[dlhall]

What's your experience with ear infections? How many is too many? Peter has been home a little over 2 months, and today we started another round of antibiotics for his THIRD ear infection. I think Natalya has maybe had two ear infections in the four years she's been home, so I'm getting pretty concerned about Peter. Any thoughts?

Liz

[Shell.1972]

Hi Liz,
My son had 14 ear infections when he was 1 yr, we went to the doctor and he told us he HAD to have tubes put in them, so we went ahead and had the operation to put tubes in them. Meanwhile I was seeing a chiropractor and I had mentioned we had tubes put in and he told us we should have brought him in to see him. Turns out my son STILL had ear infections AFTER he had the tubes in!!! We started brining him in to see the chiropractor when he started back up with the infections and a few hours after the adjustment he was better. I wish I would have brought him there in the first place instead of putting him through the operation.

[MyHeartsDesire]

My little girl had 6 ear infections in 6 months. But the kicker was that she developed one while taking prophylactic antibiotics. We had tubes placed in her ears and she never had anymore problems. I hated the idea of tubes and thought they were "overprescribed" in kids...UNTIL...we saw the night and day difference. It was a great decision for us.

Lisa

[emjay]

DD had back-to-back ear infections for a couple of months from 12 to 14 months old. Ped decided the infection was just going underground and never really going away, so he put her on a low dose antibiotic for a month, and no more infections. She is 5 now and hasn't had one since.

[DaniJ]

I have several thoughts:
One: when the kids (or anyone) are on antibiotics, it kills the good, normal bacteria as well as the bad. So, when they are taken off the antibiotics their systems dont' have enough of the proper bacteria to process food, etc, making them more prone to return infections... I know it sounds like hocus pocus, but it really is true. Whenever my kids are sick (I don't use antibiotics with them, either), I give them "probiotics", which are the natural bacteria. They are sold in the refrigerated section of the health food section of our grocery store. This enables the body to strengthen it's self and fight the infection more naturally (or in addition to the aid of anti-biotics). Nice thing is that it works for viral infections, too, when antibiotics are usesless.

Next thought: there are MANY alternative treatments for ear infections. Where Standard medicine recognizes only 'ear infection', and basically three treatments (antibiotics, wait it out, or ear tubes) the naturopathic/homeopathic world recognizes over a dozen kinds, so the treatments are much more child-specific. There are also good references online for self-treatments (heck, if the conventional ones aren't working...) I would recommend doing some searches online and getting some additional information about the tubes success rates and the alternatives available. Whatever you choose, at least you'll be making an informed decision.
I know I'm sounding a bit off-the-wall, but considering I've worked in health-care for over ten years, and don't/won't use and MD... I didn't get this bias from nowhere!
Good luck, I know it is frustrating when you want to help your kids and the 'authorities' are not proving succssful.

[KimOH]

Our ped says if your child has more than 6 ear infections in one year it's time to talk about tubes. I've been fortunate that so far (knock wood) neither of my kids have had that many -- although there were a couple of months where we had back-to-back infections too.

I also think that some kids are just prone to one illness or another. When we were kids, my sister used to get *tons* of ear infections (even though she did have tubes). I didn't get my first one until I was 28. However, I used to get strep throat all the time (still do) and I don't think she's ever had it.

Good luck and I hope you pull through this rough patch and Peter starts feeling better!

[LilyMoon]

OK...this may sound extreme but it has worked miracles for us. Take him off wheat and dairy. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies and vitamins and acidopholus chewables to replace the good bacteria destroyed by the antibiotics. Boost immune system with food like coconut, almonds, omega's, wild salmon, oatmeal.

Good luck!

[boatsun]

Find a good ENT and make an appointment. Have the ENT look at your child's tonsils and have facial X-Rays taken for the adnoids. I know that adnoids are soft tissue, but they do show up on X-Rays believe it or not.

Very young children have drainage issues, their estacian tubes are almost horizontal rather than at an angle which makes drainage difficult. Ear Tubes allow air in to help with the drainage. Adnoids and tonsils are actually lymph nodes, which recent research says may aid the immune system in the first year or so. If the adnoids are too large they can block nasal drainage. They can also become infected and a source of infection. This is what was going on with our son.

Children from and orphange environment are exposed to tons of germs. I had the worst sinus infection of my life during Navy boot camp, so imagine what is being passed around at the Baby Home.

