19 month old - chronic ear infection - advice

[MrsT1205]

Hello,

My son has had a continuous gunky ears/ infections since the start of February, he’s had 5 lots of antibiotics, referred to nhs ent department (not heard anything yet) and we’ve also paid for a private consultation.

Essentially if he goes on antibiotics it either doesn’t clear it or clears it for a few days and then it returns within 3 days of the course finishing. The private consultant said he’d probably need grommets and his adenoids removed and prescribed drops. The drops were great but the gunk has still returned within 48 hours of stopping the drops. I just wondered if anyone else has been through similar as I don’t want to pay upwards of £5K for these operations to be done privately but also don’t want my son on continuous antibiotics for 6 months as we wait for our nhs referral to kick in and then for however long after that. My doctor tried to push our appointment forward but the hospital said it was all routine stuff and we don’t warrant moving up the waiting list. I would understand if the infections cleared and came back a few weeks later but 48 hours seems too short a period of time for me to think the infection cleared at all?

DS1 faced exactly the same situation around 18 months old. He was given relentless courses of oral antibiotics by GP which were totally pointless (later confirmed by NHS ENT consultant who said that only antibiotic eardrops tend to do the trick in kids.) First course of ear drops didn’t work but they swabbed and gave him a second course which cleared it completely. It never came back! So definitely worth trying a different course of drops. We were old no way would consider grommets at his age and that it was unnecessary as was not a glue ear issue. Just an infection that had been allowed to fester as GP not prescribing what he needed (not their fault.) I’d definitely wait to see NHS consultant before considering potentially unnecessary surgery. Wishing you well, it was a crappy time for poor DS. He’s five now and has no ear or hearing issues at all

Ds had three lots of grommets, starting at 20 months, on the NHS because he'd had continuous ear infections from 10 weeks old, with chronic glue ear.

Only thing is that they don't generally do grommets for ear infections, it's for lack of hearing. Officially grommets don't solve ear infections, they solve the lack of hearing. If they do help with the infections (they did for ds) then that's a lucky side effect.

How old is your ds? I'd say that unless he's been having ear infections every year, or he's a baby, there's a good chance that when the weather warms up the ear infection will go, and it won't reoccur, so doing grommets and adenoids is a bit of an OTT reaction at this point. that isn't saying he won't need them, just I don't think the signs are there yet.
To show how seasonal it can be, for ds, whose glue ear and ear infections were considered severe, when he had hearing tested in August, he had full hearing. By November he was down to 10% of normal hearing with glue ear. That's how seasonal it was. (and he had hearing tested at least twice a year from 1yo through to aged 13yo and it didn't improve in the winter until he was 11yo)

The waiting for our ENT is currently around a year. I know because ds (aged 15yo) was rereferred about February 2022 and his appointment has just come up.

Insist GP does swabs. Otherwise wrong antibiotic is likely.
Gunk prob means ear drums are burst so grommets aren't relevant

He had swabs done quite early on which resulted in them giving him another course of amoxicillin, should I insist they do more? He’s 19 months, this all started in February.I’ve asked for hearing tests but then won’t do it whilst he’s got an infection? Seems like a viscous circle.

He has a perforated ear drum in one side too.,

If it's not cleared then yes swab again. We had this and eventually they found a different bacteria. DC ended up with permanently damaged ear drums

Pp is incorrect, they don't just do grommets for hearing.
I had to really push for DD to have grommets as she had repeated perforated eardrums and chronic infections throughout winter/spring then would be fine in summer by the time her appointment with the consultant came round. They really did help DD and she had very few ear infections (if any iirc) after.

Thank you everyone. I just need that Ent appointment now but the waits are so long it’s frustrating! I can’t believe they’d leave a toddler on continuous antibiotics that don’t work - it blows my mind

Does he have a dummy? I only ask as this sounds similar to us a year ago when my daught was around 20 months, constant back to back ear infections for 6 months. We went privately for an ENT due to NHS waits and they suggested giving up the dummy. We were very vigilant with sterilising them so I was sceptical it would make a difference but after more ear infections we reluctantly did so (which actually was easier to give up than expected).
My DD has since only had one course of antibiotics in the last year for a throat and ear infection in Oct last year! No other ear infections and it's been amazing.
Sorry of this is too much of a simple solution, but thought I'd mention it as it seems to have sorted it for us!

DC2 had repeated infections on a 3 week cycle from 15 months old - ear drum perforated each time. After 4 lots of antibiotics was referred to pediatrics and put on low dose antibiotics for 6 months and told if they didn't grow out of it they would need grommets. Only had one infection after the low dose antibiotics finished and didn't need grommets.

Thank you, no he doesn’t have a dummy- he’s still breastfed once a day though? I think he’s being put on the low dose antibiotics today by my gp, it’s good to hear that they worked for you as I’ve only heard that they don’t work.

@MrsT1205 how did this work out for you? We're having a similar issue at the moment.