There Are Pros And Cons To Getting Ear Tubes For Your Child
Posted on: 6 June 2016
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When your child has ear infection after ear infection, they can feel miserable. It can also cause speech delays because your child can't hear what people are saying clearly. Part of the reason for that is because there is a lot of liquid behind their eardrum that muffles sounds and lets bacteria grow so that your child ends up with an ear infection. If your child gets multiple and chronic ear infections, your doctor may suggest that they get tubes in their ears.
Pressure Equalization Tubes
Pressure equalization tubes are the official name of ear tubes. They are very small tubes that are placed in your child's eardrum. The tubes let the liquid drain out from behind the eardrum and then let air back in that space. Draining that liquid will have the immediate result of letting your child hear better and will either cut down on ear infections altogether or drastically reduce the number of ear infections that your child has. Like most things, choosing to get tubes put in your child's ear comes with some pros and cons.
Pros
There are several pros for ear tubes.
Comfort
Aside from the added comfort of not having numerous ear infections, your child is also going to be more comfortable because they don't have that pressure building up behind their eardrum anymore. As the fluid builds up, it presses up against the eardrum and makes it bulge, which is uncomfortable.
Fewer Antibiotics
Another pro is that your child is going to have to take fewer antibiotics. There are a lot of benefits to that. One is that antibiotics can be rough on a person's system. Yes, they kill the bad bacteria, but they also kill the good bacteria, and it can end up upsetting your child's stomach.
Cons
There are also some cons to getting ear tubes.
Surgery
While it is a minor surgery, getting tubes put in is still a surgery. That means your child is still going to go under anesthesia. So you will need to be aware of the risk that this entails.
Drainage
Another con is that you may see some drainage out of your child's ear. That's from the fluid that would otherwise be building up behind your child's ear.
If your child has chronic ear infections, your doctor may suggest that you get ear tubes for your child so that your child can stop suffering from ear infections.