Ear Tubes "Nowadays" - how long do they make you wait?

[Anonymous]

Five years ago, our then one year old daughter had chronic ear infections and was successfully treated by Dr. Timothy McBride with ear tubes. It was a miracle - our grumpy 16 month old who had refused to walk stood up, walked across the room, and turned into a happy, bouncing kiddo.

Now my second daughter (15 months) is developing chronic ear infections. She was diagnosed with #4 yesterday, which returned 5 days after we finished the LAST course of antibiotics. She has been referred to Dr. Mc Bride's practice for evaluation.

My question is this: Nowadays, with the heightened concerns about overuse of antibiotics, how many ear infections do they make you go through before proceeding with tubes? With our last daughter, we went through maybe ten or 12 infections? Do they still make you wait that long?

Obviously they can assess her hearing at the evaluation. But I am concerned because at 15 months, she has almost NO vocabulary. Our first daughter had 100 words by now. I know all kids are different, and second children may sometimes speak later than first born, but this does raise a flag for me. The only thing our 15 month old says at this point is "Uh-Oh" and she doesn't enunciate it. It's more of a hum, with her mouth closed, if you follow me. In fact she started to have a few words several months ago and no longer uses them. However, she has been walking for two months.

Also, we have not slept through the night since she was born Just as an aside....

If anyone knows what the current standard for # of ear infections before tubes is, generally, or what your experience was, especially with this practice, I would love to hear from you.

Thank you very much!

[Anonymous]

My daughter got tubes around 9 months. There did not seem to be a magical number of ear infections overall, instead the doctor was more interested in the quantity of ear infections in the short amount of time. He was also worried about long term hearing loss from all of the infections. My DD sounds like your child with the ear infections back to back with little time inbetween. She also became resilient to the antibiotics, so after a couple of rounds with a particular antibiotic it would stop working and we would have to try a stronget one. This worried her general pediatrician the most.

[Anonymous]

DD sees Dr. Bahadori at this practice. It was not a matter of how many infections - although that is a considerable factor too - but rather a combination of that AND the resistance to antibiotics. DD's biggest issue w/ EIs was more a matter of not responding to antibiotics and a "significant" hearing loss. Dr. Bahadori put tubes in when she was 9 months.

Another thing, I've noticed from talking to the physician's asst at the practice that Dr. McBride and Dr. Bahadori have slightly different opinions on certain issues, as is only natural. That said, perhaps Dr. McBride is not as aggresive from the get go if he's the one who had DC #1 wait for so long until putting in tubes. Don't know, but just offering a thought.

[Anonymous]

My son got his tubes at 16 months from Dr. Doyle out of that practice. I didn't get the sense there was a magic number of infections -- we had seen a never-ending ear infection despite trying several anti-biotics, none of which helped. I don't believe Dr. Doyle is doing ear tube surgery anymore either, BTW.

[Anonymous]

My pedi said they start thinking about it seriously if your child gets six ear infections in a year (winter). My son hit that, but I refused the tubes. He's had a repeat this year, and we'll be discussing it this next appointment. Son responds well to antibiotics, but the infections are too numerous. I'm just not a fan of surgery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My pedi said they start thinking about it seriously if your child gets six ear infections in a year (winter). My son hit that, but I refused the tubes. He's had a repeat this year, and we'll be discussing it this next appointment. Son responds well to antibiotics, but the infections are too numerous. I'm just not a fan of surgery.

OP here, Totally get where you are coming from. I might be more reluctant about surgery too, except for two things: 1) I am concerned about overusing antibiotics. What if DC gets REALLY sick, like bacterial pneumonia, and is resistant? My first had bacterial pneumonia and it was scary. LOTS of kids used to die from pneumonia in the bad old days. I sometimes wonder, if we "wear out" our antibiotics, if those bad old days will return. Also, 2) since I've been through this before, I am no longer as worried about surgery as I was. Although of course the statistical risks are still the same. I'm a big believer in NOT trivially altering my child's body - no pierced ears or circumcision on my watch - but I feel the concerns about antibitoics, hearing, and just plain misery (hers and ours) outweigh the risks.

So right now I am pretty gung-ho about the surgery.... Hoping they don't turn her down.

[Anonymous]

Our ped also used 6 as the "magic number" although for us it was 6 over a 4-mth period and even when the infections were gone, the fluid was still there. We had trouble getting into Bahdori's practice and used Feldman Group instead. We're scheduled for the surgery later this month. And I'm so interested in your experience with language and your two kids. DS is 13-mths and is a great walker but has very limited words that mean anything although can repeat many words and sounds that are said to him. His hearing test was slightly iffy (although technically he passed) but no one mentioned language delays...

[Anonymous]

Has your doctor talked to you about checking your DD's hearing? My daughter had ear fluid for several months (no infections, just fluid), and she had problems with her hearing (at one point she was essentially deaf in one ear and had approx 50% hearing in the other). She got tubes when she was 10 months old, and her hearing is back to normal, but the language is behind. She's now 18 months and has about 10 words, at 15 months she just started saying mama and dada. We're working with a speech therapist.

[Anonymous]

19:44 here (and so sorry to hijack) - the hearing test they did was iffy in my opinion. When they lowered the volume DS looked back and forth from side-to-side b/c he knew the previous sound had come from those directions. Technician said that he looked in the right direction eventually, but in my opinion, he was just remembering from when the louder test. ENT said his hearing can come and go depending on the volume of fluid too. What's interesting is that he can mimick words and sounds quite well, but just doesn't have many real words. He does say dada alot when he wants DH and he has his own word to refer to the dog. He says mama but I don't think he really is referring to me when he says it. Does this sound like language delays?

[Anonymous]

19:51 here. My DD's hearing tests were always computerized (they put the little wire in the ear and send sounds and then the computer records the responses). I think it's pretty hard to "cheat" on those. They also did the more "regular" tests (having her in a room with different sounds and seeing how she responded, where she turned etc), but these were always to confirm the computer finding. They also can check the fluid level (I think the procedure is called a tympanogram or something like that). I don't know if your son might have a delay (I'm really not an expert), but I would think it's a good sign that he's repeating/imitating. Just as a point of reference - my DD hardly ever repeats and just recently started doing more imitating (gestures etc). She's 18 months and as I mentioned is getting speech therapy.