I am looking for a hospital where they could do the ear tubes operation in babies and small children.
"Ear tubes (tympanostomy tubes, ventilation tubes, pressure equalization tubes) are tiny cylinders, usually made of plastic or metal, that are surgically inserted into the eardrum. An ear tube creates an airway that ventilates the middle ear and prevents the accumulation of fluids behind the eardrum."
Could anyone please translate the expression in german? I was not able to find the information online. I don't know if it is because I am not looking correctly or just because this is just not a common procedure in Switzerland. It is quite common in the US.
I could ask the pediatrician but the appointment is in 2 months so I would like to start researching options here.
In my experience any hospital can/will do that, IF necessary. It is not something doctors will recommend without necessity and often only if other solutions fail to work.
Wait for your pediatrician what he/she recommends. It is quite invasive for a small child and definitely not always necessary
2 months!!! I think the longest we waited was 2 days. And our pediatrician is excellent, she's also an allergy specialist.
The process until surgery for us:
1) the Troll gets repeated ear infections in between August and December and shows sign of not hearing well when his nose is stuffed.
2) our pediatrician refers us to the ORL departmen at Kinderspital for hearing test and hear exam.
3) ORL doctor recommends tubes.
4) We get a date for the procedure.
5) We get called in for "anesthesia and procedure walkthrough.
6) Procedure is done, Troll out after a few hours and back to pre-school the day after.
7) Follow-up at the pediatrician every 3 months until the tubes fall out, preferably after 1 year but before 2 years. The Troll's fell after a but more than 1 year, 0 issues since.
We were very happy with the care and follow-up we received. Compared to what we would have had in Norway at least, it was/is far more proactive and caring.
we did tubes because he needed adenoids out too (I'd ask if they will remove if needed, it's hard to see them without a tube down the nose and can be an issue)
But I will give you this warning, you may need a 2nd surgery to have them removed again. (another risk) but with my son his adenoids grew back (go figure) so they removed the tubes at the same time, otherwise he would have needed a 2nd op just to remove them
Thank you for mentioning it. I will call the pediatrician's office tomorrow and see if she can see him during the week. This is his 4th ear infection since August. I want to find a solution not necessarily this one but something.
have you tried antihistamines and steroidal nasal spray? 2 of the things we tried with my son
I just had an ear infection and it was awful, poor babe. I also know that the drops dried up and left a lot of yuck in my ears, took over a month for the "thing" to come out, it was gross but was blocking my hearing. I had no idea the drops did that
Although infections hurt, surgery is not without risk, the odds of a serious issue are low, but it happens. No one wants to be the one 1 in 10,000 etc
He was 5 when he got his tubes, but he had had ear problems forever. It's just that in Norway they didn't take it that seriously (doctor said his speach problems came from being bilingual, not the monthly stuffed ears), then we moved and it took a while to get the relationship with the pediatrician going. But once the process was underway, it went very smoothly.
The tubes fell by themselves, so here we didn't need to have a second surgery. And no ear infection since the tubes were put in 2 years ago!
This is probably the most useless post, but there was recently introduced some other method than the tubes. I just cannot remember what or where I did read it..
When I was child I had tubes, and those helped. The downside was that I had to use earplugs in swimming school and at the beach. It was not nice to not hear and because of all the time being careful that the plugs will not fall, didn't have as much fun as other children.
Maybe the new invention was something related to laser-operation or microscale 3D-printing, but I just cannot remember what it was
True! And the ORL at Kinderspital was clear that it wasn't a miracle solution for everyone. She was really open about the pros and cons.
In our case, on the one hand the Troll's ear drums had never burst and he didn't have much scarring tissue (which can cause permanent hearing problems, if I understood her correctly), but On the other hand he got a painful ear infection about once a month, we flew about once a month (which made the ear infection pain worse and/or caused the stuff nose to develop into earache) and he didn't hear much while his ears were stuffed, somethibg that affected his ability to learn languages learning badly.
We went for it, and in retrospect we just don't understand why it wasn't done at least a year earlier, it would have saved him regular ear pain and integration difficulties when we arrived here. The real winners in this were the companies making Ibuprofene syrup .
Btw, he has visible scar tissue in his ears but his hearing is within normal range. It's at least that.
Yes to both. I had a very tiny hope that it was working and then new ear infection this weekend.
No, they refused to do it in France even though there is a history of allergies on the father side. He was seen by an ORL twice there (referred to by the Pediatric emergency care doctor who saw him for his 3rd ear infection) which amounted to nothing because they looked at the ears after the amoxicillin had already treated the infection. They said "even though both ear drums had burst, it would grow back (agree on this part) so everything looks good but no swimming pool for him and careful with the baths" so incredibly helpful.
At the Kinderspital where we went this weekend the head doctor came to see us after my child was seen by a younger doctor and he looked at the right ear and immediately said it was infected (which was not a surprise for us). I agree with Trollemor, the care we received was better than what we've experienced in France, however when I asked him what could I do to avoid this or to not happen at least so often he just said "nothing".
I then started to research in frustration (I leave more details for some other board and will not bother you with it) and could not find any information online because of my lack of german. I had researched in France as well and discussed options with his pediatrician there. The answer was always "nothing can be done" so I was hoping that we can find some sort of relief here.
Sorry I'm rambling. A big thank you to everyone with so much helpful information. This forum really comes through every time. I'm going to discuss it with his brand new pediatrician so that will be fun.
No, but it is an idea. I did choose full coverage for him in his supplemental health insurance. I need to check options with his doctor on Friday (just got an appointment) and discuss further with her.