Has anyones kid had tubes in their ears?

[donna723]

My kids both had tubes put in their ears when they were little, my son twice, and neither had any problems at all. And my grandson had them about six months ago and did just fine. So now my nieces oldest boy has had repeated ear infections and fluid in his ears to the point that his hearing was diminished and his balance was thrown off. He had the tubes put in a few days ago and has had all kinds of problems. He's had pain and drainage from both ears and complains of a lot of pain in his ears if he's out in the wind. He insists on having cotton balls in his ears and the other day he actually dug out a pair of earmuffs and wore them outside to play ... in 65 degree weather! He's in kindergarten and Friday at naptime he was near the door that the teacher had propped open a bit to catch the breeze. His teacher said he was sitting there with tears in his eyes and his hands over his ears!

His mom assumed that all of this was normal after the surgery but I just don't think so. I can understand that sounds that maybe seemed muffled to him before may be louder and sharper now but not the actual pain and drainage. My own kids didn't seem to have any pain at all and there was no drainage. They had the surgery very early in the morning, then came home and played the rest of the day! And when my grandson had the surgery, he had no problems at all. She's going to call his doctor tomorrow to see if he needs to be seen again but it doesn't seem to be getting any better and I hate to see the little guy in so much pain. Has anyone else been through this lately with a little one?

 

[svengandhi]

Yes, 3 of my sons had tubes (2 had them twice and difficult child had them 3 times) plus I myself had tubes as a 9 year old. What you are describing does not sound normal to me. I would call the doctor and if he is not available, I would take him to the ER.

 

[InsaneCdn]

No direct experience with tubes... but there may be more than one thing happening here.
From what you describe, a trip back to the doctor is probably in order...

And then... if the whole tubes side of things is fine (or once it is corrected)... perhaps now that he can actually "hear", there may be some sensory issues (wind in the ears? or auditory sensitivity? or??)... or some auditory processing issues (like auditory figure ground, which affects the ability to filter out background noise).

Use of ear muffs etc. - may be the child's way of adding a "filter" to the noise, Or to keep the "breeze" out...

 

[AnnieO]

I'm not sure if I had tubes in my ears, but even now I have problems with wind.

The drainage and pain? BACK TO THE doctor ASAP. That is NOT normal.

Jett had tubes about 4 1/2 years ago, and even as sensitive as he is, he did not have these issues.

 

[donna723]

That's what I thought. Didn't sound normal to me either. I know when my kids had them put in, they were on antibiotics beforehand for as long as it took to make sure there was no infection present when the surgery was done. And my niece said that the doctor told her that there may have still been a bit of infection present when he did the surgery. And when my kids had it done, I thought the doctor said they used an instrument like a tiny little vacuum to remove the fluid behind the eardrum. I'm not sure that's how it was done with my great-nephew. And do they not still use the ear plugs?

 

[Hound dog]

Yup. doctor needs to be called and he needs to be checked.

Darrin had mult tubes put in, never was an issue like that. He never even noticed them. And YES he should still use the ear plugs when in water. easy child didn't bother so much with the bath because she was doing the bathing......otherwise, yeah, if his head will be in water he needs ear plugs.

 

[gcvmom]

difficult child 1 had tubes twice and we never had issues like what you're describing. I'd get them checked right away.

 

[susiestar]

This is a very bad sign. Either they didn't wait for the infection to clear up before doing the tubes or there is a new infection present. Wiz did have a couple of ear infections after he got tubes put in and each time he would get pus draining out of his ears. It was awful but not nearly as painful as before tubes because there was no pressure buildup - having the pus drain out means that the ear should not be as painful.

Wiz saw an ear doctor who used a local anesthetic to do the tubes (he worked with very high risk kids who couldn't get general anesthetic and gave them a mix of a couple of medications to relax them and then a local, and it was NOT painful at all for him. I know because I was there in the room when they did it because it was not under general anesthetic. He went from being unsteady while walking to running around as fast as he could in just one morning.

They MUST use earplugs when he is in water or the ears will keep getting infected because hte water will carry germs in there. I have a cousin who was really bothered by wind for a few weeks after she got tubes, but she described it as whistling in her ears, but not pain.

The ear doctor needs to give them antibiotic drops to put in the ears (for both of my boys they actually rx'd antibiotic eye drops and had us use them in the ears because they are thinner than most ear drops and will get in easier than ear drops will. They worked very fast, far faster than oral antibiotics did, but we did both ear and oral types.

I hope he feels better soon!

 

[exhausted]

My boy had them and there was lots of drainage. That is why they are put there to let all that infection and fluid out. It was thick and looked like snot (sorry to be gross). He did not have a lot of pain, but some.We kept him on alternating ibuprofen and tylenol as per the doctor. I would be concerned about his sensitivity to sound and even cold.

