Eustachian tubes

Hi! My first had tubes and first let me say I’m sorry for all yours and you have been through. It’s a lot to go through recurrent ear infections. The tubes were a game changer for us. She got them in March of 2023 and they are still in. The surgery itself is fast (7-10 minutes) but warning: putting your kid under is hard. I walked out bawling. They will be upset when they wake up and you’ll hold them and feed them water or juice as they wake. We did ours in the morning and by lunch she was feeling much better. Different ENT’s will tell you differently but my girl uses ear plugs for any water and i strongly believe this was best for my girl. A previous ENT told us not to use them and she got infections after her surgery. If yours still has infections after surgery- strongly research and push about allergies. My daughter after a year of observation, has seasonal allergies. Also any oozing after the surgery means infection. Happy to chat more if you want

I should note recovery is quick. If you work M-F try to push for a Wednesday or Thursday. They will be fine by the weekend. Really only a couple days to bounce back so to speak

It’s scary having your child be taken to have it done but it goes really quickly. Our daughter has had them since she was 7 months old and they are a life saver. Normally by the next day she feels normal. I would just make sure that any wax isn’t clogging the tubes once they are in. That can cause them to not work properly and is hard to remove. Good luck!!

My son got tubes and his adenoids removed when he was 1. It was a super fast recovery!! It has helped so much, he hasn’t had ear infections ever since and he hasn’t gotten croup/any sickness as much as he used to!! I would 100% do it again if we had to.

Thank you all! My 6 year old had ooen heart surgery at 5 months and the tubes should not have me concerned but it's bringing up some PTSD from that. I'm napping my rational vs my irrational brain. They have us a Tuesday appointment but we don't have a time because until the day prior since the kids have to fast for this procedure. Our ENT told us that we can try to start plugging her ears to get her use to it but that's it's not necessary. I'll keep a look out post-surgery though. I didn't actually realize that we would be present while they put her under. So thanks for letting me know so I can prepare myself for that.

@Anjali If you can do the open heart surgery, you got this!! You’re so strong and so is she for going through that 😭 you basically go back and you’re there so she’s not scared and she goes under. That was hard on me but as I wiped away the tears they were already done. You all will do great best of luck ❤️

Thank you!

It so super fast and easy. We weren’t allowed in the room either time my daughter has been put under. But waking up is always rough for the first 15 minutes. After that just a sleepy kid for 24 hours.