When did your older child outgrow ear infections?

[Ecm223]

Hi there! I have an almost 7 y/o who has dealt with ear infections since age 1. Always associated with a viral Illness. We’ve had multiple sets of tubes. Things have improved overall- he seems to get less now. But I’m just looking for a little hope. Has anyone continued dealing with this issue? When did your child outgrow it? Did anything help? They looked at his adenoids but they are not enlarged so we don’t think that is a contributing factor.

Ds had 3 sets of grommets (20 months, 3.6yo, and 6.6yo) and continued with glue ear and regular infections until he was 12yo. Apparently that is unusually late, and they told me when he was 12yo that if he'd continued to that age then he might well never grow out of it.
However the next year he was greatly improved. he still gets 1-2 infections a year (aged 15yo) but that's a great improvement on the 20+ he used to get.

About the age of 10, ENT consultant said he had an immature immune system.
Three lots of grommets, in end they left it and he had a hearing aid for a while which he threw away!
When he was 11 they did surgery to repair one eardrum as it wouldn't heal.
He is now an adult and has slight hearing loss in the side he had surgery.

My kids each had 2 x grommets with the second set being around age 5. We had no more issues after those fell out - so they grew out of the problem around age 7. Both of them had their adenoids out with the 2nd set of grommets, I’m pretty sure our ENT said research supported it for kids that needed grommets after age 5? It was a while ago though, can’t quite remember sorry.

DS just had an ear infection last year at 14, first one for many years.

Mine had an ear infection every year until age 8, and never again. Snored until then too, which also stopped! No grommets, had amoxicillin each time.

Thank you all so much for responding! I’ve been so worried. It’s definitely seemed to improve overall, but I worry about what will happen when these tubes come out. And I keep reading how most kids only need one set of tubes or that they tend to outgrow it by age 4. Hopefully it’s just taking him a little longer than usual. Thanks again everyone!

About 12 I think, still susceptible to ear pain/blocked tubes now he is 17 but definitely not like it was. He has tonsils and adenoids removed at 9yo and grommets from about 10yo.