Airplane ear plugs

[lovemyguys]

Hi everyone!

The last time we flew to disney my oldest DS (8) had horrible ear pain for about 5 minutes of our descent. It seemed like the loooooooongest 5 minutes. The poor thing could not stop crying. It did not happen on any of our other trips and did not happen on the way home. But the other day I was looking in the One Step Ahead magazine and saw that they have special ear plugs for children to use for take off and landing. It is "supposed" to keep the pressure pain from not happening. Has anyone ever tried these? If so did they work???
BTW~ we did everything to keep the pressure build up from happening. Gave them medicine before the flight (not benadryl but something like that can not remember the name right now), chewed gum, held nose and blew, nothing could stop the pain. I gave him tylenol once he started saying that his ears were starting to hurt (about 5 minutes before the pain got bad and he started crying) but it did not help b/c for about an hour after the flight he was still saying that his ears felt bad inside.
TIA!

 

[Disneyforus]

I have used them myself...and they "can" be tricky to get in properly. I have found them to be slightly unfomfortable...the last time we flew I didn't use them. Our Ear Nose and Throat Doctor actually gave us a "recipe" of ear care for airplane travel. It involves using Afrin nose spray30 min before decent??? What I ended up doing was the "plugging my nose and blowing" method. I had minimal problems. My 5 yr old had issues on our way for just about the whole 30 min of decent. He complained for awhile once we landed but then, by the time we left the airport they were enough better that he wasn't complaining. I just had him keep "plugging/blowing".
Try this link for some good info:
http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/687/main.html#SelfCare

I don't know if that helped you or not...good luck!

 

[disneybridetobe]

I bought ear plugs at Target near the pharmacy where they sell the other childrens' medications. They were the orange malleable sticky kind, and we used them for DD. She didn't cry so I'm assuming they worked. They weren't expensive, either, so if they didn't work its not like I was out a ton of money. I know One Step Ahead can be a bit pricey. Of course if it keeps your kid out of pain, you'll pay anything!

HTH!!

 

[Minnie824]

Child Earplanes. I ordered them from CVS and my DD5 uses them all the time. They work great for her.

 

[okeydokey]

We use earplanes too and they work well for us. Be sure to get the child sized ones, the adult ones are too big and uncomfortable for small ears.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yep, Earplanes.

They sort of screw into the ear and they have a hole that goes through them, which I assume releases pressure. DS loves them, after having one bad descent.

You do need to put them in about 30 minutes before the plane starts its descent, so keep an eye on the time and what's going on during the flight.