube about 6 months and the other about 2 yrs. my youngest one tube is still in but its all black and the other tube fell out not sure when. hes only had them 9 months so it hasnt been very long before it fell out. they were both done by diffrent docs and i liked the way my oldest doc did it better than my youngest doc but my oldest doc is retired now. if i had to do it all over again with the same results would I yes. now with my oldest he acted drunk when coming off the anestesia and my youngest was cranky all day. but iin my opinion it is well worth it. that is my experience but my suggestion would be tubes and chiropractor

Tubes are the BEST thing ever!! I had 2 kids with non-stop ear infections. Only my 2nd had tubes. What a HUGE help. She still had a couple infections after taht, but the only way I knew was due to all the crusty stuff coming out of her ear! No crying, no sleepless nights, no fevers. They are still in her ears (working their way out) and she is 3. Got them when she was just over a year. So, so, so happy we did. Oh, one more thing. I barely sat down in the waiting room and the doc was out saying the procedure was complete! Took him about 2 mins. My daughter was groggy for about 30-45 mins after, but was totally fine.

Ear Tubes are a great choice the ear infections will be less if not none,the tubes fall out within a year if sooner they will do a repeat fall out again of course repeat plus adenoids removal (depending on person).What you have to worry about is your daughter not being able to hear as well as she should be hearing,becasue of the fluid built up with infection plugging up her ears plus the pressure from it being there & having nowhere to go it will affect her speech & behavior in many ways if she continues to have ear infections & the antibiotics isn't helping plus you'll have to worry about antibiotic resistance from the excessive use.There is a very low chance of having scar tissue damage from the ear tubes itself still one of the effects from having them but your running the greater risk of scar tissues hearing damage hearing loss due to reoccurent ear infections that is building up on in the middle ear that can't be repaired.The anesthesia is gas they breath in there is no IV depedning on where you go or the patient but as routine this procedure is it is quik they aren't a sleep very long less than 20 min. for the entire set up procedure & clean up then they are out into recovery already crying fussing looking around for mama.There is risks with everything we do but look at the whole picture the risks of letting her go without ear tubes vs the risks of getting them in.
My lil gal just had these done a month ago she is going on 2 in March, since she was 12 months I knew her hearing wasn't right so I brought it up with her ped.at 14 months she was re-evlauated & was referred to a speech therapist it took 3 months to get her ear tubes now she hears everything & is talking.This was great option for her she didn't have reoccurent ear infections her fluid was building up in her middle ear without them becoming infected this was the best & only option for us glad I did this for her she was back t normal the same day we came home she slept for about 3 hrs then that afternoon it was like nothing ever happened...
Go see the ENT & see what is wrong with her ears make sure you get a hearing test this will also prove that she isn't hearing well with ear infections/fluid in the middle ear.

Well, my 3 year old daughter just had tubes placed in her ears last Friday. She kept getting lots of ear in fections as she got older. She did very well with the surgery. They did a face mask anesthesia and no iv. The procedure took about 7 minutes. She was very grumpy for about an hour after she woke up from surgery, but after that has been feeling great. Hopefully no more infections. I have noticed that she is hearing much better already. Good luck with your decision. Definately got the ENT just to discuss options.

We had absolutely no problems. Our daughter had tubes at 2 1/2 and son had tubes at 12 months to assure he would NOT have hearing loss from repeated ear infections--said his first word a few weeks later. Re: anesthesia--it's just a whiff. I had not even gotten from the pre-op room to the cafeteria to get coffee when they paged me that he was in recovery. Good luck! PS--best place to go is a children's hospital.

