Ear Tubes - Aurora, IL

My son is also 13mos and has had ear infection after ear infection. When he was 8-9 mos he had 7 meds. (poor guy!!) My ped recomended a ear,nose & throat specialist in January. The specialist put him on Nasonex and since then he has only had one ear infection (we caught it early). It has since been determined that my son has allergies and now not only is he using nasonex everyday but also a allergy med (Zyrtec). He is doing good and we have not seen the specialist since.
I wish you the best!!!

My sisters daughter had a lot of ear infections when she
was a baby and had tubes put in at 16 months. She is doing well and doesn't get ear infections like before.
G.

I highly recommend you take your daughter to a chiropractor before committing to tubes. Most of the time, ear infections can result from fluid build-up caused by an out-of-place vertabrae which blocks the fluid drainage. My daughter (now 18 months) has only had 1 ear infection caused by a terrible cold... and the chiropractor helped it go away twice as fast! She goes to Dr. Richard Whitney in Naperville (he also has an office in Lisle) - ###-###-####. Good luck!!

Dear Suzi,
My daughter has never had an ear infection, but I have two friends whose children were scheduled to have the tube surgery, and were able to avoid it thanks to a product called Reliv.
If you are interested in meeting either of my friends, let me know.
--sincerely, E.
PS: i loved your article on cloth diapers and on the 30 hr. famine. thought=provoking!

Suzi: My son had tubes when he was 2, the scariest part is the anesthesia, but the procedure is so quick. I literally took him to the operating room, took the elevator down to the cafeteria and when the elevetor arrived to the 1st floor, the doctors were calling me to tell me they were done, to go pick him up. I am not exaggerating when I say the procedure is that quick. My son has not had an ear infection yet and he is 4 years old and they are still in place. I do recommend ear tubes if your child is going through so many ear infections.

My daughter was born with cleft palate and these children tend to have a lot of problems with ear infections. So, at her cleft palate repair surgery, an ENT also put ear tubes in for her. This was at 6 months of age. She is now 20 months and has not had one single ear infection or any type of problem whatsoever with the tubes... I completely understand your worrying about this (imagine my worries, ear tubes and palate repair!!)......but it went so smoothly, there were no problems or complications, and I have no doubt that it has helped her!

My son had them put in 3 weeks after his 1st birthday and we were so nervous, but in the end they have been wonderful, he hasn't had an ear infection since he is walking more and talking more. From Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas he had been on 5 antibiotics, at this point the doctor recommended the ear, nose, and throat doctor, who said 1 more ear infection while being on a preventative antiobiotic and we will schedule the tubes. Since he was younger they did his surgery 1st, it took maybe 15 minutes, he was very upset afterwards due to the anethisia, but by the time we got into the car he fell asleep, was up before we got home and spent the rest of the day playing like nothing happened. I am not going to tell you to not be nervous, you're a mom, but it will be alright, you will see. Ever since it seems as if is hearing is so much better, except for the word "no".

Hi. Just wanted to say that I completely agree with these fist couple posts. Everything they are saying is absolutely true. You will naturally be nervous, but it is over before you know it, and they make a major difference for the good. Good luck.

My son had tubes when he was almost 2. I was scared to death about the idea of surgery. It was a total piece of cake. I walked with him to the operating room and by the time I got back to the waiting room and sat down, the doc was there telling me they were done and he was waking up. We were home an hour later and he wanted a bagel. That said, if you're interested in alternatives, we had a lot of luck with chiropractic and actually probably could have skipped the surgery all around because after a month or so of chiropractic adjustments, his ears were fluid free for the first time in his life! As an added bonus, we saw an improvement in his behavior after adjustments too. We saw Dr. Stephanie Maj at Community Chiropractic ###-###-#### and love love love her!

My son had tubes put in when he was 3. I remember my mom saying that, "oh, he'll grow out of it," but what she didn't realize was that during these important years it's not just about hearing/antibiotics (although that's important too) but also language acquisition and balance and motor skills that you can't make up for very easily later in childhood.

It is scary to have your child have surgery, but I really think it's a wonderful option and I wish we had seen the ENT earlier. Good luck!

Hi, both of my boys have tubes. They both went through a spell of constantly being sick with ear infections. The tubes have really changed our lives. They still get sick but not anywhere near the amount of times without them. Also, the risk of the tubes is minor compared the the health of my child. I hope this helps.
J. V

We were in the same predicament (sequential ear infections w/ antibiotics). Our thought was to try chiropractic and having ear tubes as a last resort. We felt the chiropractic treatment would be non-invasive and worth a try. We also went to Dr. Stephanie Maj and have seen positive results - we've only been going for a month. I highly recommend her and to try chiropractic care before getting tubes.

