Original Child EarPlanes by Cirrus Healthcare Ear Plugs Airplane Travel Ear Protection 1 Pair, Size-Small

I fly a lot and have suffered with ear pressure problems for as long as I can remember. There have been times that I have been brought to tears because of pain caused while descending. Since discovering these, I have never had a problem again. These are not ear plugs and will not block sound. They help regulate pressure in your ears.My tips for adults and children:*On very short flights (<1.5 hours) I may leave them in for the entire time.*On longer fights, I put them in once cabin doors close and we begin taxiing to the runway, the remove once we have reached flying altitude. I put them back in when the captain "dings" the flight crew that we will be preparing to land soon. This ding is before there is an announcement that the plane is preparing to land and right before the plane begins descending. How to differentiate between this ding and any others? Typically it is 30-45 minutes before arriving, the flight crew will begin finishing up tasks, and there is no announcement following it (I.e. "the captain has lit the stay seated light"). This is also a good time to go to the bathroom one last time.*For times when I have a cold or sinus pressure, I will take an ibuprofen and some pseudonephrine (the real stuff you have to buy from the pharmacist thanks to the meth heads out there) at least 30 minutes before take off (and landing for flights over 6-8 hours). Reduces swelling of tissues and relieves congestion in nasal and ear passages.*For babies and kids...I have used the children's version of these plugs on my child. They seemed to work because she didn't complain. On the descent she refused to put them back in (she is 5) and complained her ears hurt the entire time. I couldn't get her to chew gum either, which can help because it helps the ear canal to move and release some pressure. When she was younger I would give her a pacifier, that seemed to work very well for she never cried during take off and landing (ear pressure pain is the main reason infants and children cry on planes).

I bought these for my son who has had multiple sets of tubes placed in his ears. He had surgery about 6 mo before we flew to remove the tubes. They are healed. When we started to descend, he was in an immense amount of pain. His ears weren't just red, they were a purple color. About 20 min after landing he was completely fine. I ordered these for the flight home. I had my doubts about how effective these would be, but I needed to do something. I've never seen him in that much pain, even with the ear infections that ruptured his eardrums. They were easy to use and did not cause him any discomfort. I kept watching him on ascent and he had no idea anything was happening until I told him to look out the window. I was still worried about descent because that's when it became painful for him the last flight. He had zero pain or pressure at all when we were landing. The worst part, which was much preferable to 30 minutes of a small child screaming and crying in pain, was he didn't know how loud he was talking, so everyone around us got to hear his opinion of the movie he was watching (but couldn't hear due to not being able to wear headphones or earbuds). We won't fly without having a pair of these for him ever again.

I recently purchased the "adult" size version of these earplugs for a short plane trip and while they certainly worked, they were only effective when I could actually fit them completely in my ear. Unfortunately, that meant cramming them in and it was very uncomfortable and very difficult to get a good "seal." Since the earplugs did work, however, I decided to try these smaller, "child" size earplugs and they worked a charm! They are much smaller than the adult size, which is to be expected, and therefore fit much more comfortably in my ear. I was able to get them in and out of my ears without any trouble and they definitely helped my ears adjust to the changing cabin pressure on the plane. I wore them only during take-off and landing (not throughout the flight) and they were moderately comfortable, but more importantly, I did not experience ANY pain which is what usually happens during changes in altitude & air pressure. I will definitely be bringing these handy little earplugs on every flight with me from now on and I would highly recommend them to anyone who experiences difficulty or pain with their ears popping!My only suggestion to EarPlanes would be to make a "medium" size or something between the adult and child sizes because the adult size is just way too huge and this child size is just a wee bit small. (just call me Goldilocks, I guess)