Hi ~ I don't necessarily deal with this type of issue with my kids, but I have a daugther who is profoundly deaf. I just wanted to make sure you were seeing the correct ENT. Our pediatrican said that the board of peds is recommeding that children not be giving antibiotics for ear infections. 80% of ear infections heal themselves, and alot of times there are no signs of infection given by the child (my son never shows any). If you see an ENT, make sure you get the answers you trust. A second opinion is always best when a child is going under. Our daughter has been put under several times without problems, and I've not encountered any parents with hearing loss from tubes. Not that it can't happen. Get all the information from the ENT first and then you will be able to make the best decision for your baby girl. Ask me anytime as you go along!
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I would def talk to the ENT. My niece had tubes in 7 times, (I guess they can fall out??), and finally they also removed her adenoids and tonsils and she was great ever since.

Our son had his adenoids removed in December, (he's 3), after antib's for 5 months for sinus infections...was doing great, but has now had TWO double ear infections in about 5 weeks. Which makes no sense since he never had EI's pre-surgery. So I think tubes are in our future too.

I've also heard parents say that chiropractic has helped.

My son, who is cleft-affected, has tubes to PREVENT hearing loss because his ears don't drain on their own, and as AllisonF said below, the hearing loss is a result of the fluid in the ears, not the tubes. I wouldn't worry at all. The procedure is extremely short if they are not having anything else done, so they are not under anesthesia very long at all.

My son has rarely had ear infections (which is highly unusual for a child w/ a cleft palate with fluid-filled ears! They usually have infections all the time--we were just lucky) but people I know whose kids got tubes for that reason said that they made a world of difference.

He does have to wear ear plugs when he's in water because he has tubes, so that is a slight inconvenience, but not a huge deal. One Step Ahead makes an Ear Bandit and some great ear plugs, and using that system he even took swimming lessons last year. (And their plugs were so good, I stopped using the Ear Bandit, which is supposed to hold them in while you swim). I've heard so many people say that their kids didn't take swimming lessons b/c they had tubes, and there's no reason to avoid them because there are some great and inexpensive ways to keep water out of ears.

If tubes can help with your child's ear infections, I see no reason to avoid them. We have no problems.

My son had recurrent ear infections when he was a baby from the time he was 2 months until he was 8 months. We were in the dr's office every 2-3 weeks. Everytime one ear infection would clear up, a few days later another one would appear, or else they would just not clear up at all. Our pedi referred us to an ENT when he was 8 months.
The ENT recommended putting tubes in my son's ears, which he did about 2 weeks later. This was the best thing we ever did! The procedure took almost no time, and my son stopped having ear infections after that. When he was about 2, one morning the tubes just fell out on their own, which the dr. told us would happen. No problems with ear infections after either. He's a very healthy teenager now.

My son had repeated ear infections... 3 before he was 6 months old, then he took a 3 month break, and once September started, it was almost constant.... he even got ear infections while ON antibiotics!

We got him in for tubes when he was about 13 months old... he started walking a week or so later. He did get a couple of ear infections while he had the tubes in, but the ENT put him on a nasal spray and that worked wonders, also. Once the tubes fell out, I don't think he had but one or two more ear infections after that, and he is now 19.

We didn't regret it at all... just wished we had gotten him to the ENT earlier! The surgery was real quick.. I think he was out of our arms for maybe 15 minutes?

I have not had to go through this with my own children, but I had them as a child and had no complications. I guess there are risks associated with everything. If your daughter continues to get ear infections she can have hearing loss and speech problems. The anesthesia is what scares me! Here is a bit of info.
http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/Ear-Tubes.cfm
Hope all goes well for you and your baby!

from the time he was 1.5 to 2.5 yrs old my son had 8 ear infections. we were in the ped office every 6-8 weeks. it interrupted our vacations (2x we had to go to the ER while visiting family) it was a nightmare on airplanes (he is an angel to fly with till we descend: 20-45 mins of wailing). i was very nervous about tubes, but my hubby had 3 sets, so i guess we were genetically predisposed. tell you what - BEST thing ever! from the time they wheeled him away till he was in recovery was a TOTAL of 15 mins. I honestly thought they were coming out to tell me he wasn't cooperating, could i come back there and help calm him. but no, it was to tell me they were DONE. i mean done done. he watched a movie the rest of the morning, ate a normal lunch, had a good nap and was back to normal. amazing.
seems my dtr is now on the ear infection path; 5 in 18mos, so same ENT is doing her, and her adenoids. this only adds 2-3 mins to procedure. DO IT! you will be so happy you did. no more waking screaming in pain, no more medicating, no more diarreah from antibiotics, no more time lost from work to make ped appts. and her speech will skyrocket! it's amazing how well you can pick up language when your ears aren't full of fluid.

