Tell me about tubes in the ears, please

[~Karen~]

I've heard many people talk about having this done for their children in the past, but I don't know much, if anything about it, and was hoping that someone here could tell me.

Our son (3 on March 30) was recently taken to the Dr. for sinus stuff going on. While there we inquired about his speech that I was sure is delayed for his age. The Dr. found that there was water behind the ear drums (both ears) and this has been since birth and that is probably the cause of his delay that is now confirmed with the Dr. We have an appointment set with a specialist for this Monday afternoon. Someone told us the other day that putting tubes in the ears is a painful proceedure, but with good results.

My question is: How painful? What is the proceedure? What is the aftercare? Does this immediatly cause his speech to be corrected or will he have to have speech therapy to get him back on track, or??

I know I can wait until Monday to get these questions answered, but I am a concerned mother that doesn't like to be in the dark about things any longer than I have to.

Thank you for any information you have,

~Karen

 

[Cathy_H]

The Dr. found that there was water behind the ear drums (both ears)

... Same with our granddaughter.
Our almost two year old granddaughter had this done about four months ago. They scheduled her first thing in the morning since she was a baby ( no food or milk after midnight). Short procedure - in & out & no pain. She too was slow in talking but is now making up for it. :aktion033: Sorry cannot go into the procedure since I was not there. I've also talked to another mom that said her daughters took about 15 minutes & was pain free...................... My daughter said they had a mask shaped like an animal so the child would not be scared of having a mask put on their face.

 

[minimama]

My daughter had them and it is no big deal. Harder for the parents than the kids. And the surgery is very short. They go in and coem out in no time. Then they just have to be careful in water. No going under in teh swimming pool. But if you get proper ear plugs they can go under. You can have ear molds made addn they are teh ones you would need to get. Then you just have them checked regularly to make sure they did not fall out which does happen sometimes.

 

[backwoodsnanny]

OUr grandson who had terrible problems with ear infections the first few months of his life also had the temporay tubes put in, in and out of surgery in less than 20 minutes no pain after and yes he did need speech therapy after because he had heard words wrong for so long and because there was some permanent damage he is now 20 and you would never know anything was ever wrong.

 

[Girrawheen]

Hi

I have not had first hand experience with this with my children, but my sisters little girl had it done a while back.

I believe they are called grommets and yes, it is a "in and out" operation with no pain associated. My family and I noticed that my niece was not speaking normally at all and so asked my sister about this. She said she could understand her daughter perfectly but a mother usually can! I know each child develops at different rates but we could not understand her at all!

Anyway........she had the grommets put in, did not need any speech therapy and now we understand her perfectly! The Dr said that prior to her grommets, she would have heard everything as very distant and muffled! (put your hands over both your ears and try to listen to sounds, people etc). If you do not hear words pronounced correctly, then the way you hear them (muffled etc) is the way you will learn to repeat them (I hope that explanation makes sense).

Anyway the grommets will just "fall out" when they are ready and you may find them on the pillow one morning (they are pretty tiny).

I am sure your Dr will be able to explain this all to you but hopefully I have been close in my description.

Hope this helps and good luck with your little one! :aktion033: :aktion033:

 

[Girrawheen]

barnbum I can relate to this, as I have already had one son who had his adenoids out (when he was two), and now my 19 month old looks like he will have his adenoids done also. I have a specialist appointment on Monday as he has a serious chest infection right now and it needs to be addressed! I was told adenoid problems are very common in boys! The snoring is the worrying part as the surgeon said it places a lot of stress on their little hearts.

 

[MiniforFaith]

:saludando: Hello, this is one I have dealt with and will be again with my 12 yr old. The suregery is really nothing. LIke I read, it will be harder on you than your son. My daughter had her set put in when she was under 2.. The surgery itself is less than 20 min, just have to wait fo him to wake up. He will feel a lot better..

: He will be up and running again within 3 hrs after having them in.. They do fall out, so you might have to have it done again, as in my daughter and son's case. He will just have to watch getting water in his ears.. You can get special made ear plugs if he loves the water(neither of my kids do so, I didn't have to worry about them) My hospital let me stay with the both of them until right before surgery. I stayed until they gave them something in the iv to relax them, and they didn't even see me leave.. So please try not to worry.. God knows I did with both of mine.. He will be so much better after having them.. I just wish they would redo my childrens without all of the playing around they are doing..You might have a little bloody drainage on the cotton ball right after surgery, but that is just from them doing the little cut to put the tubes in.. Good luck and he will be in my thoughts and prayers..

Here is a link from MSN health to read..

http://health.msn.com/encyclopedia/healtht...entid=100063439

Hope you can pull it up.

We did have the problem later of one tube getting plugged, but there are drops and it is easy to get fixed.. Just make sure if you ever get any type of drops, let the pharmacy know that he has tubes(One time our dr. forgot and prescribed him drops for without tubes-- he knew he had the tubes just didn't right the script right.. Our pharamcy remembered Jamie getting tubes and called the dr for a different script. If they drops aren't for tubes, they can desolve or loosen the tubes...

Jodie

edited to add if spelling is off or not making much sense, I am sorry, nasty migraine still here..

 

[Sanny]

Our one year old had one ear infection after another right after he was born, had tubes put in at 3 months and hasn't had one since. It literally took minutes to have it done and he was fine right after.

