Swimming after having grommets put in

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My daughter has to gave grommets put in next week. When this was first mentioned as a possibility some months ago I asked about swimming and was told it was fine, that she would be able to swim as normal. The reason this was my first concern is that she has swimming lessons every week, loves it (and makes me rather proud by being very good at it ).

We have been for the pre-op assessment this morning and I have been handed a leaflet saying she can't swim for 6 weeks (so due to the summer holidays it will be September before she starts lessons again), and that after that she can swim but needs to keep her head out of the water! I can't believe it, the ENT doctor I asked told me that the risk of her getting an infection from swimming was higher without the grommets (due to the glue ear) than with them in!

Does anyone else have experience of swimming after having grommets in who can assure me that swimming will be OK, even if we do have to wait a few weeks?

You don't say how old your daughter is? My daughter is 2.7 and had grommets put in a couple of months ago. She has one of these www.swimstop.co.uk/ear_band-it.html which is pretty good I think. Going underwater is out though. We were told by ENT that she was fine to go swimming as long as not underwater after a month.

Having said that, I am sorry to say that we have only taken her swimming twice as since her grommets were put in she has had infection after infection after infection and we have been trying to stop this. We hardly dare wash her hair it's been such a work up to get the cotton wool and vaseline plugs to stay in and swimming has just had to go by the wayside a bit. Finally the ear drops have just worked so fingers crossed and after a couple of infection-free weeks we'll be happy to risk it again.

She'd never had any infections before the grommets were put in but despite this I still feel it was the right thing to do as her hearing and speech have noticeably improved.

My daughter is 4.
Thanks for the link BTW, looks like a good idea.
Sounds like you have had a bit of a nightmare of a time with infections, I really had been led to believe that the chances of this happening was less with the grommets in. Like you say though, it has to be done to improve the hearing.