[cundiff2001]

We are at a loss over our youngest.

A little background. Connor has been mostly healthy all his life. Nothing life-threatening or anything. He had BAD reflux as a baby and was treated with meds and special formula at home after failure to thrive until 15 months old. His entire life, from about 12 weeks, he has had ear infections. By 8 1/2 months, he had tubes. The double ear infections were so bad, that we had no other choice. All was well, 2 infections that cleared up on their own the first year or so. Since April, he has had 8 confirmed double infections. We have once again been on every antibiotic including oral and ear drops. The infection goes away for a week or so after the antibiotic is gone. He gets a runny nose again, and within three days, I have a miserable little guy with pus running from both ears. (Sorry if TMI)

We have been told it is seasonal allergies, so he is on preventitive Zyrteck everyday. This hasn't seemed to help, but I am trying to listen to the drs.
We saw the ENT two weeks ago with his last infection. They vacuumed his ears to drain the pus. That was such fun! and gave him more antibiotics and a New kind of drop. He also clutured the ears to see if it is a resistant form of bacteria. We will get those results next week at our follow up.

But, starting yesterday the green nose started again and this evening, he has a fever. I am willing to bet the farm that by morning or afternoon tomorrow, we will have pussy ears too.

The ENT has talked about removing and replacing the tubes. I am all for any suggestions or experiences anyone has. My little boy talks like scooby doo b/c he constantly has fluid on his ears and can't hear us too well. I am becomming very concerned about his hearing and speach. Everyone around here seems to think it will just clear up on its own and I am not buying it. Something is not right. Say mommy gut or whatever, but I am getting really upset by all this.

SO......How can I express my concerns to the ENT so that he will take them seriously and take whatever steps are neccessary to heal our little guy?
TIA
ashley

[mochacoffee]

How are your sons tonsils? My youngest son is 9yrs old and has been having reoccuring ear infections for quite sometime. When he went in this last weekend to the Dr for yet another ear infection, the Dr made a comment about how swollen his tonsils were and he may need them removed at some point.


The Dr said that sometimes, the tonsils themselves make the ear infections come back. Talk with your ENT about the possibility of removing his tonsils.


My middle son had his tonsils/adenoids removed at 2 1/2yrs old due to heavy mouth breather/overly enlarged tonsils. He is 12 yrs old now and maybe has had two ear infections over the years.

Hope your little guy gets to feeling better!!

[LVSunshine1]

Hi Ashley - Our oldest son who is now 20 had recurrent ear infections - we found out they were caused by plugged tear ducts of all things. As soon as the tear ducts unplugged - he never had another ear infection again. Might want to have them check his tear ducts - the docs can easily correct this problem!

[Ms Coo P'on]

I’m so sorry to hear about your little one.

Do you have the option to get a second opinion? My boy’s are special needs and have “compromised” immune systems and we've had our ENT and GI Specialist overlook things that are a major concern to us, and we got a second opinion. I always felt more comfortable getting a second opinion if and when my “mommy gut’ kicked in. We put tubes in my sons ears at 2 and he still dealt with earaches off and on, so tubing him did not necessarily remedy the problem right away. I think when he was 2 was when he finally over came his issues with his ears. Once he had constant drainage his vocab picked up, not a lot but enough to take notice. Hang in there and I would definitely get a second opinion.

[savings queen]

What a difficult situation you are in! Poor little guy, ear infections are painful!

The only help I might be able to offer is to have him checked for allergies. My friend's son had the same problems. He ended up being allergic to milk (ear infections were his only symptom), so they could control the symptoms much better with that knowledge.

Best of luck to you. Keep us updated.

[headcook0607]

Hi
my son (now 24) when he was young constantly had ear infections... My doc, kind of old school, told me after he took a bath or shower to put 1 or 2 drops of alcohol mixed 1/2 n 1/2 w/water in each ear.. We just made a little dropper bottle filled half way with alcohol and half with water and that pretty much took care of it.. Hope that helps..

[scamelo]

Oh my I feel his pain. I had bad ear infections so bad I had my ear drum burst once, but only as an adult and then had tubes as an adult. I have to say after my tubes I rarely get ear infections.

I know when one of my kids was a toddler and got lots of them she was put on low dose antibiotic for a few months in the winter and that seemed to help. Luckily for us she out grew it. I know Dr's don't like to prescribe antibiotics, but perhaps you can ask for a low dose one as a preventative.

I would also go to another ENT and get a second opinion.

Poor little guy has my biggest sympathy, I can relate personally

[timmsa]

Sorry to hear about your little guy. I hope he gets better. I have 3 boys 2 of which are medical needs and 1 of the 2 is special needs. I have many years of experience with ear infections. My oldest who is now 18 started at 5 weeks, and my now 11 yr old started at 2 months.
What you can try and do is have the Dr. change his antibiotics. Sometimes ear infections grown immune to the medications if they are given to much.
1 thing you should also watch for is speech issues. Not trying to scare you but from my experience, if an ear infection goes to long your little guys speech could start to be affected. Because they can't hear what people are saying.
Also i agree with the previous posts about getting a second opinion. I know I had to change doctors before my oldest got the ear tubes, and when my second one started I didn't play games I told the doctor I wanted the referral to the ENt for a second opinion.
Both boy have had ear tubes and that help a lot.

