Pediatrician suggested ear tubes

[jchatneuff]

My poor LO is only a year and has had five or six ear infections. (I blame daycare for all the colds!) The pediatrician suggested we consider the ear tubes. We will at least wait until the fall to see how he does. For obvious reasons, we don't love the idea of surgery.

What are others experiences with frequent ear infections? Did you go with the tubes? Did you find a way to avoid more ear infections?

[kjbrown92]

Have you tried going off dairy and gluten? Both cause mucous production and are the cause of bad draining and many ear infections. And it's free to try.

[jchatneuff]

He already doesn't have any cow's milk or chicken eggs, because it causes his excema to flare up. Cutting out gluten is something to consider, though.

[tanyalynn]

I was going to mention dairy as well, all traces of it. Have you tried anything like cranial-sacral or chiropractic? I'd think the former would be better, but chiropractic may work as well. Sometimes subtle stuff can get out of alignment and this will help. I didn't eliminate dairy (should've, for other reasons, but didn't) but cranial-sacral stopped my daughter's EIs. She's 5 now and her last EI was as an infant.

[Pookietooth]

Soy also causes mucus.

[KMK_Mama]

They were miracle workers for my DD's. Don't regret them one bit.

[lucypch]

We just found out my son is allergic to wheat and eggs which is probably the cause of all his infections. He has had 6 in 8 months and we don't use daycare. We went to ENT dr. and he has alot of fluid in his ears. He also has enlarged adnoids and tonsils that will be removed but I blame the allergies for causing the inflamation.

[sbgrace]

They suggested ear tubes for my son at around 18 months. I did eliminate all top allergens (we had other reasons to try that as well). I also did cranial sacral and chiropractic care. We did xylitol nasal rinses, probiotics (especially the immune boosting ones like florastor), etc. Epicore has great immune boosting effects though I didn't know of it at the time. I read a Mary Ann Block book on ear infections and started practicing her massage to drain ears (many chiros or cranial therapists will tell you how to do this too). I can't remember everything but it seemed to work and I thought we had avoided them. At 3.5 he got an ear infeciton that, within 48 hours, turned into mastoiditis. He was in the hospital on IV antibiotics for two weeks and had ear tubes during his surgery for the mastoiditis. He just has ears that weren't structured to drain. I wish we had done the ear tubes long ago honestly.

My point is sometimes they are the best thing. Just because they are overused doesn't mean they aren't the right decision in a particular case.

[lindberg99]

Have you read "Healing CHildhood Ear Infections" by Michael Schmidt? It's been a while since I read it but I remember it offering a lot of suggestions and advice and I'm sure there is a chapter on ear tubes in there.

[Alyantavid]

Ear tubes certainly do have a place, but I wouldn't start with them. 

I'd eliminate the top allergens, get him started on some probiotics and see a chiro.  My oldest had tubes and while he never had another ear infection, he was still sick constantly.  Turns out he's allergic to dairy.   Same with my youngest, but we removed dairy and started with a chiro and he didn't end up needing the tubes. 

And daycare may be to blame for the colds, but if he has an undiagnosed allergy, that will contribute to him catching every bug that goes around.  Along with the antibiotics he's been on for the ear infections (if he's had antibiotics).