Persisant ear infections can damage hearing, antibiotics play merry heck with the intestinal flora and fauna. Tubes and/or having the adnoids/tonsils removed can drastically help.

[Kasey]

I totally concur with Jeff!! Under the age of 3 their eustachian tubes are different and makes it harder for stuff to drain, this can then make some kids more prone to infections if the drainage doesn't get out, so antibiotics won't help correct that. Alek came home at 51/2months of age and from August to December had constant ear infections so much so his hearing was affected and he flunked his hearing exam. We tried antibiotics, probiotics, he was little so his diet was limited anyway, he still remained sick and his hearing was worse.
We had tubes put in at 11 months (January 2005)with the understanding that one more set may be needed before age 3. We had a great spring/winter, very few colds (which is amazing for kid in day care), both tubes just recently stopped functioning as they fell out of place.
He is set up for tubes again in early May. So my opinion as a parent going thru it and as a nurse, if your child is under 3 with recurrent ear infections (yes explore other causes like allergies and treatments), but keep in mind that it could just be the way the the eustachian tube is and tubes may be a neccessity.
I also recommended if your child is having recurrent ear infections, getting their hearing checked. I really thought Alek was hearing fine, and was completely surprised when he flunked the hearing exam, the day after his tubes were placed he was startling at all the normal noises he heard, it was like he never heard them before!

[dlhall]

Thanks for all the replies. I abhor the idea of tubes, but I also understand that is where we may be headed. We went ahead and took him off milk last night. My sister A, and my sister S's kids always had a lot of ear infections until they took them off milk. I hadn't heard of the wheat connection before, but I may look into that. If staying off milk doesn't work, then to the ENT we go.

Thanks for all the advice.

Liz

[lakimnafite]

I totally agree with LilyMoon! DS had a number of infections the first two years of his life. We had allergy tests done and found he was allergic to dairy and wheat. Took him off both - and he has not been sick a day since! He's almost 7, so that's pretty amazing

Since I'm 5 years of wheat free and dairy free for a toddler, preschooler, and now 1st grader, I have lots of info about fun kid foods. Don't worry, it's not as difficult as it seems at first!

Keep us posted. Hopefully the dietary changes work for you.

[Abdulina]

Oh Liz I'm so sorry for Peter. It is painful for kids to have ear infections. So many differnet reasons could be the answer too. My advice (not worth the paper it's written on btw!) is to take him to a good ENT. Dr. Mann is FABULOUS!!!! He did Irina's surgery and he did either mine or Max's as well. Knows his stuff and tells it like it is. If you don't need anything, he'll let you know that as well. ---not a surgery pusher and explores ALL options first. I love that. He comes highly recommende dby alot of people, including our family. He's in Cary, near Western Wake. He does have satellite office but I don't know of any in Fuquay. And for others on the board, Liz will know what I'm talking about. We live near each other.

I do hope Peter feels better. Hey, we still haven't seen him in person yet. Let's meet up soon. Keep us posted on how he's feeling.

[toria]

I'm sorry your son is feeling bad. Glad you are going to try to modify the diet. Hope it helps.

Being a chiropractor myself, I was happy to see so many turning to "alternative" choices. They should not be alternative,really. They should be first choice. Medicine and surgery are SO invasive that they should be last resort! It is wonderful that we have such things, however diet modification, vitamins, herbs, probiotic, chiro care, massage, etc. all help and do not harm the child. It is in the best interst of the child.

Best wishes.

[Kasey]

I totally agree with in regards to looking at all your choices, even though I am nurse I have used many alternatives, but I just want to stress as a reminder, herbs and vitamins are not necessarily harmless, I have taken care of many patients who have overloaded on them (they think hey, they are only vitamins and if one per day can help, well then 6 per day will be great!) and many herbs can interfere with other medications you may be on.
So just take note, always discuss everything you take with a doc, healthcare provider or pharmacist to hopefully prevent any bad interactions.

[toria]

Good point, Kasey. I thought about clarifying myself after I wrote that and you did it for me It is definitely best to work with a healthcare provider with all of these choices and not self-diagnose, treat, etc. But, do do your research and realize there are so many ways to help a child. Not just one answer! Glad everyone has so much wonderful input on this thread. Also, what works for one, may not work for another!