We were going through the same thing. Our little one just had the tubes put in on Monday. I was just as worried and nervous. I read up on it on the internet and asked the doctor lots of questions. The procedure was quick and she made it through with no complications. We felt we had to get it done because she has been living like she it under water due to the fluid and puss in her ears. It was beginning to affect her speach. We are very happy so far with the results so far. Our duaghter is jabbering much more and repeating every thing. She is jumpier though and gets startled easy. We are glad we got it done though as the earinfections were getting to often and painful.

My son had tubes put in his ears almost 15 years ago. Antibiotics were not working so this was the last straw. He went through the surgery just fine and the tubes fall out on their own after time. I am glad that I did it because he had a 90% hearing loss in the left ear and a 70% loss in the right. School was easier for him because he could hear it all. Do NOT take chances with your childs hearing, and the doctors know what they are doing! It will save you alot of frustration, heart ache and also money in the long run

Ear tubes are a great thing and help alot. I have 3 kids ages 5, 2 and 5 months and the 5 and 2 year old have both had 2 sets of tubes and my 5 month old just had tubes put in last week. they help alot and it is very common. I would not worry about it. if you want to talk more you can email me at ____@____.com

My son had chronic ear infections from the age of two months to two years. (Believe it or not...we have 28 ear infections documented in his medical records) He even perferated his left ear drum around 1 1/2 years old. At the age of two he had tubes put in and we saw immediate improvements. His poor ears were so full of fluid he couldn't sleep, he was losing weight, he cried for, I swear, two years straight! The day he had his tubes put in he started eating like there was no tomorrow and by the next night started sleeping through the night for the first time ever. Of course, then my husband and I were in a panic because we were so used to waking up every 30 minutes to crying that we couldn't sleep anyway for quite some time. His poor ears were so full of fluid that he heard very little. He only knew a couple of words at the age of two but within just a week or so after having the tubes put in his vocabulary grew substantially. We are still dealing with speech issues and have his hearing tested yearly. He does have some permanent damage in his left ear but it's not significant, that is according to the doctor.

I understand your concern about the tubes because we went through the same thing but it was the best thing we could have done for our son at that time. I just wish we could have done it sooner but his poor little ears were so infected it could have made things worse. He has had only one ear infection since the tubes were put in and that was when he was around 2.5 years old. He is now 4.5 and both tubes have come out in the past year and we are still free from an ear problems. Let's pray this continues.

I don't know if any of this helps but if your daughter is losing sleep, irritable, not eating, or behind in her speech, I would seriously consider doing it. Apparently the only reason they sedate young children is to relax them. If it was an adult having tubes put in, it can be done right in a doctor's office because there is really no pain involved. It's a very quick procedure... I know you will worry and probably be in tears because I was too while it was being done to my son but I knew if I didn't agree that there was a great chance he would end up losing his hearing.

My daughter had them when she was under 2 years old. I was taking her 3 times a month for her ears. She never had a ear infection since. I know it's scary but it helped her so much.

My middle child had ear tubes put in at around 14 months old. The procedure was quick and basically no recovery. Once the anesthesia wore off, he was back to playing like normal. The anesthesia was definitely the scariest part for me, but he did fine.

Before he had tubes, he literally had ear infections all the time. He was on so much antibiotics. But, he's only had one ear infection since the tubes were in (he's 2 1/2 now!). And, that ear infection cleared up with just the drops in the ears for a couple of days. The tubes are amazing!

The best part is that he can hear us now! We didn't realize how much the ear problems were impacting his hearing because he was so little. But it made a huge difference. Within one week of having the tubes in, he said about 5 new words -- he basically hadn't started talking before the procedure because he couldn't hear our words well enough.

Good luck!

Hi! Please read the whole thing. I have twins that are 5 and 1/2, anyway they were always having ear infections, and had bad allergies. We were about to get tubes put in their ears and take out their tonsils and adnoids. I had been taking them to a chiropractor since they were a month old and then my husband at the time decided that it was a bad idea. Well, once all this surgery was upon us he had a change of heart. We started taking the girls to the chiropractor and it has been 3 1/2 years since they have had any type of ear infection or any major sickness(obviously they still get a cold now and again). I also have a 14 month old that has been seeing the chiro since birth and she has never ONCE had any problem or been on medicine. When you first start going your baby will probably have to go 2 or 3 times a week, but then you can go every month or every couple of months. I bring all my girls once a month b/c the chiropractic care helps out on so many other levels. When we decided to take them back to the chiro we figured that we had nothing to lose and that if it didnt work then we would proceed with the tubes and such. Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps! By the way in case your interested we use Hofferth Family Chiropractor in Munster.
A.

My 20 month old daughter had the procedure done last week. I haven't noticed any difference, but the procedure itself wasn't bad. she had it done at about 9am and we were out of the hospital by 10. She was walking around by 11 and good as new by noon. Recovery is minimal. The hardest thing I have found is keeping water out of her ears in the tub.