grommets - just how soon can you tell if its worked?

[easterbunbuns]

DD had grommets in yesterday for hearing loss and significant speech delay 3yrs6m and very poor speech - under SALT/SENCO etc. We were told that kids wake up from this transformed and are suddenly frightened by noise and more sensitive to sounds. So far no signs of this whatsoever - should we be worried by this? What experiences do people have? Was it instant or gradual? give me some hope as we thought this would be so different than this.

[Arabica]

I think it depends on many things--how bad the hearing loss was before, the cause of the hearing loss (ie is there any sensorineural deafness) and whether there is any issue about understanding what speech is for (we're not sure if DD knows yet).
DD (who is nearly 2 but developmentally around 1yr) had grommets on 23 April. Before the grommets were fitted she was wearing hearing aids as she had a conductive loss of around 50db in each ear, and no speech or babbling (mamamama, dadadada) at all.
There has been no change in the kinds of sounds she is making, but within 2-3 days we noticed some new behaviour, ie, turning her head when someone came upstairs; looking at me more intently when I spoke; noticing when radio turned on; noticing when her noisy toys make a noise.
Last week her hearing was re-tested and the grommets were blocked--with a bit of wax, so they aren't working prefectly. Even so, she has a conductive loss of just 35-40db, so for now at least, the hearing aids aren't returning.
HTH.
BTW I found the general anaesthetic pretty traumatic, how about you?

[easterbunbuns]

Thanks - the grommits were for glue ear. there doesn't appear to be any other hearing issues from all the tests they have done on her over the years. Speech is very poor - about the level of an 18month old so classed as severe due to being 2 years behind where she should be. Anaesthetic was a bad experience as well - so hard seeing your little one go through that. Just keeping everything crossed that its going to take a while - but so far no signs of it having any effect on her hearing at all.

[Arabica]

Did she have any hearing loss before the grommets were fitted?

[toobusymum]

DS had grommets fitted in January. His hearing improved slowly - I think you have to allow time for the swelling from the op to go down. The consultant did say that some children's hearing is much better as soon as they come round, this wasn't the case with ds. His hearing was tested 3 months after the op and found to be improved then.