Infant ear infections
 

My little one is on his fourth ear infection in less than 2 months. We've got an appointment w/ ENT in 2 weeks. I'm sure he'll have another one before that appointment. We aren't sure if the original ear infection has just never gone away (were on 4th round of antibiotics, trying a 3rd kind of antibiotics) or if there's an issue with his eustachian tubes and he'll need tubes put in. Anyone else ever go through this? Any advice?

lil lookout had problems for his first year-ish. they used different anti biotics and a "wait and see" approach. he grew out of it and really hasn't had any issues in a few years.

Be warned: as a professional audio person, I have a rather strong opinion on this subject.

They wanted to put tubes in my little brother's ears for the same thing. My parents said no fucking way. (Incidentally, tubes don't do anything but let pus drain faster out of your ear. In the meantime, they open you up for even more infections, and they can screw up your hearing for life.)

Frequent infections are usually due to swelling--an "issue" with his eustachian tubes, just like you said. The question is, why are they swollen? The vast majority of the time, the answer is mild allergies.

90% of childhood allergies are to one of five things: eggs, milk, peanuts, soy and wheat.

My parents started with cow's milk. About a week after they'd taken him off of it, his latest infection cleared, and he never got another one. Sometime around age 5 or 6 they reintroduced it into his diet, and he did fine.

Please, please at least try to rule out food allergies before you agree to let them put tubes in his ears. You never know, he might like to be a musician someday.

lil glatt had fluid in his ears for about 2 years straight. He never complained about it, and we would only discover he had an infection when we would take him in for an appointment and they would look in his ear as part of the general checkup only to see the red bulging eardrum. Take antibiotics, and the infection would go away, but the fluid would remain. He eventually got tubes, and seems just fine now. Tubes haven't fallen out yet. Hopefully after they fall out, he will have grown enough that it's no longer a problem.

Getting the tubes in the ears was a little scary, but ended up being a breeze. If I could do it over again, I'd be less cautious about getting the tubes. I'd get them a lot sooner.

When my nephew was young, he took a long time to start talking. They found out that it was because he couldn't hear. I don't know exactly what was wrong, but I do know they put tubes in his ears, and his speech followed soon after. Now, at 18, we can't get him to be quiet! :)

So watch for signs of hearing problems.

That's when we finally decided to go for the tubes. He kept saying "huh?" "what?" His speech is a little hard to understand now, and we can't help but wonder if the fluid in the ears caused that.

Btw, we gave him prescription nasal allergy spray daily for like 6 months before putting the tubes in just to see if that would take care of it. It didn't. His ears just wouldn't drain.

:::reading with great interest:::

My sister had tubes, chronic ear infections. My daughter has had one, which was rather resistant, and I'm wondering if they run in the family.

I know many of my siblings had tubes put in when they were little. And they all have allergies. So the allergy thing... It all started about 2 months ago - not one ear infection before that. Doctor said 'well, its that time of year, kids get more colds, so he'll be more prone to ear infections, he's in daycare...' He's 11 months, so we've been introducing new foods ever few days for the past 4 months. Actually, we've introduced him to most normal foods a while ago but the "don't have until later" list (strawberries, egg whites, cows milk, nuts...). Hmmm... 2 months ago... I started giving him 'advanced' baby formula for 9+ months, and bread products that may contain egg, like table bread and pasta... and milk products, like yogurt and cheese. I can't remember exactly when I started feeding him yogurt, but it was 2-3 months ago. I think we had already introduced him to all the fruits and veggies that he can have by then. Maybe I need to go back to the old formula, and lay off the breads and yogurts and cheeses.

He loves bread. Loves bread. Absolutely loves bread. Did I say he loves bread? If he sees me eating bread he stops playing and crawls to me to get a piece. If he's with dad eating bread and dad finishes the bread, he looks to me to see if he can get bread from me. Its really funny. Luckily he really likes veggies as well. Doesn't stop playing for them, but he'll gobble up whatever veggie I'm feeding him. He doesn't like fruit. He'll eat it, but not liking it. Same with yogurt. I only give him yogurt because the doctor and all the websites say he needs to be eating dairy daily for calcium.

aimeecc, we went through it with our first. We probably waited to long before we did get her the PE tubes because it affected her hearing as she developed and delayed her speech development. Chronic infections can also cause scar tissue to form which can lead to the need for later surgery, which again can affect hearing ability later in life. The procedure is very safe and the risks are low for that type of anesthesia.

Thanks. The ENT appointment is on the 12th. I'm not too worried about scarring (yet) since for the last two months he's been on antibiotics more than not, and I think that would at least minimize the infection and damage. Were on day 6 of the latest round... and he's still grabbing at his ear a little, so it must still hurt. Last dose will be Sunday, and I bet were back in the doctors office by Tuesday for another round of antibiotics.

Two days off of antibiotics now... and another cold. I am expecting an ear infection by tomorrow. One week until ENT.
I cut out yogurt and cheese (except my hubby forgot and feed him cheese this weekend) and went back to his old formula. I am thinking of going to a soy formula just to clear his system of dairy. Still feeding the little guy bread... he loves it.

On a related note, I am annoyed at Gerber and other baby food manufacturers. Most infants are on stage 2 between 7-8 months. Infants are supposed to be over 1 year, before eating strawberries and other berries (with the exception of blueberries). Yet there are a ton of stage 2 foods with strawberries. Those are at least obvious and easy to avoid. Infants under 1 year are also not supposed to have egg whites. Many infants are on stage 3 foods by 8-9 months. I noticed the other day the Gerber stage 3 baby spaghetti I was feeding my son had egg whites in the ingredients. Same with the herbed chicken pasta. I don't read the baby food labels because I assumed they would be safe for babies. Guess I was wrong.

My wife is allergic to pineapple. Like trip-to-the-ER allergic. Almost all baby food is sweetened with pineapple juice (or it was 30 years ago).

Not as true today. Pineapple and citrus are another 'no' until after 1, but like strawberries, are in several baby foods.

I made most of his baby food for a while, so there was no other ingredients than what I wanted. But I stopped when I realized I'd be switching him to more solids. I didn't realize I'd be doing a mix of 2d and 3rd foods for a few months.

Not at all, you're just using a different set of guidelines to their nutritionists. There isn't something miraculous that happens on their first birthday that suddenly allows them to deal with these foods better, and all babies are different -it's a pretty arbitrary dividing line and not everyone agrees that all these foods should be held back so long. babies are pretty hardy, don't stress too much.

Regarding the ear infections, my advice is to keep your house filthy. The natural immunity approach to ear infections :lol:

(seriously, my three have had one between them in their entire lives :D)

Good luck at the ENT.

Its not that I think if he has strawberries before 1 year old he'll have a massive allergic reaction, but many studies have shown early introduction of foods such as egg whites and berries are linked to food allergies and eczema. I know my mom fed us most foods fairly early (before all this was known) and most of my family have food allergies and eczema. So its best for me to wait.

I am moderate on the 'clean' house approach. It gets dirty and out of order over the week, clean on the weekend...

Thanks!