Hi there. My son (16 months) has been having recurrent ear infections since he turned a year old. It seems like everytime we see the doctor his ears are red or if he gets a cold he gets a bad ear infection. So we are a little nervous since he will be put under and he will be having surgery :( but the doctor thinks he will feel better in the long run. Does anyone have any experience with this? Are there different types of tubes or procedures that they can do? Has ayone heard of anything bad happening from this type of surgery?

Our daughter has had it done three times and let me assure you that it is so simple you would be wise to think of it more as a procedure than surgery. They give them two or three puffs of anesthetic and they are asleep for about ten minutes tops. They tend to need tylenol or motrin regularly for about the first 24 hours but there really seems to be very little if any pain afterwards. The only advice I have is to avoid the pre-op meds beforehand if you can because it tends to make them very restless when they are waking up from the procedure. It is given to keep them and you calm when they take them back, but a creative nurse can usually get your child back with little or no crying at all. When our dd had it done the first time she was 13 months old and the nurse used a little red wagon to get her back. She just kept saying let's go for a ride. It worked like a charm.

Nancy

My daughter is 2 1/2 years old and she has had 3 sets I believe so far. They helped alot. If your doctor is recommending them then I say go for it. You should see a big improvement. With my daughters first set she also had her adnoids removed and she didn't have an excessive amount of pain. I did give her Tylenol with codiene the first day and night but after that it was plain tylenol or ibuprofen. I highly recommend them. She got her first set at 16 or 17 months old. They will typically last about 4 - 6 months. The idea is to let the infection clear up and heal so when the tubes fall out, the ears are cleared and don't need to be replaced. In some cases the tubes come out and the infections return therefore causing a need for a new set of tubes. After we got tubes back in the ear/sinus infections improved.

My daughter had tubes put in when she was 17 months. She had had ear infections for 9 months straight at that time. She has never had another one since and she is now 7 year old. I know that it is scary to think about at first, but afterwards, it is a relief for both your child and you.