Does/did your child have PE tubes placed in his or her ears?

My son had this procedure done two days ago and, while he does not seem to be in pain, he is constantly putting his fingers in his ears like something MIGHT be bothering him. Is this normal behavior following this procedure? The ENT specialist who performed his operation led me to believe that they are generally back to normal by the next day. Therefore, I would just like to hear from some parents with real life experience. How did your kids react to having the tubes placed? Did they play with their ears a lot after they had the tubes put in and, if so, did they stop doing so within a few days?

Answers:
Both of my sons had tubes put in. The oldest was fine a couple of days later, but the youngest had an infection at the time of the surgery so he pulled his ears for several days while I treated it with antibiotics. He played with his ears a lot. I figure if there is a foreign body inside your ear, then it must feel weird for the first little while.

I remember when my oldest had an inguinal hernia, his intestine would slip into one of his scrotal sacs and he would scream. I took him to emergency and they said that this occurrence wasn't painful! I asked if the doctor if he had ever had this happen to himself. Naturally he said no, so I asked how could he know what it felt like! My point is that doctors will sometimes tell you that things will be just hunky dory so that we don't panic at home. They aren't necessarily right. The nurses at my son's surgery told me that my son wouldn't be hungry after his operation. Ha! He downed 16oz of formula upon waking up!

Go with you gut. Your son is probably uncomfortable right now, give him a few days to get used to it. He should be booked in for a follow-up post up pretty quick. (we went within a week) His ear may have been sore to begin with or if he's like mine, the ear tugging thing became a security habit!

Good luck!

my son had them in just after his 1st b-day. He pulled at his ears for a couple of days then stopped. The doc said that if the ear was draining (blood, wax, debris) then it might bug him, but as long as he wasn't crying or really scratching and pulling at it, then it was nothing to be worried about. A week or so after he stopped, we went to the doctor and they did remove some debris from his ear.

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Does/did your child have PE tubes placed in his or her ears?

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