Ear infections after grommet insertion.

[Kate191011]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone else's child has experienced the same and any advice welcomed.
My daughter had grommets and adenoid surgery at a year for severe glue ear with brilliant results (a year on), however following the surgery she is having persistent reacurring ear infections (easily every other month sometimes more frequent) which take a lot to get rid of. It is normally associated with colds, hey fever (she has always been a very snotty baby) but the Drs say that she is too young to have anything to dry her up. But I'm worried about the effect the ear infections are having and the use of antibiotics to the point she was nearly hospitalised with a recent infection and now she has abother a month on. The consultant has said she may have to have the grommets removed but I'm worried bout the effect on her hearing and will it mean her ear drum will purforate when she gets an infection in the future. She never had infections prior to the surgery. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. Thanks

OK firstly, what do they treat the ear infections with? With grommets, ear infections should be treated with drops, not oral antibiotics.
It is possible for the grommets themselves to become infected, and for bacteria to live on them permanently. In which case the infections will not go until they are removed. The same happened to my DD - repeated ear infections after grommet insertion, and one was changed for a new grommet. In the 9 months they stayed in after that, only one infection that was treated easily with drops.
I would firstly ensure that she is treated appropriately for the infections, and then go back and see your consultant, talk about him changing the grommets.
Also, make sure you are keeping the ears completely dry - proper waterproof ear plugs, limit hair washing, only wash with clean water, not bath water. We had to be really strict with this but it worked.

Are you sure you should treat ear infections with grommets in with drop antibiotics. I'm sure I was told with ds that you shouldn't.

My DS 5 has had 4 sets of grommets and had always had drops with ear infections. I usually find he doesn't have many infections with functioning grommets but as soon as they work themselves out he starts with the infections again. Oral antibiotics are little or no use with grommets in situ.

Same here, couple I ear infections after grommets and the consultant prescribed drops. He insisted its cause of the way the grommet pushes the discharge towards outside
Eventually the grommet fell and we didn't get any infection afterwards

Yes, absolutely sure. As far as I recall, it's because the presence of the grommet means that the drops can penetrate the area where the infection is, and treat it far more effectively than having to rely on going through the bloodstream. They get straight to where the infection is.

You may be wondering about the fact that some ear drops are toxic to the ear and say they shouldn't be used in the presence of a perforated ear drum. But the thought is while this may be a problem with repeated doses for long lengths of time, for a normal ear infection the risk of not treating it and the subsequent damage to the ear from the infection is greater than the risk of the ear drops.