we used Dr Schilling at Ear Nose &Throat clinics of san antonio on hamilton wolfe, but they have locations all over the city, surgery done at SSC (specialty Surgical Center) on Prue. They schedule by age, so your little one will be in and out before 8:30.
Good Luck!

My advice is to have the tubes put in. My daughter had tubes at 2 mos of age due to numerous ear infections; very uncommon. I was a wreck at the thought of putting such a young baby under. They are only under for 5-10 minutes. It's a very small dosage and they call it "twilight anesthesia." Hearing loss was never an issue. We are so glad we did it because she could have had speech delays from always having fluid behind the ear. Not to mention I am not a fan of constant exposure to antibiotics. This could lead to other types of problems. Hearing loss has never been an issue. I know it's a risk (due to scar tissue build up) but it's pretty uncommon for that to happen. I would definitely say go for it. Be prepared though. We had a couple of ear infections with the tubes and the gunk drains from the ears. Which certainly beats letting all of that bacteria sit up by the brain. Don't worry, this is one of the most common surgery/procedures done on kids. If you are really worried about the anesthesia, have it done at a place that strictly works with kids. A pediatric anesthesia dept.

What a wonderful question! I have always been curious about this process & worried if my daughter came to need them.

She has not needed any, however her father had chronic ear infections as a child that his parents did not treat. Now he is only 24 & going deaf, + has grown a mass in his ear that is hopefully benign. I feel that if his parents had used tubes he may not be having these issues.

I do feel you though, it is such a scary thought to think of your baby having to go through something like that. :[
Good luck Mama!

My youngest had tubes before he was 2. I was very nervous about them.
But we had no problems with them and it made a huge difference in his hearing and language development.
Before the tubes, he babbled a little and said a few words, but was very quiet.
Turns out he had 30% temp. hearing loss in both ears due to the congestion. He was behind other toddlers in language and social skills.

The tubes worked well and stayed in for about 2 yrs. until they fell out. Ask the ENT lots of questions and make sure you find one you trust.

FYI: 50% of ear infections in children are due to a milk allergy. Try getting her checked for an allergy before going for surgery.

On that note, my son had tubes and it worked wonderfully for him. No more infections, no problems or complications with surgery.

Well, I had tubes in my ears over 25 years ago and haven't had an ear infection since! Like your daughter, I had chronic infections (every 28 days)which didn't consistently respond to medications and resulted in scar tissue from the INFECTIONS not from the surgery.

I had no anesthesia complications, but did have some molar decay issues b/c of all of the antibiotics as a child and have mild hearing loss in my right ear due to the infection-related scar tissue. I think my parents made the absolute right choice b/c the longer the infections go on the more long-term complications your child may experience.

Several friends have had the tubes in their children's ears with no complications. Remember that doctors have to tell you EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong, but in the end statistically the procedure is quite routine and safe.

Curious. Is she a milk drinker? My youngest had an ear infection every 6 weeks for the first 9 months of her life and no one ever suggested milk allergies. I would take her in to the pedi, he would give her anitbiotics, she would clear up, back again about a week after she finished the meds. Turns out she was allergic to milk products. I made this connection after a conversation with someone else whose child had chronic ear infections and they cut out the milk and cured the ears.
Once I put her on all soy, she was fine. Don't think she has had an ear infection since and she just turned 13 years.
Just a thought.