Get the tubes, don’t even think about it anymore. My son had them inserted when he was 5, after two years of recurring inner ear infections, terrible pain, stomach upsets from increasingly poisonous antibiotics… Gawdalmighty, just thinking about it brings back awful memories of sleepless nights with a weeping child, and big strong Dad who knows everything and fixes everything is completely powerless to help the little guy.
Until we found the right doctor. It was almost magical. But as Arthur C. said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. My son is 19 now, and hasn’t been troubled since. At least not by inner ear infections…