Ear problems when young = ear problems as adult?

[kimanjo]

I am thinking of all the possible flaws in our upcoming dive trip with my teen daughter.

She had really bad middle ear infections when a kid and was on and off antibiotics for years.

Finally she outgrew the middle ear infections but she still has terrible fungal issues in her right ear...the "old" Star-otic formula worked great, the new stuff is useless...hoping to pick up some of the Doc stuff in the Bay Islands...though I do have to say since she had her waist-length hair cut to her shoulders, the fungal issue has disappeared.

Anyway, will she have much of a problem equalizing, do you think?

We have a shallow pool here at home (5') so she has no problem there, but I can't get her down much more than 6 or 8 feet without weights in the ocean, so there's no way for me to test her.

 

[don Francisco]

Not as a medical pro, which I am not, but in my experience most people who have equalizing problems don't have a biological problem, but simply havent mastered the basic technique.

There's no sure way to know for sure, and even if you could get her down to 8 feet in a pool, free diving equalization is different from scuba equalization. Consider asking an instructor to do a special resort (discover scuba) dive with her for the sole purpose of checking her equalization ability. Knowing in advance of the concern, the instructor could focus on teaching various techniques, descent control, and underwater communication, then proceed to a dive at a slow descent rate to see if she can equalize.