Your Kid Needs Ear Tubes — What to Expect

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In the time it takes you to read this, your son or daughter could probably have finished their ear tubes procedure, woken up from general anesthesia, and already downed a full sippy cup of non-sugar free, full-octane apple juice from the hospital cafeteria. Seriously.

All joking aside, take it from a pretty nervous first-time mom that the procedure is nothing at all what you expect.

After six months of continuous ear infections—and cycles of every oral antibiotic imaginable (and one antibiotic injection we’d rather like to forget)—my once superbly healthy two-year-old son was exhausted. He had been feeling funky and grumpy for months, and we were beginning to have concerns about his hearing and language skills. Upon the recommendation of our pediatrician, we consulted an ear, nose, and throat specialist who confirmed our suspicions. The kid needed ear tubes.

I immediately made a mental list of everything that could go wrong during surgery. Let me tell you, that list ain’t pretty. Or short. Having a son that also spent the first week of his life in the NICU due to a birth defect, I knew the toll this type of situation can take on a child and family members.

My saving grace was a load of family and friends whose children had gone through the procedure and who were now reaping the benefits—happier, antibiotic free kids who slept better and starting reading Moby Dick in full sentences. OK, that last part may have been an exaggeration.

That’s why I was so eager to write about our experience. Having that reassurance was a comfort, and I want to pass that reassurance along to others. Here are a few things to keep in mind if your child is facing tubes:

The procedure is quick.

It was less than 30 minutes for us. This is not an exaggeration. The time it took for our son to be taken back to surgery, undergo the procedure, and wake up from anesthesia was roughly 20 minutes. My husband and I weren’t even able to finish our morning stacks from the waiting room vending machine.

Ear tube surgery preperation

There is probably no IV.

It’s scary the thought of your little one getting a poke, so luckily most procedures are performed under general anesthesia inhaled through a mask and not typically injected into a vein. (This was not true of some of our friends, but I am happy to say it was true for us.)

The tubes are tiny.

In every Google image search for ear tubes, they look like the size of trash can lids. In reality? They’re about 3 millimeters in diameter.

Ear-tube-2-Issaquah-ENT

Watch a procedure on YouTube. It helps.

I wouldn’t normally recommend watching medical procedures on YouTube. In fact, forget I even said anything. But if you are interested in a look at what will be happening in your kid’s ear, search ear tube surgery videos. You know your level of tolerance for gross stuff, so watch at your own risk.

They will be grumpy.

Anastasia makes kids grumpy, and even more so when waking up in a room full of strangers. Recovery time at the hospital is fairly minimal, there’s lots of juice involved, and you can expect several rounds of napping throughout the day.

Napping after ear tubes

Aftercare can be a rocky road.

It’s extremely important to follow the surgeon’s aftercare instructions. However, that will most likely involve putting antibiotic drops in your child’s ear for several days. This can be a harrowing task with a squirmy two-year-old, but it’s important to get some of the drops in there. We finally resorted to a hog-tied, jet-stream squeeze method that I think worked well. The nurses will also tell you to keep cotton balls in the ear for the first several baths. Again, it’s important to do this to prevent soapy water from entering the ear—but attempt at your own risk. From a two-year-old’s perspective, cotton balls make better flotation devices than ear plugs.

Ear tubes bath time precaution

If you are considering ear tubes for your child,
I hope these points of consideration are helpful!

1 COMMENT

  1. Thanks so much for this!!! We have our surgery scheduled for Monday so this came at the perfect time!! I will try to calm down a bit! ?

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