Tubes in Ears - Help - Advice Please

I'm on another message board where there have been a lot of threads about ear tubes. The majority of these children were under 18 months, so the situation might be different for your son. That said, every single thread that I have ever read has been extremely positive. The moms all said it was the best thing they ever did for their kids, that they didn't get any more ear infections, and that they were very glad to have done it. No one mentioned any negative side effects and no one expressed any regrets whatsoever.

I think it certainly won't hurt you to meet with an ENT and talk about it in greater detail.

Hi K.,

My older daughter never had tubes, however suffered many ear infections. Her doctor was a bit older and never sent her to any type specialists, I actually think he believed in a more natural healing method.

Because of her severe ear infections, she has partial loss of hearing in one ear and has a scar on the ear drum where it burst.

My baby who is now 4 years old had tubes put in at 18 months because of her numerous ear infections. After the tubes, she still had a few infections, but my ENT said that with the tubes in place, her ears will now drain rather than burst from the trapped fluid. The tubes have now come out on their own and her hearing tests are fine, as well, I don't hear of any headaches or ringing in the ear.

Always make sure your doctor is certified in the necessary specialty. Create an account it is free. https://www.abms.org/WC/login.aspx as well, check out www.askapatient.com for medications and their side effects.

Hi K.,
I am the horror story of tubes in the ears. But I had them done earlier this summer as a 36 year old adult, not as a kid. I think kids have a much greater ability to recover and get used to them. I couldn't. The temporary loss of hearing was so great, combined with permanent ringing in my ear, that I ended up having panic attacks 24 /7 and ended up in the mental hospital....twice since the surgery. It's been an unending nightmare. I had to have the tubes taken out after two weeks, they were just making me too sick. And I am now left with permanent ringing in one ear that wasn't there before the tubes went in. And I am now on psychotropic drugs to help wih the anxiety and depression it caused.
I really don't know what to tell you, but I would try to explore other avenues before putting tubes in your child's ears after what I have been through. Maybe they need to be taken off of dairy, or tested for allergies. My eustachian tube problems are highly allergy related.
I am so sorry to scare you, but I had to share this with you. If anything, make sure you go to the best doctor possible for this. I highly recommend House Ear Clinic in downtown L.A. They are now the ones taking care of me, after my lousy local ENT screwed everything up.
I am so sorry to hear how much your child is suffering. I hope whatever decision you make helps him get better.

Do some research on the side effects of vaccines... ear infections is just one of the side effects.

I had tubes put in my ears as a kid and I have damaged hearing in ear. I also had my adnoids and tonsils removed and neither remedied the situation... however, when my grandmother stopped vaccinating me I never had another ear infection and I was rarely out from school due to any illness after that.

My personal experience: I had tubes as a kid, and had tubes put in 3 times. They do help with infections, however please make sure that the cause of the infections is investigated.

In my case, I had chronic tonsilitis. Had I been properly diagnosed and had my tonsils removed as a kid instead of when I was 18, I probably would never have needed tubes. So please please stress that they attempt to determine the cause of the infections first.

I don't know if things are the same today as they were when I had them, but I was told that you have to avoid getting water in your ears if you have tubes. The reason is that water can get into the middle ear and could cause yet another ear infection.

Also, I ended up with scarring on my eardrums as a result of having them in for so long. I don't know how common that is, but while the attempt was made to do a skin graft to cover the hole left from the tubes, it didn't take. Today I can fly and travel to high altitudes without the common discomfort that most people have of plugged ears. This is due to the permanent hole in both of my eardrums. Also to this day I cannot get water in my ears for the aforementioned reason. So for showers, swimming and so on are I have to take extra care to keep water out of my ears even as an adult unless I want to wear earplugs.

If he has to have them for an extended period of time, realize that tubes can, and often will fall out naturally on their own. If that happens, they may have to perform yet another surgery to install new ones. Just FYI.

My 14 month old had tubes put in when she was about 11 months old (after 9 ear infections in 5.5 months). The ENT told us that once they hit 6-8 infections in one year the benefits outweigh the risks. The surgery was super quick (less than 15 minutes she was back to us). We have not had any problems since and shw has no hearing loss.

Looks like after 4.5 years, you might want to try something alternative?

My son had an ear infection and I ran in and got hime adjusted by our chiropractor, gave him PB8, therapeutic dosages of vitamin A with D and Herbs for Kids - Echinacea/Goldenroot and his ear infection was GONE by that night. NO REDNESS at all by dinner....since I took him back to see if there were any changes.

Our same son had lost almost all of his hearing in both ears and was literally, like, "What mom?" 2 peds told us to give him amoxicillan and the other told us Benadryl. Hello???? He doesn't have an antibiotic or anti-histamine deficiency. Iw as so frustrated. I took him again, to our chiropractor who knows more than just chiropractic and she did a homeopathic asbestos (long story) and a homeopathic toxic fungi-mold detox on him, as well as took him off peanut butter. It took him 3 months, but his hearing is 100% and he had this deafness for almost 2 years.

I have a friend who took her son into see her and he has ear infections nearly every 3 weeks. he's now gone 3.5 months and has not had one ear infection.

Seriously, look somewhere else, at least for the info, if nothing else.

http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/33/1/Chir...

http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/children/antibiotics.htm

http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/33/1/Chir...

http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/160/1/Ear...