Grommets

[RetroCatapillar]

Hi all,

My almost 2 year old is having grommets fitted due to delayed speech and language plus consistent fluid build up and hearing tests.

I just wondered if others LOs have had grommets for the same/similar reasons and have seen an improvement and if so how quickly?

my LO has very limited understanding eg. Understands single clear words but not instructions and can only say one word -Quack (like a duck!)

he makes lots of ma ga ba sounds but doesn’t really babble.

just looking for other experiences.

thanks!

I have two children. My eldest didnt talk properly until he was 3, no hearing issues, just lazy I think.
My youngest had constant ear infections and had grommets at 18 months. It was like a flip had been swtiched. Obviously he wasnt in constant pain but his speech and understanding came on very fast after that

@travelallthetime thank you! I really do hope it helps him. I’m desperate to hear his little voice but mainly for him to be comfortable and not in pain!!

Hi, my little girl didn't have speech issues however they did say when her ears were tested that their was fluid build up amd she couldn't hear from one ear at all because of it. She was fitted with grommets last April at 2.5 and had her tonsils out. She could hear so much better afterwards!

Hi this was us a few years ago
Had to fight for 18months to be taken seriously

DD had sleep apnea, delayed speech, hearing loss on both sides
Had grommets, removal of tonsils and adenoids

Will say the recovery is HARD- be prepared for days 5/7

However, 2 weeks pretty much to the day she went from 7 single words (at 3.5years) to full sentences and hasn't looked back

It was amazing :)

I am waiting for my son to have grommets put in due to similar reasons. Hopefully it will make a difference. Is the waiting list long for surgery?

Fingers crossed for you! We’re super lucky that I get healthcare through work so we’ve managed to bypass the wait list by going private but from what our consultant said the NHS wait list is lengthy in our area - Nottinghamshire 😢

My son had his done at 3 - within a few weeks his speech had improved so much. He recovered really quickly

My son was born with a cleft and had glue ear very frequently; hadn't passed a hearing test since birth and so grommits done when 2.

I kid you not-the next day he was speaking so well and improved. Like a flicked switch! Really improved his speech and mood also.
Just hard to keep from getting water in the ears, like washing hair and we didn't go swimming whilst in. There was no way he'd allow ear plugs!

Good luck, lots of calpol and rest for recovery but in our case it was a great choice.

I had to really fight for my son to have be approved for the grommets from last year November till just august he was approved. He is 2.3 years old. I am hoping not to long, consultant estimate 4/6 month wait in London. All the best, please update thread about your little one, always good to hear of good news and progress. Sending love and patience during this time x

Absolutely revolutionary when my eldest DS had his done!

DD1 had constant ear infections & had her first grommets at 5yrs old. Then still problems with glue ear so had her 2nd lot at 8yrs old.
No speech problems but she couldn't cope with high pitched sounds & she did have lots of meltdowns after school which we put down to her having to concentrate on hearing low pitch sounds.

Glue ear runs in the family as I had it & had grommets & DM had constant earache as a child also. Also we've all suffered with sinusitis too - me no longer since my septo-rhinoplasty
We all have very narrow Eustachian tubes.

Ds had grommets at 20 months, 3.6yo and 6yo. He had constant ear infections, but speech wasn't too badly effected, even though his hearing was around 10% of normal hearing.

It was little things that I noticed about his hearing. One time he commented that the leaves hadn't crunched "last year". Another time he was really excited to find out that sh and ch didn't make the same sound.
The main benefit was not having the ear infections.

The wait for the NHS was the initial one. Once he'd been seen by ENT he had grommets within a month and both the other times he got a date very quickly(one time 2 days later).

When he was small we put cotton wool in his ears for hair washing. I remember one time him walking in on me washing my hair and exclaiming "mummy, you need clouds in your ears." When he was older, ENT made him some moulded ear plugs which he used for hair washing and swimming and were brilliant.

He does take quite a bit of recovery from general anaesthetic. He's still lying in bed vomiting at intervals while children who went in hours after him are running round playing. But he's always been home the same day.
However the only time he had real issues with recovery was the first time. His temperature was coming up within a couple of hours, they started him on antibiotics, and the next day he had norovirus and ended up back at A&E because he couldn't keep anything down. But, except for that I suspect he may have contracted norovirus at the hospital, it wasn't actually recovery from the operation that was the issue.
The other times by 24 hours later he was fine.

My son had his adenoids removed and grommets put in. It was scary having it done but I can honestly say the difference it made was amazing and so worth it. He went from hardly being able to hear and having to have the tv at full blast, to being able to hear at decent levels pretty much straight away.

One thing I would say to be ready for is shock at hearing loud noises for the first time! My son was really scared when he heard sirens or shouting properly for the first time, and still covers his ears and gets frightened a few years on if there's loud noise!

Definitely @Workermum re the loud noises.

And I wonder if having the adenoids removed at the same time is even more beneficial than just having grommets put it on their own?
As DD1 had her adenoids removed on her 2nd pair of grommets op.
Whereas I had them removed in the same op as the grommets & only needed the one op.
I remember also that some of the kids on the same ward as me also had their tonsils removed at the same time as adenoids out & grommets in.

This was 1981 so maybe things were different then? Just removed everything to avoid problems later. Plus we stayed in for 3 nights rather then being a day case like now.