grommets for 18 month old - likely to improve sleep?

[oricella]

DD has been having ear infections every 3 weeks or so since December - sometimes the eardrums burst, sometimes they don't - and apart from the general pain and fever and having a poorly girl, it is really messing up sleep.

At the last ENT appointment they diagnosed glue ear, although her hearing is perfect, and they offered the option of grommets. We decided not to go for that yet; but with the next review coming up and nothing changed I'd be interested to hear any experiences with grommets at a young age in general and if they helped improve sleep in particular. Thanks for any thoughts

Yes, DS2 was a terrible sleeper and had constant ear infections up til the April when he was operated on (15 mths old).

He had bad reflux which exacerbated the infections.

Thanks - that sounds promising. I'm so, so tired - and the only few night of reasonable sleep we get is right after a course of AB's - and downhill from there everytime

I think I'm leaning towards giving it a go...

I was anti-intervention but eventually our paedeatrician (sp,) said it would be the best thing.

We had our first full night's sleep 2 days after the operation.

DS had ear infections all winter until the operation, he would stop one course of anti-biotics and get a temperature a day later - there were no other signs, but he was obviously in pain and screamed at night.

I hope you find a solution.

BTW DS's dropped out about a year later but we had a whole winter without any infections this year - he is now 3.

Sorry to hear about your DD's ear infections.

I wonder if you've thought about removing dairy from her diet for a period of time ? Milk can exacerbate mucus, which can be a cause of glue ear.

My DD had glue ear & although no infections, she wasn't able to hear clearly so her speech was delayed.

I was adivsed to take her off dairy, so she had rice milk instead of cows milk in cereal. I just swapped cheese/yogurts for alternatives.

18mths is extremely young to undergo a GA, so if you could follow something similar, might make a huge difference to her.

DS1 had grommets put in at 10 months old and we have worshipped at the shrine of grommets ever since

we decided in the end that the general anaesthetic was less of an intervention than the gallons of calpol, nurofen and antibiotics he was having

us too littleblue!

I was (am) bf DS2 and he was excl. bf to 6 months but the reflux and ear infections started early.

I was worried it wasn't a one-off solution, when I heard they grow out of them quickly, but it worked for us.

While he was under they pierced something to drain the fluid off and also took his adenoids out.

O thanks all.. good to hear some more thoughts. Hadn't considered dairy, but she's not taking massive amounts - unless you count BF. That's about the only thing I can get her through the really bad nights with, and she shows no sign of stopping. Will ask consultant about it tomorrow though

I worry about the GA to some extent - but looking back at all the drugs she's already had when she had meningitis, including anaesthetics for 3 days, I think that is probably a manageable risk

Shrine of grommets is a beautiful expression though..

Well - different consultant this time who didn't seem impressed with his colleagues approach ("if you want grommets I'll happily put them in"); so prof explained how it is 1-2 year olds who seem to end up in this cycle of recurring acute ear infections, with low grade infection/glue ear in between. He recommended low dose of a different AB for 2 months - so we decided to try that... Fingers crossed that'll do the trick

Miraculously though, DD actually slept through, 8 till nearly 8, I'm still in shock

My dd's friend had that low level AB treatment for persistent ear infections and it worked brilliantly for her. My dd has grommets as her hearing was being significantly affected by glue ear but no infections and that worked for her too. Good luck!

we are getting them in two weeks time as well as tonsills and adnoids out. i am hoping that at 2.8years he will speak soon and sleep through the night.

we have tried the antibiotics route but his bum does not like them so this is the last result but i am hoping great things.

Thank you so much for this thread OP and posters - we are in this situation, sleep been terrible, ds glue ear (waiting for referral appt). So nice to know we're not alone - and that there's hope for getting it sorted - will ask re AB option before grommets, good to know there may be an alternative - and that either way we might actually get some sleep eventually...

Hi,
My son is 16 months old and is having grommets next week due to glue ear and recurrent ear infections. He’s been on antibiotics for 6 weeks as the infections kept coming back.
Any advice ? Dreading the hospital and the thought of him having the op but hopefully brings relief from the constNt pain, temperature and sleepless crying nights :-(

Surely you need adenoids out not grommets?!

Why do you mention sleep in particular? Adenoids affect sleep as symptoms only show at night. Ear infections would make them miserable day and night.
Enlarged adenoids can cause glue ear and repeated ear infections. Removing the adenoids therefore addesses the underlying issue
If they’ve had a serious infection before (you said meningitis) then I think it quite often happens the adenoids enlarge as adenoids deal with the immune system

Oh zombie thread!!
Mag - start a new one! It’s so annoying when people do this

Magsc2Ds had grommets at 20 months after about 18 months of ear infections and glue ear.
He slept through consistently within about a fortnight of having the operation. It was like magic the difference.
He's 10yo now and had three lots of grommets and they think he may finally be growing out of the glue ear. However he hasn't had lots of infections for 2-3 years now. No more than 3-4 a year anyway, and he recognises much sooner that it's coming and the GP will give him antibiotics early because of his history.