Personal Experience with Ear Infections + Tubes
When your sleep trained baby continues to wake up in the middle of the night or has difficulty falling asleep at bedtime, one of the hardest things is to determine whether or not your baby has an ear infection or is just waking up!
Symptoms of a Baby Ear Infection:
Trouble sleeping (which is out of the ordinary)
Fever over 100 degrees (this doesn’t happen for all babies)
Tugging on the ear / hitting the ear
Fussy
Ear infections and Baby’s Sleep
Ear infections can be very disruptive on your little one’s sleep! When your baby lies down in the crib to go to sleep, there is a shift in pressure in the middle ear, this shift is uncomfortable, making your baby cry when they go down to sleep or cry in the middle of connecting sleep cycles!
My Boys Experience with Ear Infections:
Liam (age 5) had very few ear infections and when he had one, it was pretty obvious… he would pull on his ear and have a low grade fever. When I would lay him down at bedtime, he would scream…. Therefore, I would hold him to sleep and put him in his crib.
I KNEW my sleep trained baby had an ear infection and I would immediately make an appointment with his pediatrician. Within a day or two of antibiotics he would be back to himself!
Aiden (33 months) was quite different…. As you all know, Aiden is my high needs sleeper and is not sensitive to wake times (like his older brother). When Aiden would have an ear infection it would effect his mood throughout the day AND his sleep. Although, he wouldn’t cry when put down like Liam, he would roll around in his crib and have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep.
Based on this and having a cold, I would bring him to his pediatrician!
Now, the biggest difference between Liam and Aiden is when Liam had a round of antibiotics, the ear infection would go away, but for Aiden, he’d still present signs of having an ear infection and even after a round of antibiotics, his ear would STILL be infected!!!!
After multiple ear infections (and back to back ones), his pediatrician referred us to an ENT (ears, nose, throat doctor).
At our first visit, they assessed Aiden, asked me a lot of questions (mostly about his language and development) and checked his hearing!
Aiden passed his hearing test and his language and development was exactly where it should be! However, they still wanted to put tubes in his ears due to the amount of ear infections he has had and the amount of antibiotics he was on and will have to be on if they continue!
I left the ENT confused with what to do since his hearing wasn’t effected and his language was great. I was nervous to put my baby under anesthesia, so I never made an appointment for him to get tubes!
Fast forward to a few weeks later and Aiden had another back to back ear infection…. I knew what I needed to do, I called the ENT and made his appointment to get tubes.
We arrived early in the morning and checked into Aiden’s room. They did multiple check ups on him to make sure he was healthy for anesthesia and check his ears.
The life specialist came in and gave us some great tips! She recommended allowing Aiden to play with the mask they put on his face for anesthesia so he gets use to it and doesn’t get scared when it’s time to go on.
So, we spent the time in the waiting room playing with the mask and other tools.
Aiden was close to 2 years old when he had tubes put in, so we talked to him about the process. We told him “the doctor is going to take you into another room, mommy and daddy will stay right here and wait for you and the doctor is going to make your ears ALL BETTER” he repeated “bye bye, all better.” The life specialist even put bandaids on the ears of his lovey!
When they took Aiden away, he was PREPARED! He waved and said “bye bye - all better!!”
He was away from us for 15 minutes at the most …….. before leaving the hospital, Aiden had to eat something, which he did!
The nurses told us that some kids may sleep MORE that day and after a nap, he’d be back to himself! Aiden took a typical nap and was himself!
He went for a follow up about 6 weeks later and all looked great. The tubes are supposed to fall out on their own within 4-18 months and he does not need to wear ear plugs only when swimming in “dirty” water, such as oceans and lakes.
It’s been about 1 year since Aiden had his tubes and he only had 1 ear infection… the sign was green crust coming out of his ears, all he needed was drops and it went away!
I am so glad he got them!
