baths/swimming and grommets

[eidsvold]

well as you may know - dd1 had grommets put in last week. She has swimming lessons once a week and I bought ear putty and have to get a swimming cap for her to wear at swimming lessons.... okay. BUT tonight I tried to wash her long hair - left it for a week and it desperately needs washing. The ear putty won't really stay in... ( so for swimming hoping the cap keeps it in....) Do I need to really push it in her ears?? Concerned they may still be a bit tender from op....

Second part - bought one of those shampoo hats and she hates it - just kept pulling it off her head.... if she won't tolerate that HOW on earth am I going to wash her hair without getting water in her ears.... she hates having her hair washed at the best of time.. have just got her to tolerate it being done

Any suggestions - very very welcome....

Hi My ds had grommets put in quite a few times. We used to put vaseline on cotton wool and put it in the ear and that worked fine. He wasn't allowed to go swimming until his after his first check up. This is very important as swimming pools are full of germs. After he was given the all clear we were told he should still wear ear plugs. Boots sell children sized ones.

sorry should have added the cotton wool and vaseline were for bath time

not in the UK - so can't check out boots BUT thanks for the cotton wool tips... must check about swimming then.... as that means she will miss most of this term - thanks for the info.

Hi there love, DD had grommets. I have to say that I avoided swimming altogether in the end she got constant ear infections, despite our best efforts with cotton wool etc. She has recently had special plugs made by our local ENT department. Is this something you could look at?

I had grommets as a child and I did the vaseline on cotton wool thing too.

think I will try and get hold of the consultant sometime this week prior to lesson next week. One of the things the ENT dept suggest is ear putty so will see if they have other suggestions. Have seen something called pro plugs which may be a more fixed ear plug sort of thing.. Perhaps I should look into that.

thanks again - will check in the morning. Off to bed.

I have just posted on your other thread but I would add that I was told no swimming until the first check up. It was at that point my consultant said that he wouldn't worry about a little water getting into her outer ear it was water pressure of going under the water that would worry him.

We use ear putties and an ear bandit for DD, don't use anything for hair washing though.

I was told to keep the ear dry otherwise you can get infections.

AFAIK plain water isn't a problem, but shampoo is, something to do with tension of water and one doesn't get through, the other does.

Studies show little difference between children told to avoid swimming and those not given this advice.

Hi eidsvold,

My DH not so long ago had a grommet inserted due to recurrent inner ear infections (which all started in childhood - stupid doc missed it completely but that's another story).

He found that hair washing was a huge problem as water and shampoo got into the ear and thus infected it again. To solve this problem he had a plastic mould of his ear made by an ear specialist and this provides a watertight seal to the eardrum. Since using this (he has to use this in the shower and swimming pool also) he has had no ear problems at all.

I would therefore see if you can get something like this for for your DD.

thanks so much for that - all they basically said to us was to keep the ears dry... and that was it?!?!

But will get dh to phone down to the ent dept and ask about the swimming.

Meerkats - I think what your dh had was what they call proplugs here?!?! I think I will look into that more.

I am tempted to chop her hair off and then it wouldn't be such an issue but she loves her hair and I love her hair long too.....

Am off to buy vaseline tonight and cotton wool and give that a try.