Ear Tubes - Tulsa,OK

My youngest son had severe ear problems the first winter season after he was born. He had 12 ear infections in a 9 week period. He was Ok as long as he was on antibiotics, but then it got to be where his body was use to the meds so there became non-repsponsive, finally I demanded his PCP to send me to an ENT. We went to Dr Hall with EOENT and he is GREAT. Immediatley he said this baby needs tubes NOW! We were scheduled for tubes that next week which one day after my sons 1st birthday. They tested his hearing before they did the surgery and his hearing was horrible which I alreayd knew becayse JR (my son) did not respond when i would talk to him unless I would talk loudly. Plus, his speech was very delayed. We proceeded with the surgery which was very minor and quick and within 2 weeks JR said momma and dadda. THat was in April 05 until Feb 06 we did wonderful he didn't get sick at all-no ear infections cold nothing and then in February he had gotten a cold that seemed to be not to bad, but apparently it was and I didn't realize it. He had so much build up of behind his ear drum that it caused his ear drum to bust-even with the tubes in. Now, I am just telling you this because some people think, and i was one of those people, that once the tubes are in-there are no more problems and that is not always the case. For the most part the tubes have been a success with the exception of the Feb. incident and we haven't had anymore issues. He lost one of the tubes in June and still has the other one in there. I hope this helps.

My son had tubes put in when he was 16 months old. They only let one of us go back with him, so I took him in and my husband went in after the procedure. When I took him in, they had me lay him down while they put a mask on him. As soon as he was out (something like 5 seconds) they rushed me out of the room. The procedure itself took about 7 minutes, if even that long. He was awake and ready to eat within minutes. It was kind of scary to see him go from screaming mad to completely still--especially since he has never been still since the day he was born!ha! Anyway, of course it is a little scary putting your baby under, even for that short of time. However, it is a very common procedure and it is certainly worth it to be ear ache free!:) Best of luck to you. Oh, and it is okay to cry--just don't let him see you. Also, I don't know where you live, but the doctor that did ours was in Pittsburg, Kansas and he was fantastic! Very compasionate and understanding of my nerves and the procedure went very smoothly.

My son also had tubes and had no problems with them, but a family friend's son had them and he had many many problems. Think it just sort of depends just like with many things. I have also heard of chiropractic care and would recommend trying this route first. I'm not sure where exactly you are located, but I know some in the Kansas city area. It is worth it over surgery and if it doesnt work for you then there is always the surgery option still. Good Luck, I know it's hard.

Hi there. Have you ever considered trying chiropractic care? The chiro that I go to has completely cured numerous cases of children with chronic ear infections! Tubes should be a last resort! I am not sure where you live, but I will leave you a link to check out the website for more information. Please consider using this as an alternative to tubes!
http://www.lacknerinnerspirit.com/

Good luck to you!
~S.

I have four children, and three of them have had tubes. None of them have had issues with the tubes or after the tubes fell out. I would highly recommend. I had heard stories too, but I think they were all from people who had them long long ago before science was as good. Best of luck. C.

hi angie! my little girl got tubes this past april and she can hear much better. i was so scared for her to get the tubes, but she was already behind a little in her speech, that i didn't want to delay it any futher. after the tubes, she beagan to say more words, but now since she missed out on so many words her first year, she's still a little behind in her speech so i highly recommend you get the tubes for your child

ATTENTION MOMS!!! CHIROPRACTORS totally can prevent your children from having ear infections and tubes. End their suffereing!!! First find a chiropractor that works on children and is familiar w/ the technigue.

My Chiropractor has worked on my son from birth and he told me that he has prevented every child w/ the exception of ONE from getting tubes. They do a minor adjustment on the child and a tug technigue on the ear which releases the fluid and lets it drain. If you keep on top of it you can preven the ear infection all together. I noticed a few others had mentioned the same thing.

PLEASE try it, it's worth it to not put your child through tubes. My pediatrician told me he really didn't think the Chiroprator could really help w/ ear issues, but that is because he is not familiar with their technigues.

Wonderful option!!!

