5th Ear Infection in less than 3 months

[hehateme]

Hi:

My son just turned 7 months old. He has been going to daycare since he was 10 weeks old. He had is first cold in early december. His first infection began shortly afterwards. He went on antibiotics for 10 days. Even before we stopped giving him his antibiotic he had his next cold. The second ear infection followed after the cold. This has happened 5 times. Yeterday was the 10 day for his antibiotic medication but he already has his next cold going. If the history repeats itself on Saturday his ear infection will begin. It will be his 6th ear infection. He does get better but contracts cold at daycare and keeps on getting ear infection.

It is very hard to see him suffer. He is a happy and active child. He is eating fine most of the time and weighs nearly 20 lbs. Our pediatrician says that he is too yound and tubes might not to be totally effective for him. He also told as that spring is around the corner so he chances of catching cold will diminsh.
We live in Minnesota.


Other than taking him out of daycare is there anything else we can do to help him. It is hard to keep on giving him medications everyday when he is so young.


Thanks

[neeleymartin]

we just had tubes for our little guy. he had a similar record of ei's. talk to your doc and express your concerns with the repeated doses of antibiotics as well as the fact that they aren't hearing well if their ears are always clogged with fluid. speech is directly related to hearing.

after the tubes, ds2 has been infection free and "talking" sooooo much. he rarely made sounds pre-tubes.

i felt strongly about getting the tubes and we felt strongly supported by the doc. maybe ask the doc for a referral to an ent. get a 2nd opinion. hth.

[hehateme]

Our son is a chatter box. Most of the days he is talking non stop all day long.
How old was your son when he got the tubes?
I will try to get a second opinion.

Thanks



we just had tubes for our little guy. he had a similar record of ei's. talk to your doc and express your concerns with the repeated doses of antibiotics as well as the fact that they aren't hearing well if their ears are always clogged with fluid. speech is directly related to hearing.

after the tubes, ds2 has been infection free and "talking" sooooo much. he rarely made sounds pre-tubes.

i felt strongly about getting the tubes and we felt strongly supported by the doc. maybe ask the doc for a referral to an ent. get a 2nd opinion. hth.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Have they changed the meds and/ or dosage for the EI? My ds2 had a string of them last winter/ spring and we had to move from amoxicillin to augmentin.

These are no fun. I'm sorry you are all dealing with them. Things really do get better in the spring usually!!

Beth

[hehateme]

Yes they changed antibiotics 4 times. For his 5th infection they had to repeat.
Since he already has cold he will probably get another dose of antibiotics.
All the antibiotics have worked and his infection goes away. However the fluid stays in his ears. It does not dry up because he only has 2-3 days between the time the infection is over and the new one begins.

He likes daycare and seems to be happy so it has been hard for us to pull him out of daycare and get a nanny for a few months.

[neeleymartin]

my son just got them. he was 10 months old at the time. we were also on 5 different meds in a row. it seemed that after each one, he would get another ei. ouch!! those hurt.

ds is so much happier now. he laughs and babbles all day long. he was pleasant and typical before, but i swear he is sooo different now that he can hear better. of course, he is getting older. but it was like a light switch.

[nfowife]

My son got tubes at 7 months old and it was a huge success for us. He was having constant double EI's starting at 6 weeks old. Once he got the tubes, no more EI's. He's now 3 and the tubes have fallen out but still hasn't had an EI since before the tubes.
We were able to have the tubes put in without putting him under since he was young. There are ENT's out there who will do it, it is worth finding one. Good luck!

[Kestrel]

This may be too late... but this is what happened to us, you might ask your daycare.

In our daycare, the infant room has a single teacher and three, occasionally four, infants. HOWEVER. Everyone loves to play with the babies. Once, I arrived to find someone I'd never met holding my son. She was a teacher from another classroom, who was gossiping with the infant teacher and playing with the babies. It turns out, this is pretty common, to have the other teachers stop in when on lunchbreak or before/after work to play.

But think how many more germs the baby is exposed to! A teacher spends all day with 15-20 toddlers, and THEN comes in to play with my baby? NO! NO! NO!

I had a talk (bitch session, really) with the director right then, and DS went from being sick every week for three months, to being sick for three days in the next three months.