Ear infections suck.

I'm trying to collect my thoughts and online research on my son's chronic ear infections. I say chronic because since February of this year, he's had 6 diagnosed ear infections as well as one or two in between that didn't require a trip to the doctor. How do I know he had them in between? Well, it starts with a low grade fever and a little bit of irritability. Then, about 3 days after the fever starts, his ear has nasty gunk coming out of it that can be wiped away with a tissue. His ear just drains for a day and then he's back to normal, no antibiotics needed.  

Since February, he's only skipped one month of an ear infection... May... the one month I am able to get him into an ear, nose and throat doctor. The ENT finds he has no problems hearing and his ears look fine and tells me to wait it out. 

That brings me about 4 more ear infections later and to a late night of research. I'm wondering if tubes really will help with the ear infections and what the risks are, etc. 

I happen to come across about half a dozen articles about ear infections and delayed speech development. OK, now things are clicking just a little more. Rewind to March when we're at the 18 month well visit and filling out the Denver Scale questionnaire. The ONLY part of my son's development that was behind was speech. The pediatrician made note of it and we decided to wait it out and see how things progressed by the time the next well visit came up. I didn't even want to think about speech therapy. Fast forward again to now and I'm looking up developmental screenings. 

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-2yr.html

http://www.preschoollearningcenter.org/images/upload/developmental_checklist.pdf

http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/growth/milestones-18-24-months/

Out of these three checklists, the only area that my son has trouble with on each list is language and speech. Time to find a little more research. And here's a list of articles I read that have a link between speech delays and chronic (chronic refers to 6 or more infections in one year or fluid that remains in the ear for 3 months or longer) ear infections:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/communication/not_talk.html

http://www.parenting.com/article/speech-delays

http://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/speech-therapist/ear-infections-and-fluid-in-the-middle-ear-can-cause-speech-delays/

Here's some message boards of moms with similar experiences too:

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a27244985/tell_me_about_ear_tubes_and_speech_delays

http://forums.thebump.com/discussion/5236438/speech-delay-due-to-ear-infection

I also did a little research on ear infections and genetics and found a few articles that explain about a possible link between parents' history and child's current health. I did see this link with my daughter. I suffered from horrible throat infections/strep/tonsil stones/pits from early childhood and didn't have my tonsils about 'til I was 23. After my tonsils were out, it was smooth sailing. My daughter had chronic sore throats and started missing lots of school, so she had her tonsils out. Since then, there's been a huge improvement and not much missed school. Now, my husband had chronic ear problems as a child and I'm thinking my son is taking after him. Here's some links that discuss a possible genetic factor in ear infections:

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/ear-infection/news/19991207/some-children-susceptible-ear-infections?page=1

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/ear-infection-acute/print.html

Of course, I am stressing the POSSIBILITY of a genetic link here. There are studies, but I haven't found much information on the studies themselves. I'd like to know how big of a sample group these studies were conducted on as well as a time frame for the study as the criteria for chronic ear infections is 6 in a one year period. Also, the ages of the children being studied is important to me in that children from 6 months to 3 years seem to suffer the most from ear infections and also fall into the speech delay category as speech is developed between these ages in children. 

I've done my research and have taken my son to the pediatrician again. It was recommended that we consult with an ENT about tubes and then follow up again with the pediatrician, especially to talk about speech delays. Monday we see the ENT and next Wednesday we follow up with the ped. I really hope we can move forward with ear tubes and am optimistic about speech improvement after the procedure. And I'm not so afraid about speech therapy anymore either. I'd rather my son get all the help he can now so he can excel in school later.