My daughter has tubes now and the procedure went smoothly. It was afterwards we had and are having problems. My daughter's right ear started bleeding a few days before her follow up visit and on that visit the nurse practioner rather than the dr. seen her and had to clean her ears out because the tube wasn't draining like it should. I was upset that the actually dr. didn't see her. So after that visit knowing i wasn't happy with the dr. and hearing they may have to go in and redue her tube in her right ear I decided I did not want to deal with that office anymore. Especially since the actually dr. that put her tubes in didn't even see her. So I called my peditrician who got my daughter an appt. at Children's Mercy with Dr. Eyen, who by the way is great. He also thinks her tube needs to be replace but he is much more patient and is actually the one who sees jenna rather than the nurse practioner. So it has been somewhat of a mess but hopefully it will all be taken care of soon.

My advice is definitely do the tubes but make sure you choose the right dr. so if complications come up you'll be confident in him/her to handle the problem.

Hi A., My son had tubes put in his ears when he was a toddler as well, and he did great. You should see an improvement with the ear infections. Good luck

Hi A.. My son has had tubes in his ears for almost 3 months now and it is the best thing that has ever happened to him. Like most mom's I was more worried about it because of not knowing what was going to happen. The hardest part was when the nurses took him to the room for anesthesia but before I knew it the doctor was back saying that everything went perfect. The entire procedure took about 30 minutes from when they took him in, had the tubes put in and brought him back to us. Or if you want to look at it this way, my husband was able to go get me a cup of coffee and I was able to drink it and everything was done. Since then we haven't had any infections and he seems to be hearing much better now. I hope that everything goes well for you. I know how scary it can be! H.

Have you tried seeing a Chiropractor? My daughter is 10 months old and we haven't had those problems yet-but my best friend's son has had ear infections and she avoided tubes by visiting a chiropractor. His ear infections are getting less. Integrity Chiropractor, Dr. Jimenez, is schooled in infant chiropractic-it's non-invasive and can't hurt to try.
I took my 6 week old to see him. He is good.
Good Luck!

Somehow my son managed to go 3 years without infection, but just after his 3rd birthday he started getting infections. We had one right after another. He had tubes put in this past March and has done wonderful since. His health has improved 100%. His surgery was in the morning, and by that afternoon he was showing more life than he had in the previous months. I understand your worry and concern, but you will be pleased with the results.

A., I haven't read any of the responses yet, but my son had the same problem. The doctor said one more infection and he was recommending tubes. My old pediatrician in CA told me not to get the tubes until I tried switching to soy milk and taking him to a reputable chiropractor. I happen to live across the street from a chiropractor so I asked her about treatment. She told me that it can help and even prevent need for tubes. I switched from whole milk to soy (he likes vanilla the best) and took him to a chiropractor that is familiar with treatment of toddlers. He has not had any ear infections since (this started when he was 10 months he is now 3 1/2 years old!!).

hello. my son had tubes put in when he was about 15-18 months old. he is now going to be 5 in oct. he had had 15 ear infections in a little over a year. my husband and i noticed that he didn't seem to talk to much. the doc told us that it was because his hearing was muffled.
the surgery only took like 15 minutes. he came out fine and in 2weeks we couldn't get him to stop talking. and it wasn't "momma dada" either. it was full blown sentences. we were amazed!!! the only thing the doc told us was to make sure the if we went swimming to put ear plugs in his ears.(u can imagine how that turned out haha)anyway they told us the tubes would just fall out,they are microscopic,and that it shouldn't hurt. i guess about 6 or 7 months ago i had to take him to the hospital because he was sick. the doc said his tubes were gone and let me look in his ears. sure enough they were. now he had a ear infection that day. so i want to say that it is possible for them to return. and they did tell me that if it continued that he would have to have them put in again. but i my case so far so good. not one since. it really is a safe process.we went to barnes jewish hospital.i hope you the best of luck.don't be worried,i know the feeling. it will be okay. stay strong.
D.

A....don't hesitate to do the tubes! My son, now 25 had over 12 sets of tubes. He was born with a cleft palate and it caused issues with his ears. The tubes will be much better than the medication. He built a tolerance to antibiotics and has a very high pain tolerance so it was difficult to know how bad the infections were until it was too late. He suffered some minor hearing loss in one ear. After he would get new tubes he would always tell us we were talking too loud. As adults we sometimes let our own fears and the fears of others drive our decisions that affect our children. When you are in pain don't you want the best/quickest and most long acting relief? Don't deny your child that because of your own fears. The best doc we found (he is still practicing) is Dr. Charles Luetje and he is in
Kansas City on Broadway ###-###-####. I can tell you without hesitation he saved my sanity!

