grommets

[illawarramumof2boys]

Hi Just Wanting To Know If Anyones Bub Has Had To Have Them (grommets) And Secondly Were They A Success?

My Youngest Son Had Them Inserted In November At 18 Months, And Has Already Had Another Ear Infection And Has Today Finished Antibiotics For It. If Someone Out There Has Some Advice I'd Be Glad To Hear It, As To Be Honest I'm Getting Tired Of Being At The Doctors Getting Scripts For Antiobiotics I Don't Believe In And Am Also Feeling Down About Having A Distressed Sick Little Boy.

Thanks:)

[nkenward]

sorry can't offer a lot of advice on this topic. I know that my brother (20 odd years ago) used to suffer a lot from middle ear infectons. The doctor told my mum that he could have them put in - but really they were not going to of much help and that he will grow out of it - and he did.

One of the disadvantages with grommets are that you can't get the ears wet, so they can't go swimming etc.

[caitsmum]

My daughter has had three lots of grommets put in. She is now 5. The first lot went in when she was 16mnths old the second at 3years and 3mnths and the third at 3years and 6mnths. I do really feel for you because I have been through the endless ear infections including ruptured eardrums with continuous exudate for weeks on end. The last lot of grommets she had in were collar button grommets. The previous 2 lots to this were just normal ones and they kept popping out of the tympanic membrane. The collar button grommets are still in - more than 2 years down the track. She has recently had an ear infection (her first one in 2 years) but being summer it has been so very hard to stop her getting her ears wet. Water play is a pretty big activity on our agenda living in Brisbane. I try and take her to the beach to swim so it doesn't matter than if she gets water in her ears. If your son keeps getting ear infections I would go back to your ENT doctor and get him to investigate the reason why. Are his grommets still in? I really hope that your son does not get anymore infections because it makes them so misserable and it is so hard to watch. Good luck and let me know if I can give you anymore info

Take care
Therese

[the_queen]

Hi!
My daughter has grommets in her ears - she got them almost 2 years ago I guess... She was born with a cleft lip, and with cleft-affected kids there's a tendancy to insert grommets "just in case" so she never had a problem with recurrent ear infections, so perhaps our situations are different.

I just wanted to say, we have never done anything differently with her since she's had them in, eg swimming etc. She has gone swimming, she has a shower every day and a bath every now and then. We were never advised not to let her ears get wet. Her grommets are still in (they fall out eventually, apparently) and she's had checkups with her ENT and they are still working fine too.

It was only day surgery for her, so no big deal really.
(Of course, I say that because her other two surgeries that she had before her 1st birthday, she was in hospital for a week with stitches inside and outside her lip and nose... so for us, day surgery is nothing ;) )

Good luck with everything, and I hope your little man gets some relief from those horrible ear infections. And I hope it all gets better soon, for your sake too - it's hard on mummy's when their baby's are not well!

[illawarramumof2boys]

hi and thanks for all your advice. we're taking my son to the specialist on thursday for a review. i hope something can be done about it. his ears are literally exploding like a volcano of wax etc (sorry if this is too much info for some) but i'm really concerned.

i'm also feeling very down as they were supposed to start preschool/childcare this week one day a week and i've had to put it on hold as my youngest is too sick. i can't take them to the gym creche either as my youngest is too sick, playgroup is on hold etc. heres hoping we get some answers on thursday so we can get our lives back to normal.

if anyone else has some advice i'd love to hear from you:)

[caitsmum]

I'm glad that you are able to take your son back to the specialist on Thursday. I hope that you are able to get some answers and life gets back to some normality for your family. Good luck

Therese