What to expect for tubes and adenoid surgery for 3 year old

[Anonymous]

I’m interested in what to expect in general, but right now my head is on scheduling. How long will I want to keep her home from daycare? Will I be so consumed with caring for her that I will want some extra help at home (I am a single mom), like having my mom in town? Folks have said this is easy, but I don’t want to get cocky and be under-prepared!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how big a difference it makes, but my 6 y.o. just had it in December. The procedure was on Friday, she went to school on Monday. Was tired and cranky on Friday, but not complaining much after that. OTOH, the doctor told us to have Motrin ready, because some kids have pains for several days afterwards.

[Anonymous]

My son had the two surgeries separately so YMMV. Recovery from tubes was basically nothing. He came home, had a nap and was playing that afternoon. Adenoids made him grouchy for a day or two but easily managed with ibuprofen. He went back to school the third day.

I was so worried about the adenoid surgery but zero regrets. He can breathe so much better now, he sleeps so much better and his attention span has gone up significantly. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It's not THAT bad (once it's over!), but if it's not a huge deal for your mom to come, you might want her. My kid had breathing issues during/after the anesthesia (he had an adenoidectomy), and I was completely unprepared for complications and found it terrifying. He looked pale and terrible when he came home. The recovery took a couple days, I think? The first was the hardest. I'm glad we did it though.

[Anonymous]

We did it for my 3 year old. It took about a week for him to go back to normal and school, but we have a nanny and i worked from home, so i bet we would have sent him a day earlier if it wasnt for that convenience.

The first few days he was uncomfortable. He isnt the type of kid who will eat yogurt/ice cream, so he didnt really eat much those first few days.

The biggest strange thing was his breath- holy moly that was horrendous for a solid week or so. So bad when i'd get him in the mroning his entire room smelled. Dr said it was totally normal, but i was not prepared for that random one.

But it was a year ago and he has not been sick since. NOTHING. No ear infections or colds or anything. We wish we did it earlier.

Good luck Mama. You will both be ok!

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]We did it for my 3 year old. It took about a week for him to go back to normal and school, but we have a nanny and i worked from home, so i bet we would have sent him a day earlier if it wasnt for that convenience.

The first few days he was uncomfortable. He isnt the type of kid who will eat yogurt/ice cream, so he didnt really eat much those first few days.

The biggest strange thing [b]was[b[b]] his breath- holy moly that was horrendous [/[/b]b][/b]for a solid week or so. So bad when i'd get him in the mroning his entire room smelled. Dr said it was totally normal, but i was not prepared for that random one.

But it was a year ago and he has not been sick since. NOTHING. No ear infections or colds or anything. We wish we did it earlier.

Good luck Mama. You will both be ok![/quote]
My 2 year old had this done, I would say two -4 days of fussiness but she was sick before the surgery and still trying to recover from that. Have lots of popsicles and ibprophen or Tylenol on hand. The ear tubes are nothing , it is the adenoid that they have to cut out that has to recover.

[Anonymous]

My kid had a tough recovery from ear tubes and adenoids. Pain for a week, that amped up my anxiety because I wondered if the surgery had gone badly and would need to be fixed (Advil largely controlled the pain, but he moved differently - wouldn't turn his head certain ways but turned his whole body to look at you instead - that made it clear that something was wrong). It was nice having two adults at home to deal with my anxiety, and also his clingy-ness.

The pain did eventually resolve. He was 4.

[Anonymous]

Could you recommend your surgeon? Wondering how much recovery depends on the kid or the doctor.

[Anonymous]

We just did adenoids and DD was 2 at the time. She was eating chicken nuggets on the way home and back at daycare two days later.

Hardest part was her coming around from the anesthetic and us not being there straight away.