Does this sound like glue ear to you?

[JonesTheSteam]

Have noticed since December that DD has become what I would call 'selectively deaf'. She never seems to hear me when I call her. Thought she was just going through a difficult stage, but over the last couple of weeks have noticed a few other things, and when the HV came last week I talked it over with her and she has been referred to the audio clinic.

The thing is now I'm beginning to worry that it's something worse than glue ear!! So can all you lovely MNers with experience of this let me know what you think.

1. DD has started turning the TV up loud, so loud I can hear it clearly upstairs and have to come in and turn it down. She then complains it's too quiet.
   
   
2. If she turns away from me and I speak quietly she has no idea what I've just said.
   
   
3. She had a bad cold / cough last term, and since then she always sounds very catarrghy (sp?) when she speaks.
   
   
4. Over the last year she has complained fairly regularly about having 'sore ears' - have taken her to GP on a couple of occasions and he has been unable to see anything, other than her ears were a bit 'pink'.
   
   
5. She has always talked loudly in school (but she is quite bubbly anyway so I thought it was just that TBH). Last week she was in trouble for not listening to the teacher. When I asked her what she had done she said she didn't hear the teacher ask her anything.
   
   
6. Her speech is fine. But then again, there hasn't been a problem until recently and she is nearly 5.
   
   
7. She is very clumsy - falls over a lot, if social services saw the bruises on her legs, they would probably whisk her away from me!!!
   
   
   TIA (Sorry for the long, rambling, paranoid post!!!)

[Aimsmum]

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[JonesTheSteam]

Thanks Aimsmum

I've noticed that she has started snoring a bit - last week DH and I laughed because we could hear her snoring through the wall in the morning!!

She has always slept very soundly but for about 3 weeks in December she woke up every night and was tearful and upset - we put it down to the cold she'd had / being tired at end of first term in full time school / and excitement about Christmas!!!

Um - what does catarrghy breath smell like? [thick emoticon]

[Bozza]

Sounds a bit like it to me too including the snoring. Does she breath through her mouth a lot?

[JonesTheSteam]

Thanks sal - we'll be waiting at least six months for appointment at the clinic - she should be having a hearing test in school some time this year as well.

Am supposed to be speaking to DD's teacher after school tomorrow as when she told me about DD not listening last week, I told her my concerns and that I would be seeing the HV about DS on Friday anyway.

[JonesTheSteam]

Hi Bozza - yes she does breath through her mouth a lot - which is probably whe she seems very catarrghy to me (and my MIL just mentioned adenoids to me as well - isn't that something to do with glue ear occasionally!!!)

[Aimsmum]

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[Aimsmum]

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[JonesTheSteam]

Aimsmum - thinking about it, does catarrghy breath smell like your own tastes when your catarrghy?

(If that makes sense? )

[Aimsmum]

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[Bozza]

DS had problems with glue ear right from being a baby - but fortunately for him not so severely as Aimsmum's DD. He was subject to lots of colds etc and got into the "system" when he failed his 7 month hearing check with the HV. He had grommets at 2.3, then adenoids out and grommets at 3.7 and then T-shaped grommets at 4.5. Each time he had grommets there was an instant and marked improvement in his hearing - "what's that noise mummy" - a bird singing in the garden, that type of thing. But the grommets drop out and that is why he has got these T-shaped ones which stay in for longer.

If you do a search on here though - there is some information on methods other than surgery to improve glue ear which may help your DD.

[Aimsmum]

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[foxinsocks]

Jones - in your shoes, my first point of call would be the GP. My dd has v large adenoids and tonsils so I always assumed her hearing problems were glue ear. She had had a few ear problems in the past but whenever I took her to the GP, they said it wasn't an ear infection and that was that.

For about the last 6 months she has been complaining about sore and buzzing ears and I didn't take her to the GP thinking he would say the same thing. Her hearing was appalling and eventually, this week I took her in because it had become ridiculous. Apparently, her ears are so full of compacted wax that the GP could not even see her ear drums on either side. This (he said) is causing the hearing problems, the pain and the buzzing noise!

So in your shoes, I would really get her ears checked out first. While I was going to go to the school nurse and ask for her to be referred to the audio clinic, the GP says that would have been a complete waste of time as she wouldn't have been able to hear anything until all the wax is cleared out of her ear!

[foxinsocks]

(also if it isn't wax and looks like it could be glue ear, then maybe the GP could speed up your referral)

[JennyLee]

Yes it sounds like Glue ear go to the doctor and get it checked out the exact things you describe happened to me with Ds and the school noticed he stopped listening nad could not concentrate in class. Please get it checked it sounds exactly like Glue ear yes , yes , yes!!!!I think it is 99 per cent certain it is glue ear

[Weatherwax]

This sounds like glue ear to me too. My dd1 is now on her third set of grommets and her hearing and school work improves markedly after each op. The GP's do seem to look at ears and talk about wax and like to prescribe ear drops for long periods. Because we were under the consultant I got an appointment with him shortly after the gp. The GP prescribed drops then consultant had this ear vacumm thing which he used to get this big wadge of wax out with . Its a shame the GPs can't do the same!

As the adenoids are where the ears drain to the problem seems to be connected. I was told that dd's bruises would be obviously accidental and wouldn't get SS involved. The school did at one time raise concerns but had anyone taken it much further I would have pointed out that most of the bruising occured at school!