[myboysmomintexas]

We had this same issue with my oldest (now 10), and out of frustration I took him to a very old pediatrician recommended by a family member. She recommended putting him on what is now called Mucinex (was something else back then, and hard to get), because what that does is thin out the drainage so that it is not so thick. According to her, the infection is caused when the drainage is too thick and sits too long in the ear canal because it can't drain out. I know that tubes are supposed to help with that, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask about the mucinex. My regular pediatrician was very skeptical, he said they don't think that it works, but that it wouldn't hurt if we wanted to try it. It worked for us, not a single ear infection since.

Tonya

[momto3girlies]

We also had this issue with our oldest, now 11. She has had tubes twice. The second time they removed her adnoids as well. This made the biggest difference in the world. Only one ear infection since then and that was over 6 years ago!!! Maybe that would be an option or atleast worth bringing up. Also maybe a different antihistamine. Sometimes zyrtec doesn't work that well. Just be persistant. The first time my daughter had tubes at age 2 was b/c I was persistent. I told her pedi that he was going to do a hearing test (or send us to an audiologist for one) so he gave us the referrel. Sure enough she was losing hearing in both ears. So I told our pedi either he could send us to an ENT to have tubes or I would change doctors to find someone who would. You've gotta trust that Mommy instinct. We have it for a reason!!!

Good Luck to you and your little guy!!

[cundiff2001]

These are all great ideas.... I just made a list to go over with the ENT

tonsils/adnoids
clogged tear ducts
milk allergy
mucinex to thin drainage
hearing test/audiologist
possible second opinion

My daugher had tubes at 11 months for the same thing, but also adnoids out. It was the same dr. for my son, but he didn't want to remove the adnoids b/c he was so young. She has horrible tonsils and they need to be removed. I had ear/throat problems my whole life, so I don't know if it is a physical heredity thing or what, but I am not going to let his hearing go because of this. I am already worried about it, he mumbles so much.

thanks for all the replies, I will continue to check back and am open to any other advice.
ashley

[timmsa]

one way you can check on the hearing issue, is when he has his back to you. Like when he is playing or watching tv, walk up to him and talk softly while standing behind him.
That is how i found out that my oldest son had lost his hearing. I felt so bad because i didn't know he had an ear infection.

[caverill]

Have you tried Singular? It's been approved for allergies and you can take it with Zyrtec.

If I'm remembering this correctly, Mucinex will make the gunk run. Sudafed will make it dry up. Make sure you're using the Mucinex/Sudafed you have to sign for....

One of my sons had to be on an adult dose of Zyrtec, Singular and an extra dose of Benadryl at night.

[burnedtoast]

My eldest son had constant ear infections, but never had tubes. We found out he had a cholesteatoma (build up of skin behind the eardrum). He had surgery when he was about 18 months old to remove it, and was all better afterward (he's 15 now).

I hope it gets figured out soon.

[davisc01]

My DD had horrible ears as a baby. We went through two sets of tubes before she was two and the first set went in at 11 months and were replaced not long after because of clogging. She was not getting any better and still had bad ear infections. Took her back to ENT (almost 2) and she failed her hearing tests miserably. Her tonsils were fine but the ENT decided to try the adnoids. So those were the next thing to come out. It was like night and day as soon as she recovered.

A little humor to it was that after the adnoids were out and her new catch phrase was "What's that noise?". It was so cute and I was so happy. She is 7 now and we have never had any ear/sinus infections since.

[wakeup]

I have always heard that it is best to eliminate milk products when there is any problem with mucus or ear infections.

Originally Posted by headcook0607

Hi
my son (now 24) when he was young constantly had ear infections... My doc, kind of old school, told me after he took a bath or shower to put 1 or 2 drops of alcohol mixed 1/2 n 1/2 w/water in each ear.. We just made a little dropper bottle filled half way with alcohol and half with water and that pretty much took care of it.. Hope that helps..

So you've had good experience with 1/2 rubbing alcohol and 1/2 water?
I hope you find a solution soon.

sorry your little guy has so much pain!

[danielephant]

aw poor little guy! that is no fun at all!

I had tubes in my ears 2 times...the first didn't take i guess cause a few years later i was back again, but the 2nd ones work and I know if i type this i will get my first ear infection since 3rd grade...seriously...i had them every 4 weeks or something like that. i lived with a hotwater bottle on my head and those stinky nasty ear drops and a very wet pillow until then...so i would be willing to have them try the tubes again

I am so sorry again that you are going through this. it is tough on everyone in the house when little ones get them!