My daughter was the same way. Her first doctor kept telling us that we had to wait until she was at least 2 years old before they would put tubes in. After switching doctors, they took one look at her history and said if they didn't do tubes, she would be a tolerance for the antibiotics. Less than two weeks later, she had her tubes put in. The only difficulty we had, was not letting her eat or drink for several hours that morning. Knock on Wood - but since her tubes were put in, she has only had one ear infection that didn't even require medicine. Her tubes came out almost six months ago and we haven't had a single problem yet. My daughter also gained almost 5 pounds after she had her tubes put in.

A.,
2 of my children have had tubes and I can honestly say that getting tubes is so much easier than having a child constantly in pain battling infections. The surgery is a very simple 5 minute procedure and my children did not need anything other than tylenol and the prescribed ear drops afterwards. They were back to normal by the end of the day. It was truly a lifesaver for my daughter, in particular. The tubes did not take away the infections, but made it so the infections were not painful and did no damage to her hearing. It was a little gross (when they were infected--all the goo runs out and collects in the outer ear) but so much better than a baby who can't eat or sleep without screaming in pain!

My daughter was around 1 when she got tubes in her ears. She went to cardinal glennon childrens hospital. It was a breeze. she was in and out in 15 minutes. I had no problems at all. Dont worry it will be ok!! my daughter is now 7 and has not had an ear infection since. Her tubes fell out a long time ago.

T.

Hi my name is A. & I am a single mother of a 3 year old girl. She has had tubes in her ears fo almost 2 years now. They have not fallen out yet that we know of. My daughter had twice the amount of ear infections that are allowed before the insurance companies will pay for tubes. She would have an infection in one ear & it owuld go away with medication. Then she would get an infection in the other ear & it would go away with meds, & then she would get an infection in both ears. It was a nightmare. I am very happy that we got the tubes, she was half deaf until we got the tubes put in. Now she is playing catch up with her learning. She is doing much better. Like I said she has had them for almost 2 years & has only had one minor ear infection. I would do it all over again if I had too.

My son now 11 yrs old had tubes at 6 mths old, they were a blessing.I was so scared he had never even been to a babysitter before.But other than not being able wash his hair without putting ear plugs in (at 6 mths that was a chore)it was a blessing.We haven't had one since.

Hi A.,
I too have been dealing with my daughters (19months old) numerous ear infections. We are going to the ENT on Monday infact to discuss tubes! She's on her 3rd round of antibiotics since Aug. 1...this is her 3rd double ear infection since then and number ???? There have been so many since she was an infant. I don't know what it's going to be like either, but just wanted to wish you both luck and I know how you must be feeling.
Take care, S.

Both of my kids had tubes and it was a godsend. Emma was 11 months and Ethan was 8 months. I didn't realize until we got them put in that they both had a little hearing loss. They have perfect hearing now. The surgery itself is very fast and they are perfectly fine that afternoon. the only thing that was hard was when my son came out of anesthesia but it only lasted about 15 minutes.

Hi A.. So sad for your little one to be suffering so long. You will see on the news and in headlines these days that the current route for ear infections is being questioned by the medical field. How frustrating for us as parents! I know firsthand that many families have found help using alternative medicine, chiropractic in particular. This website provides much research on this topic. If you are looking for a good chiropractor with experience with children, let me know and I will find you one.
Good luck.

My daughter who is now 11 years olad still has trouble with her ears after (3) ear surgeries. She had ear tubes @ about 5 years old. She then had them again @ about 9 years old. When the fell out the ear drum did not close so they had to take skin from the back of her ear to close the drum. She loves swimming and constanly has ear infections even today. The bottom line is with out the tubes she proabably would be worse off. My advise is to continuously keep up with her status and always make sure she's checked by her Pediatrician. I have found the same as you is that it works great for some and not so good for others. But they do help the situation more than they hurt. Good Luck!

