Hellobee Boards

@Foodnerd81: Hey there! Sorry to hear about your DD. I have not experienced this, but my understanding was they stop doing tubes around 3 years old because that's when ear infections will resolve themselves. Something about the ear shape changing for the better! Good luck with this.

@Foodnerd81: We have a similar situation - my LO had one ear infection before she was 2, but is 2.5 and has had 5 in the last 5 months (since she started daycare.) We just got a referral to an ENT and have an appointment next month.

I had tubes in my ears twice as a child - the first time I was very young (like 2?) but the second time I was in school so at least 5 or 6. I continued to get at least one ear ache a year until I was in high school.

K got hers at 18 mos after 7 ear infections. Best thing ever. It was scary for sure but we had ours done at the hospital (as opposed to an outpatient facility) which was comforting to me knowing that if god forbid anything went wrong she had the best care available.

He tubes had fallen out by 32 mos but we have had no issues since. Our ENT indicated that she rarely has to do repeat tubes (she said 5% of cases) because when they fall out it is generally bc the canal has matured properly.

Perhaps your little ones canals just has not matured yet...

DD2 has not had issues yet (she is barely 4 mos) but I will not be going all the way through 7 infections before I push the issue...it was just awful for DD1.

We just got them for my son at 21 months a week ago. He had 5 ear infections between January and May. When we saw the audiologist as part of our referral, she said there was so much fluid in his ear that it was like he was hearing under water and that it was likely why he wasn't talking too much - it was affecting his speech. That sealed the deal for us, plus DS is starting a 2's preschool program in the fall - aka a new pond of germs.

DH insisted on a pediatric anesthesiologist, so we had the procedure done at a surgical center a bit further from home. But it was really fast. We had to report by 630am and were home a little after 9am - and the surgery center was 45 minutes away from our house! The surgery typically takes 8-10 minutes, but our doctor said DS' took 23 minutes because he had so much earwax and fluid to clean out before they began the procedure (gross). So theoretically, we could have been home even sooner.

DS was completely fine afterwards and the doctor gave him zero restrictions. In fact the baby valium they gave him made him sorta crazy and hyper so we decided to feed him breakfast and just take him to daycare so he could burn off his energy. The caretakers said he had a great day at daycare, took a great nap, and all we needed to do was give him drops in his ears for 3 days.

@gingerbebe: We heard the same from our ENT...that K's hearing was compromised 30-40% due to fluid build up. I was heartbroken. FWIW - I expected an immediate change in her...but I would say it was probably 3 mos after surgery that her talking TOOK OFF...it was unreal...flood gates opened...

@Foodnerd81: Similar to what GingerBeBe said...we checked in at 630, the actual procedure was probably at 8:30...like 15 different people came and talked me through everything before taking her back. They came to take her, we packed up and were taken to the waiting room (we had been in pre-surgery) it was literally 5 mins after sitting down (so maybe 10 mins total) that the Dr came out to say all was good.

We were brought into recover after she had woken up - they can be all crazy from the medication...once she ate something we were free to go. We were home by 10am...she could have totally gone to Daycare but I decided to stay home with her instead...

@Foodnerd81: she was 10 months and had 8-9 ear infections. I pushed it off as long as I could so she'd be a bit older and bigger, couldn't do it to a tiny baby. I'm glad we did it, the experience was fantastic and the have improved quality of life for all involved (most importantly DD's).

13 months. We had our surgery in less than a week from our ENT consult. It's been a game changer for us.

We got our first set at 10 months. They were an immediate life save. But at her two year appointment they were both out. Shortly after that we were back to constant infections, so we got a second set at 2.5. She's 3.5 now and the second set have been a miracle cure as well.

@Foodnerd81: wow our threshold is much higher!