The Woes of Ear Infections and Wheezing!

Reece Dean Franks thrived as a 5 week early, 5 lb. newborn coming home from the hospital 2 days after he was born. He has not however been as lucky as a toddler. Reece is prone to frequent colds, which to most children is not that big of a deal. Reece however has a couple obstacles against him.

1. He has clogged tear ducts in both eyes. We kept a close watch on this and have recently scheduled surgery to remove the blockages on March 20. We feel very good about our pediatric opthamologist and know that Reece will benefit greatly from this surgery. Our poor little guy has constant watery eyes and whenever he gets a cold, his eyes gunk up since they can't drain. While I am very nervous about the anesthesia, I think this will be a good thing.

2. Reece's minor colds result in ear infections and wheezing. Reece has never indicated that his ears are bothering him, but 3 times that we have taken him to the doctor to check his cough, they discovered ear infections! Couple this with the fact that he's allergic to amoxicillin and you have great fun! Most concerning to the doctors is that he develops wheezing. We have finally gotten a handle on that as well and are using a nebulizer twice a day. Initially, he was using a rescue nebulizer 3 times a day and a preventative nebulizer 2 times a day. Now thankfully, we are just using the preventative nebulizer twice a day and frankly, Reece has never been healthier! He responded very well to the most recent treatments and we are very happy with our decision to switch pediatricians as we finally feel like we have a handle on everything.

So Reece will continue with the breathing treatments for a couple weeks to get us through cold season and then we should have a healthy little man! No more watery eyes, ear infections or wheezing! Keep your fingers crossed. Despite these little battles, Reece has remained happy and mostly unaffected. Doctors marvel at how well behaved he is. He lets them poke and prod him all they want.