 

[EC24]

My oldest daughter has had ear tubes 8 times. This has happened to her once. :-( The apple does not fall far from the tree as an adult I just had another set put in my ears. I can tell you I very vividly remember when the phone rang at home. I covered my ears and just cried. It hurt so bad. I was finally hearing and everything seemed so much louder. After a few days I was much better. I am an adult and my entire family remembers this happening to me when I was a child.
I recently had the same happen again. When we asked the doctor why this occured it was because not only was the ear recovering from a small incision but from the ear infection. He had to clean out a lof of infection :-( My ear was still very tender and it was better about three days later.
Poor baby....ear pain is the worse. I hope it gets better soon!!

 

[DDD]

Former easy child/difficult child had tubes with-o problems and also had his tonsils removed with-o problems. There's not much I feel guilty about regarding parenting but husband and I did not know that secondhand smoke is often a trigger for those problems. Once we quit smoking in the house there were no more problems for our three or four year old. I'm sure you can't suggest that the famly change habits but the stats show small children do develop physical problems. Sure hope he gets well soon. I've only had one ear ache in my lifetime and it was painful.
DDD

 

[donna723]

His mom smokes a little but she doesn't smoke in the house or around the kids. Of course when mine were young we smoked around them too - practically everybody did because they didn't know any better then. I think mine would have probably had the allergies, etc., no matter what. Before he had the tubes put in, my grandson had constant ear infections even though they never smoked anywhere near him. I know that it makes it worse to smoke around children but I also think that the allergies and the tendency to have narrower, more easily blocked eustachian tubes run in families. When my daughter had tubes put in when she was four, the doctor also removed her adenoids but not her tonsils. I begged him to remove her tonsils too but he wouldn't. Two weeks later her cousin had tubes put in and her doctor removed both her tonsils and her adenoids. Fast forward ten years and Allison was having constant strep infections, one after the other. She ended up having her tonsils out at age 15, a huge production number that involved much bleeding, throwing up, fainting, and an overnight hospital stay!

 

[DDD]

I totally agree, Donna. It's not a factor for all children but I know of many cases where that triggers the predisposition for those problems. Regarding the tonsils...I didn't have mine removed until I was 14 and it was mega rough. I missed over a week of school and was miserable. Most little kids get through it with-o issues. difficult child#1, lol, got home from the hospital and cried at age two or so because we had apple sauce, jello, ice cream and he wanted "dinner". Sure as heck he chowed down on a complete meal of regular food and then went to bed for the night. In the morning he was his usual self. Sorry your Dr. didn't listen to your pleadings. I think arrogance training is part of the medication School course. LOL DDD

 

[SRL]

My oldest daughter has had ear tubes 8 times. This has happened to her once. :-( The apple does not fall far from the tree as an adult I just had another set put in my ears. I can tell you I very vividly remember when the phone rang at home. I covered my ears and just cried. It hurt so bad. I was finally hearing and everything seemed so much louder. After a few days I was much better. I am an adult and my entire family remembers this happening to me when I was a child.
I recently had the same happen again. When we asked the doctor why this occured it was because not only was the ear recovering from a small incision but from the ear infection. He had to clean out a lof of infection :-( My ear was still very tender and it was better about three days later.
Poor baby....ear pain is the worse. I hope it gets better soon!!

I was going to reply saying basically the same thing. I had a tube put in one ear as an adult. It had barely healed from one eardrum rupture and was highly infected again when I had the surgery. Not to be gross but my doctor said he had to drain a lot of blood and pus out before inserting the tube.

I knew of a toddler once who had a lot of drainage from a new tube, also just drainage from an infection.

I expect what he's feeling is pain from a nasty ear infection, and change in sounds due to the openings in the eardrums. The doctor still needs to be called, but it's not way outside the norm. Hope he feels better soon.

 

[donna723]

See, that's the thing ... when my kids had theirs done the doctor refused to do the surgery until all the infection was gone. My son was only five months old when the doctor decided to put them in the first time but it took another month on antibiotics for the infection to be completely cleared. I didn't think they would do the surgery if there was still an active infection going on. The tubes are very tiny and really aren't for drainage. They're supposed to equalize the pressure on either side of the eardrum so the fluid doesn't back up in there. I haven't gotten hold of my niece yet but I hope she was able to get him back in to the doctor to have it looked at.

 

[SRL]

See, that's the thing ... when my kids had theirs done the doctor refused to do the surgery until all the infection was gone. My son was only five months old when the doctor decided to put them in the first time but it took another month on antibiotics for the infection to be completely cleared. I didn't think they would do the surgery if there was still an active infection going on. The tubes are very tiny and really aren't for drainage. They're supposed to equalize the pressure on either side of the eardrum so the fluid doesn't back up in there. I haven't gotten hold of my niece yet but I hope she was able to get him back in to the doctor to have it looked at.

In my case the tube was put in while there was an infection to avoid another eardrum rupture. That ear had already ruptured eight times and it was better to have a controlled incision with complete aspiration than an uncontrolled random rupture.with a small amount of drainage.