Repeated ear infections now eardrum has burst - What can I do?

[saffymum]

Hi
My DS is 3 and he has had is 5th (I've actually lost count) ear infection. His eardrum burst on Friday now the nursery have called to say that he is in pain and I must fetch him. This is after 6 days of antibiotics, its Friday and I can't get an appointment so I am really stressed about our weekend! Can you get grommetts put in on the NHS or do you have to wait for a certain amount of times for this to happen before they will do it? Do I have to do it privately? Any ideas please. I also have a holiday planned in 3 weeks time, can we fly with a burst eardrum, anyone know how long it takes to heal? OMG I need to get insurance!

Bump - anyone got any suggestions about whether or not getting Grommetts is possible on the NHS and what do you have to do to get them to agree? How long is the waiting list?

The infection hasn't cleared and he has been given another week's worth of antibiotics.

He can fly thankfully!

thanks

Hi saffymum. It's awful isnt it? My ds is neraly 5 but as a baby/toddler he too was plagued by ear infections nad burst/perforated drums. He had grommets inserted aged 3, this was after 3 months of watchful waiting (as the consultant called it!) then a 6 week cours of anti b's, after all this they still kept coming so the agreed to grommets. My ds did have glue ear too, not sure if this is the case with your ds?

Sounds to me like you definatley need a refferal to a consultant, as they all do the 3 months wait and see thing first so you need to gte moving on this.

I also leraned that oral anti b's have no effect whatsoever on recurring infections with glue ear. They need ear drops but GP's will not presecribe them. You can only get them from consultant at hospital.

Good luck. Hope your little chap gets sorted soon.

Why do you think he needs grommets?

The eardrum has burst as there is a build up of infection behind it, it has relieved the pressure and hopefully any pain. Once the infection has gone it will heal again.

In the meantime keep his ear completely dry, stuff it with cotton wool and vaseline to seal it at bath time and NO swimming unless you have a very good ear plug.

Ds1 (now 7) has had recurrent ear infections since he was a baby and has a permenently perferated ear drum which he may have grafted when he is 12 and this is the advice the ent consultant gave me, hth.

Also agree with northener about ear drops, get the gp to swab the ear if its not clearing up so they can check what abs the bug is sensitive to and ask about drops although they may be reluctant without an ent consultants say so.

my daughter has always had ear infections! she has so much goey stuff in her ears that most of the time they cant see her ear drum! when they actually got to see it they sais she has an hole in her eardrum! but because she is having so many ear infections its not giving itself time to heal up! they have never mentioned gromits tho! my daughter have had two lots of them put in but only because she has glue ear and is hard of hearing!

Grommets are inserted if the child has otitis media with effusion. This means fluid sits in the middle ear and can not drain. This means teh ear drum can not vibrtae properly therfore hearing is reduced. The dorment fluid is also prone to infection.

although my daughter has lots of ear infections there is no problem with her hearing thankgod