Grommets - do they cause ear pain when diving in swimming pool?

[ABetaDad]

About four year ago DS1 had grommets fitted in both ears as he constantly had fluid build up behind the eardum that caused earache and made it difficult for him to hear properly.

The grommets worked well but are still in as the GP confirmed a few months ago.

The problem is that DS1 is a keen and very good swimmer but he finds that diving into water and doing tumble turns gives him severe ear pain and this is now holding up his swimming development as he cannot do certain excercises that the rest of the class are doing.

We are thinking that maybe the grommets are the cause of this ear pain as he dives in.

Does anyone have a similar experience, should we get them taken out or is the pain due to some other reason (e.g the grommets are now blocked up) and just need to be replaced with new grommets?

We are planning to go and see the GP again and then on to a consultant but want to go armed with as much info as we can.

Thanks in advance.

We were told that DD couldn't/ shouldn't swim more than 1 metre under the surface of the water whilst her grommets were in, can't remember the exact reason but I recall that it may be something to do with the increased pressure in deeper water that can push against the grommets causing the pain. Also the increased pressure may cause water to leak through the grommet thus causing problems in the ear.

DDs swimmimng was very affected due to not being able to swim under water but is now starting to catch up. HTH

hennipenni - thanks ever so much for your post. That is extremely helpful. Our surgeon, despite being private, did not metion that potential problem . I will tell our new GP/consultant and see what they say.

I had heard the grommets are supposed to drop out after a while or be taken out so again that makes sense.

StewieGriffinsMom - thanks also for your post. Clearly this is not a universal problem so maybe some GPs/consultants are actually unaware of the issue or even perhaps some children just have slightly different ear structures that makes the difference.

you mustn't go deeper than about 1 foot when you have grommets as the pressure can force the water through them and cause infection

but yes, would definitely cause pain
angry opn your behalf that you weren't told

DS had grommets inserted 3 months ago, they will be checked on every 3 months....
We were also told not to submerge the ears, swimming/showering etc are fine, but if he lays down in the bath( apparantly soapy water is more of a problem)or jumps into the pool and goes under, he should wear ear/plugs moulds, for the same reasons stated by hennipenni.

Wow!

I cannot believe how badly we were advised. This issue is now stopping him doing things he really enjoys.

Grateful to you all.

Ds has had both grommets and t-tubes on several occasions - the grommets tended to come out themselves after 6 months or so, whereas the t-tube had to be taken out.

There is scarring in his ear, but it doesn't affect him swimming now. Having said that, his consultant did say that he thought it would never be a good idea for ds to take part in deep sea diving, as there is residual damage.

HTH

norks, DD wore ear buddies and a bandit for the duration that she had grommets and we were still advised no jumpimg in/diving/etc.

Also at lack of aftercare info given to abadad.