He has had them checked a few times since then and they are still there. As he grows they eventually fall out on their own. If he starts getting ear infections again he would get another set. Otherwise nothing further needs to be done. We do have prescription ear drops for him that are only to be used on an as needed basis and I very rarely have had to use them.

Don't be worried it was a very simple procedure. The funniest thing was they are careful to make sure the mask for anesthesia doesn't scare the kids and and they put scented stuff (like bubblegum flavor) in it and try to make it a game to learn about it. My son took one look at the mask and grabbed it from the nurse and put it right on his face exactly how it needed to go on. The nurses were surprised but laughed when I said my husband has sleep apnea and wears has a Cpap machine and mask which looks the same so he knew what to do with it and wasn't scared at all. It's amazing what kids even at that age notice.

We did an early morning appt also because he couldn't eat after midnight or drink after 4AM I think. That was a little hard because by 7AM he was getting crabby and wanting a bottle.

 

[Casnos Minis]

[SIZE=18pt]My brother had them in 2 times as a kid. No prblems. My daughter (age 7) had a tube in her left ear last August. It took 5 minutes to do. Then we went home. No pain, No nothing. She can;t feel it as the are about as big as this capital O. Maybe a little bigger. They make a slit in the ear drum, and insert it. She went back for a check up a few days later and just had her 6 month check up last week. It's still in there and doing fine, no problems and she hears very well out of that ear now. Don't worry it's a routine proceedure now a days. There should be no complications from it.[/SIZE]

Christy

 

[wade3504]

I had them when I was younger and old enough to remember. I had them put in at least twice as I had way too many severe ear infections that was causing my hearing to be permanently damaged. There was no pain and I didn't have the severe ear infections again after. I did have to wear ear plugs when swimming but they didn't bother me.

 

[Capall Beag IRL]

Here it is done under a general anesthetic (in Ireland)

My eldest had it done when she was 6 and as soon as she came round from the procedure she wanted to know why everyone was shouting.

Had to be careful when washing her hair for a few months afterwards and no swimming for awhile but never a problem since.

The worst part was being groggy from the operation for a day or so but no pain at all.

hope this helps

but its worse for you as the parent looking at your child going into surgery and thinking the worst but its a very common operation.

Joanne

 

[Deaming of Minis]

I had it done and I don't remember any pain, just the ear plugs for when I went swimming.

: I got to choose my colors of the tubes. The doctors and nurses were very nice and helped me understand the surgery was no big deal. Then they fell out 2 years later. Good thing was they stopped my ear infections! :bgrin

 

[~Karen~]

Thank you for all your replys and support! I filled all the pre-op papers for admin yesterday. They said that they take the youngest to the oldest for the surgerys and Logun will be one of the 1st. That is a good thing because he thinks he has to have a drink as soon as he wakes up. He has to be there at 6:15 a.m. and the surgery to remove his adnoids and putting tubes in his ears will take about 20 mins. They will give him a drink that is suppose to help relax him before giveing the anes. If he has too much problem with wanting a drink, I think we will remind him of this very special drink he will get if he doesn't drink anything before then, knowing him, it will probably work.

I can't wait to see if it has an immediate effect on his speech! It will be so awesome for him to be able to talk clearly. I wonder if it will be like learing a new language for him since the way he speaks now is the way he hears. I wonder if we will have a little difficulty communicating at the start?

~Karen

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I had my ear tubes done repeatedly when I was a child and it was definitely no big deal. I think one of my first memories is being pulled down a hospital corridor in a little red wagon by a nurse on my way to the surgery! :new_shocked: LOL. I had a lot of ear infections even with the tubes but that's because my ear plugs never worked when I took swimming lessons and I always got water in them. I still can't swim to this day because every time I almost figured it out I'd get an ear infection and have to quit my lessons for the summer!

: We finally gave up.

One of my tubes fell out on its own around the end of high school and I won't let them take out the other one because that ear never clogs up when I have a cold and doesn't hurt in airplanes! I love my ear tubes.

Leia

 

[RainSong]

I'm starting to think Nathan may need tubes.

I had tubes in my ears twice- remember NOTHING about it, but my mother has told me she had to fight with the original Dr we had. He wanted to put the tubes in the same spot the second time, which she says can lead to severe scarring- and thus, hearing loss. In my case, I had more wrong with one ear then the tubes and the several other surgeries after them could fix...

They fall out on their own, I'm told... and as far as I know, it's pretty painless. I've heard of it making a tremendous difference for some children- it's a simple matter of the eustacian (sp) tubes not draining fluids correctly, which usually resolves itself. However, the tubes are put in to help drain the fluid until the eustacian tubes can get to working right.

Kinda like when you get water in your ears and everything sounds funny. The tubes they put in can also help children with chronic ear infections from the fluid buildup. They're actually really commonly done, as far as I know... maybe it just seems that way since I've been so stuck in the culture of kids with hearing/ear problems

 

[Cara]

hello.

When I was 8 i got tubes in my ears , I was a bit scard but it was ok . these tubes were sapoed to help me hear better . i was hearing noises and differnt sounds in my head . so i got them in. and after i few year when i was 13 i got them removed. at that time i also got my adenoids removed so im not sure how it feels after but. when u have tubes you also have to were ear plugs when u swim . kk i hope this helped!!!

good luck