Anyone have experience with Ear Tubes in toddlers?

Ok, my first thought when reading your question is - she NEVER mentioned infection, yet she's saying they have the little guy on all these antibiotics. Fluid in the ear does NOT equal infection in the ear. Yes, fluid can BECOME infected; however the mere presence of fluid does not mean that there is an infection. And antibiotics will NOT clear up the fluid if it is NOT infected. Over use of antibiotics is NOT healthy and you should clarify this with your DR.

Ok, second thought, if there is NO infection, often times Dr's will prescribe an allergy medication such as Zyrtec for excess fluid in the ears. although your son may not have allergies, the medicine has a drying effect and often times will help alleviate the excess fluid.

As far as your concern about speech - imagine wearing in -the - ear ear plugs all day. Imagine how muffled everything around you seems. that's probably what your child is hearing if he has excess fluid in his ear. This can certainly cause speech and language delays! By age 2, most children have a vocabulary of 50 or more words, are beginning to combine words (i.e. baby crying), can follow two step directions (i.e. pick up the toy and bring me your cup) and are 50 - 75% intelligible to an UNfamiliar listener. If your child has not met 2 or more of these milestones, you should consider having him evaluated by a speech and langauge therapist. www.asha.org can help you find a nationally certified speech language pathologist in your area.

Finally, I would recommend tubes ONLY as a last resort. This is a surgery that requires general anesthesia which is dangerous. and recent studies concluded that early insertion of tympanostomy tubes in otherwise healthy children under the age of three DOES NOT change developmental outcomes by age 6. (see sources to read whole article)

I hope this information has been helpful!

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Both of my daughters had tubes put in when they were around 2 years old also. They were also have problems hearing and weren't talking very much because of the fluid in their ears. Once the tubes were put in and the fluid was gone they started talking up a storm and haven't quit yet. There have been no ear infections or ear aches since. They are now in the 3 and 1 grade and happy and healthy. Hope this helps

Many 2 year olds cannot talk that great you shouldn't be too worried about that. It is very possible that it could be coming from the fluid on his ears. That can affect many different things. If the problem doesn't get better when the tubes are in and had time to heal then ask the DR. Good luck

My son had constant ear infections and was on antibiotics all the time, finally at 11 months we had tubes put in his ears. WOW, what a difference! He was such a totally different baby after the tubes. Happy and healthy! His tubes fell out on their on about two months ago. During the whole time he had the tubes we had 2 ear infections! I would recommmend it to anyone. He didn't have any pain from the surgery and it lasted about 20 minutes. My son's speech improved greatly after the tubes went in as well so I am a fan of them! Good Luck!

Your experience is very similar to mine with my daughter (who is now grown). She had almost constant ear infections starting at 3 weeks until she got ear tubes at 18 months. Whenever she stopped taking antibiotics, the ear infections came back.

She also had hearing problems and very little speech. Our doctor said that the speech problems were related to the fluid in her ear. He said that fluid in the ear was like trying to hear under water. If you can't hear clearly, you can't talk clearly.

If your son gets tubes in his ears, you should see an increase in speech but it may still be a little garbled --that is what happened to my daughter. She was on target as far as number of words she said by age 2, but still had some problems with speaking correctly. Speech therapy in school took care of that.

Good luck!!!

i'm in a similar situation with my son, he is 3 and a half.. have taken him to many different doctors, he is going for another hearing test the end of this month, he's had a little fluid behind his ear drum for months months months now.. but it is finally starting to drain, maybe you could possibly look into getting his adnoids or tonsils out rather than the plugs.. i think, and docotrs i've also spoken with, anymore.. seem to be little reluctant to go with the plugs, since quite often, more than not, they will cause more problems, will not be able to let water get in them, more risk of infection and bleeding. My son seems to hear well.. but his speach is very delayed for his age, Dr's thinkin could be because of the fluid in his ear.. possibly. I am completely avoiding the plugs though.. no way would i get them in, seem to be more trouble than good. just my opinion.. good luck

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