That procedure is really common here for Finnish children. I will go out on a limb and say that there is some genetic reasoning for it like, 'narrow canals' or something because very few foreign children here have the same levels of ear infections. They put our daughter on antibiotics one and a half times for no reason for a urinary infection.
What we have done to help her stomach, allergies and recover from the antibiotics is give probiotics every day for the last year. We use this (again retardedly expensive) one called Vivomixx. It seems to have helped her in many ways.
Yeah, the ear tubes are becoming a more and more common procedure here as well. My son was barely 7 months old when he had the surgery, so he was the youngest (and therefore the first procedure of the day). I believe we were told something about the "narrow canals" genetic reasoning.
The hospital had a TV with the list of procedures, and the doctors performing them, in the waiting room. It's mildly comforting when you see such a long list, with all of the children having the same procedure being performed. Although as a parent, you're never really "at ease" until you physically see your child and that they are OK.
Hmm, I haven't heard of Vivomixx, but that doesn't mean too much; my wife and I wound up finding a formula that our son liked and went with it for the 2-3 months before he transitioned to solids.
When my son was still on formula, we heard about a site from one of my colleagues my-german-depot.com where you can purchase some "high-quality-organic" formula at "affordable prices", at least compared to the competition. The affordability only really comes in when you buy in bulk though.
I think the one we looked at was the "Holle organic infant formula PRE" formula, since it doesn't contain maltrodextrin. I believe there was at least one other ingredient that "you should avoid" in baby formula, but I can't recall the name of it (I know.. that's not very helpful).
If that one isn't helpful, another site that we found was organicstart.com. Maybe one of these formulas fits your daughter's needs and is less expensive than what you're paying? I understand that changing from something that works might not be worth the effort though, so I won't be offended if you don't use any of these :)