Tubes in Kids ears?

[kris Schaumburg]

My twins both getting tubes tomorrow. Any experiences with this? How fussy will they be, and how long to recover?

[jtdumallard]

both of my kids have had two sets. Your twins will be different kids as soon as they come off of the anesthesia. It is the absolute best money that I have spent on them. Life changing!!!!

[rjohnson]

both of my kids have had two sets. Your twins will be different kids as soon as they come off of the anesthesia. It is the absolute best money that I have spent on them. Life changing!!!!

Second that! They may be a little irritable from the anesthesia but after it wears off they are so much better babies. We barely got sat down in the waiting room before the surgeon came out and said he was finished. Think it takes like 5 minutes or so per ear. Definitely a wise thing to get on the kids.

[edub20]

ok... here goes.

Son had his first set at 4mos old then had 2 more sets after the first set fell out. At the time they were life savers, but about 2 years ago when the last set fell out we noticed his hearing wasn't quite right. The dr's attributed it to the holes from the tubes still being there and once they grew up all would be well. That was not the case. The holes never grew up on their own so we ended up having to get tympanoplasty surgery on both membranes to graft tissue from behind his ear in order to close the holes. We finally just got the all clear from the second ear surgery this week and hearing has returned to near 100%. That kid has been put under anesthetist 5 times for just ear surgeries.

Granted he was one of the rare cases where the holes didn't heal on their own. Most of the time the holes from tubes heal up just fine on their own.

Recovery is short should be fine the next day and right after a little fussy from anesthesia.

[Seymore]

Ask the anesthesia folks about giving some anti nausea medicine. All of my girls had tubes and it's a pretty dramatic change. The nausea med suggestion is from experience. Many times they get sick from the anesthesia and the nausea meds helps.

[teul2]

My son's one set stayed in over a year. And he was also one of the few that the hold didn't grow back immediately. We may have to have the graft surgery done as well.

That hour or 2 after surgery was hell. He didn't like coming down at all. And to be honest, it cut down our Dr visits, but didn't stop them.

[fireplug]

Two of my three kids have had tubes. Makes a world of difference. You will see your doctor bills go down because the ear infection trips will be cut
out completely for a good while. My boy had his at 9 months old. His stayed in for 3 years. Never heard of the hole not growing back problem so
that is probably a rare situation. Doctor selection is key. We used Dr. Dye in Oxford. There isn't much of a recovery time so it is a non-issue in
my opinion especially when you see the results.

[jtdumallard]

Both of mine had tubes one day and was back at daycare the very next day.

[MudHog]

My daughter had them and they were a life saver. She had constant ear infections, to the point where now at 2 years later we are still paranoid when she goes swimming or even washes her hair. We still use the ear drops after swimming and washing her hair though. My wife and daughter gets an earache just riding in the boat, so they both put cotton or ear plugs for the ride.

[randywallace]

Not a problem at all for my youngun. She had it done and the constant trips to the doc stopped. The tubes came out by themselves a couple years later so no return trip for removal.

[teul2]

Oh, the only real negative I have (and its more of a warning to others than a negative) is that mine got water in his ears while the tubes were in and it hurt him. Not permanently, just caused him some pain. And now that he's 3 and taking swimming lessons, that fear is an issue.
Had he had ear plugs in it wouldn't have been an issue at all.

[MudHog]

Oh, the only real negative I have (and its more of a warning to others than a negative) is that mine got water in his ears while the tubes were in and it hurt him. Not permanently, just caused him some pain. And now that he's 3 and taking swimming lessons, that fear is an issue.
Had he had ear plugs in it wouldn't have been an issue at all.

Yep, ear aren't supposed to get wet while tubes are there. Those orange colored moldable ear plugs from Wal-mart are AWESOME and cheap.

[teul2]

well, that actually happened after we were told the tubes had fallen out. They didn't tell us that the hole was still there.