Dear A.,
I have had tubes myself as a child a couple of times. They never hurt me. The tubes are very very small, and are placed through the eardrum so that the pressure of the ear can be equalized, and any extra fluid can then go back down the eustation tube into the body (which is normal). The ones I had fell out by themselves over time. My 3yr old son just went to get assessed for tubes. He has a speech test scheduled to determine if all the ear infections are affecting his speech. All seems well so far, even though he has had a bunch of infections. The doc doesnt want to take the tonsils out either, unless it seems needful later on.
I really have not had any kind of a bad experience with the tubes...they put me to sleep when I was a kid, but I'm not sure what they do these days.

A.,
My middle daughter's situation mirrored your daughter's. We had tubes put in and she has been free from ear infections since. She is 20 months and I think we had it done when she was 15 or 16 months
The surgery was a breeze, in and out of the hospital in around an hour and a half. The surgery itself only took about 10 minutes. Seriously! They barely even put the child out, the anesthesia is very small.
Good luck,
B.

I third chiropractic! :)

I also highely recommend trying a chiropractor before trying tubes. My son suffered for over a year with chronic ear infections. We happened to be discussing it in front of our chiropractor when he said he could help. I held him against my chest and he felt my sons neck. They gently turned his head a little and pushed on his spine a bit, nothing that alarmed my son, who didn't really know this man at all. That was 9 years ago and he hasn't had an ear infection since!!

My son, which is now 3, had tubes put in and his adnoids out at 20 months. (I had the same surgery at 18 months, so it runs in the family.) Anyways, he recovered wonderfully! They told me at the hospital not to worry if he didn't want to eat for a while and he was wanting a Happy Meal on the way home!!! Once we got home, he played as normal for a while than went on to take a pretty long nap because of the drowniness from the surgery. So otherwise, he did great!

nothing to br worried about.......my daughter went throught it all.......from tubes to now a doner ear drum.....just make sure you have a good doctor.......everything will be fine and soon the pain will be a thing of the past..........better for them to be able to hear then them getting worse

I am a nurse anesthetist at Children's Mercy Hospital and can tell you that getting ear tubes does not need to be traumatic. It is a very short procedure and usually has great results for improving a child's symptoms and discomfort. The procedure itself takes less than 30 minutes routinely, and they only stay in the recovery room for a short period also. If your child is having ear infections that frequently, keep your appointment! Surgery is much scarier for parents than adults at this age, and she will feel so much better afterwards.

Angie, I don't know anything about tubes however, I will say that when my daughter was an infant she had repeated ear infections. As soon as her ears would clear up she would get two more by the next week. She went through almost every kind of antibotic there was for children. Her pedicatrician finally decided to set her up for a consultation for tubes. But before we did that he wanted to try one more thing. After the antibotic cleared up her last ear infection he put her on a prescription allergy medicine. Her allergies had created fluids that were draining into her ear canal causing the infections. She has not had an ear infection since. She was 18 months old at the time and she just turned 11 on Wednesday. I have heard from a pediatric nurse that children that young do not develop seasonal allergies at that age but it worked for her. I will remind you that this has been a very bad season for allergy sufferers.
As I said, I don't know anything about tubes. They may be a good thing for some people. I just know in our case we were able to prevent them and I am happy for it. Good luck to you and your daughter. I pray you are able to find what is best for her.

A.~ as a mom of 2 don't be worrie. My little brother had them put in when he was 1 year old and he is now 22 and going strong. I had to put my son's 2nd set in about 6 months ago and he is doing great. I had to put his 1st set in 3 days after his 1st b-day, because he wasn't walking or talking very well and the ear infections kept coming & going. I also tried a hands on procedure by a Dr. here in Tulsa,Ok. Dr,Mirian Mills @ Young People's Clinic and she helped alot but it was already to late and she made the desision to do tubes. I am for them. I also have a 4 month old little girl and she's already acting like she's having ear problems, so they are wanting to start sooner with her on the treatments, so we can maybe prevent all the ear infections. I highly recommend it, but it's you child. Yes, after the surgery they are so mad and hurt it takes some time to get them to calm down but after all said and done they are fine with it. ~momma of 2 M.~

I don't really know a whole lot about the tubes, and I'm sure your doctor has thoroughly checked. My cousin's baby got an ear infection it seemed like every week or two. Finally his doctor said ok lets start talking about tubes. Now he hasn't had one in like 6 months or so. It turned out that he got the ear infections every time he had a new tooth come in. I would just make sure its not because she is still teething before doing any serious tactics.