Pool safety is important for children, and swimming is a lovely way to cool off in the summer heat.
The risk is having water getting through the grommet into the inside of the ear, where it may cause
an infection. The old-fashioned advice was that children with grommets should not swim… Period.
Bathing and showering is always safe, due to the natural curvature of the ear canal, and the
waterproof properties of ear wax.

The current thinking is that one should not swim for the first two weeks while the ear drum is
healing, but thereafter the risk of infection is actually very low. We therefore advise that it is safe to
swim with ear plugs, but one shouldn’t dive down under the water.

If you do get a painful ear with a foul-smelling discharge, please call Dr Honnet immediately; a short
course of ear mopping and antibiotic drops is often sufficient.