Any advice regarding ear plugs after my 3yr old DS had grommets fitted?

[MrsHelenBee]

Hi everyone,
My DS had surgery last week to remove tonsils and adenoids, and have grommets put in. Bless him, he's white as a sheet and still struggling to eat and drink normally, but he doesn't complain at all.
We've read all the info we've been given regarding aftercare, but we've got such conflicting advice. The paperwork from the hospital says he needs cotton wool or ear plugs when he has a bath, but how long do we do this for? Is it all the time the grommets are in, or just for the initial 4wks when they're knitting in?
We're due on holiday in August and asked about swimming at the hospital. The surgeon who operation on DS said to use a headband and earplugs for all swimming, but the paperwork says earplugs aren't necessary for swimming as grommets are too small to let water in.
We just want to know how best to manage bath times and swimming while we're away. What has anyone else done with their DC?

[midnightvelvetPart2]

My ds had grommets in last September and we still block his ears in the bath. I'm on the mobile site so can't link but we use Putty Buddies, they're a pack of 3 and I've not had any problems so far. When we go swimming we use the putty buddies and the headband over the top.

[MrsHelenBee]

Hi midnightvelvetPart2, thanks for the reply.
How did your DS cope with the ear plugs? My DS had his surgery on Thursday and we gave him a bath last night. We bought some Mickey Mouse silicone ear plugs, told him what they were for and why we needed to put them in, which all seemed ok, but then he kept saying "Ouch, Mummy!!" when I was trying to put them in. I didn't think I'd put them in wrong, I just tried to place them over the opening of his ear, so I hadn't expected it to hurt, and I don't know if I did something wrong or if it was just because we're only a few days post op.
Have you been able to use a single pair of ear plugs for a reasonable period of time? Just worried about them running out when we're away. I tried to be as gentle as possible last night, but he really didn't like it and one fell out into the bath.

[DeeWe]

I use cotton wool while the grommets are in. After he'd had his first set of grommet, he looked at me washing my hair and said "Mummy, you've forgotten to put clouds in your ears".
Only do it for wahing hair though, not a normal bath.

However for swimming we have specially molded ones from ENT with a swimming cap over the top. I don't know that they do this for everyone though, but ds is particularly bad-he's on his third set of grommets.