Ear tubes and how to know if your child needs them

Pediatric Otolaryngologist, Nina Shapiro, MD, shares advice for parents on how to tell if your child may need ear tubes to help with reoccurring ear infections
How To Tell If Your Child Needs Ear Tubes & How Ear Tubes Can Help
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Ear tubes and how to know if your child needs them

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If your child is getting reoccurring ear infections, and by that I usually mean kids who've had six infections in a year, eight infections in a year. Every month their getting an ear infection. Those are children who made need to have something called ear tubes. Another group of kids are the kids who have chronic ear infections. Where they've had an infection and the ear infection just does not clear with medicine. They have fluid in the ear. The fluid becomes very thick. We call it 'glue ear' and the consistency of that fluid is somewhat similar to rubber cement. Those are another group of kids that may need ear tubes. Ear tubes are tiny little tubes that are placed in the ear drums under a very brief general anesthesia. By very brief I mean about five minutes. These are little tubes that ventilate the ear drums. They usually stay in the ears for about a year and then they fall out on their own. By that time your child has hopefully grown out of ear infections and their problem is done.

Pediatric Otolaryngologist, Nina Shapiro, MD, shares advice for parents on how to tell if your child may need ear tubes to help with reoccurring ear infections

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Nina Shapiro, MD

Pediatric Otolaryngologist

Dr. Nina Shapiro is the Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  As the first fellowship-trained pediatric otolaryngologist at the medical center since it was founded in 1955, her presence has put UCLA 'on the map' in her field.  

A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences, she also completed her residency training at Harvard.  She then went on to complete additional subspecialty training in pediatric otolaryngology at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, and The Children's Hospital of San Diego.

A native of New York, Shapiro has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology Award for Clinical Research, the UCLA Division of Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Teaching Award, and the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigators Award.  She has also been named "Super Doctor" by Los Angeles Magazine, and has been listed in "Who's Who in America".  

She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, has edited a pediatric otolaryngology textbook, and is the author of the parenting book Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child, releaseded in January 2012. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children, and enjoys spending time with them more than anything else in the world.

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Transcription: 
If your child is getting reoccurring ear infections, and by that I usually mean kids who've had six infections in a year, eight infections in a year. Every month their getting an ear infection. Those are children who made need to have something called ear tubes. Another group of kids are the kids who have chronic ear infections. Where they've had an infection and the ear infection just does not clear with medicine. They have fluid in the ear. The fluid becomes very thick. We call it 'glue ear' and the consistency of that fluid is somewhat similar to rubber cement. Those are another group of kids that may need ear tubes. Ear tubes are tiny little tubes that are placed in the ear drums under a very brief general anesthesia. By very brief I mean about five minutes. These are little tubes that ventilate the ear drums. They usually stay in the ears for about a year and then they fall out on their own. By that time your child has hopefully grown out of ear infections and their problem is done.