14Mo Glue ear - severe - any experience?

[Maccapaccawacca]

Been to see audiologist this week. Severe hearing loss in one ear and moderate to severe in the other one.
Have to go back in 2 months - she said she was reluctant to leave it longer as this stage is so important for speech development (DS says nothing) and the loss was so profound.
I assume the next step will be grommets.
Anyone got any experience in one so young? I am sort of hoping he will end up having the surgery (despite obv not wanting him to have a GA etc) so he will not be plagued by ear infections and my paranoia that perhaps he can't hear properly again

my ds had grommets at 10months. They didnt help, in his case. What did help was a dairy free diet. If you havent been advised to try this yet, then please do - my son was able to tolerate goats milk (widely available in supermarkets now - wasnt then!). You will know within weeks if this is going to help - ds' ears cleared very quickly - 2 weeks, his eczema was gone and his ears were clear.

ENT consultants Poo-poo the idea, but his peadiatrician and audiologist were both very supportive.

Funny you should say this as he's been lactose intolerant since he was v young. As of 12 mo he's been on dairy and tolerating it really well....do you think his earswould be affected without any digestive symptoms?

Sorry, that wasn't clear. He was dairy free until 1 yr but his ears were getting bad before the dairy was introduced

Ds had grommets at 20 months. He was talking reasonably well before hand, but in the month after the grommets his speech both vocab and pronunciation absolutely zoomed ahead. He also stopped having infections every 2 weeks.

Interestingly he had his 2nd set of grommets at 3.6 years. He commented last autumn (after 2nd set of grommets) that "the leaves hadn't crunched last year"-that was the difference the grommets made to his hearing.

You may need to be slightly pushy. Point to the lack of speech and make comments on how he's lagging in his development.

My son had eczema when he was EBF! Because I was drinking milk.

I would say if you can cut the dairy again (having had experience of a dairy free diet) you will soon see if that's exacerbating the situation. Also, how strict were you with dairy-free - we were super-vigilant, even down to brand of bread and home made cakes and icecream.

oh and he never showed any signs of digestive problems - just his ears

We weren't super strict because he could tolerate a small amount of lactose. So he had small amounts of butter and yoghurt. I know it is awful to say but I feel reluctant to go back to dairy-free as I am so pleased that he's having 'normal' food now and I don't have to worry about what he eats when we're out etc. And his ears were bad before the dairy came back. I think I will see if there is any research into it....

DeWe - I think the audiologist was more concerned than I was. It was obviously worse than I thought it was. But waiting 8 weeks now that I know seems like a lifetime. Now it has been pointed out I can really see how he doesn't pick anything up that is going on. It explains a lot now that I know....

allergyuk site - scroll down

also here just above table 1

I'll try and find more scientific journal entries

Thank you v much hatti. Interesting reading. I too am investigating journals....

I've been though 2 rounds of surgery with both my kids. Glue Ear is more common than we think. On both occasions grommet surgery really helped in terms of their hearing, improvement in their general moods. I recommend you buy a couple of swimming ear bands and ear plugs to keep your son's ears dry when swimming or bathing. I bought my ear bands and plugs online at www.littlegrommets.com - my kids love the designs and wearing them - they are so cute. Good luck.

Thank you very much. Yes, the audiologist suggested swim bands but we have been advised to stop swimming until the next appt anyway.
Explains why he never took any notice of any instructions on the pool now.....

Personally speaking I've had grommets and t tubes so many times growing up and now my ear drums are screwed! My right one especially. It's caused loss of hearing. Try to avoid ad much as possible but it does sound like they can help you and you're little one, good luck

DD1 had grommets at 14 months and again at 4 years. I was most worried about the general anaesthetic but it was so light that she had no after-effects. Within an hour of recovering from the first op, she was running up and down the ward saying "Fish...fish...fish" more clearly than I had ever heard. I had not realised how much the glue ear was holding her speech development back. By the time she had her 18 month check, she had over 200 words in her vocab and was talking in full sentences!

I was paranoid that she would be deaf by the time she reached her teens but I was wrong. She is now nearly 22 and has perfect hearing. She also has a wonderful classical singing voice and perfect pitch - I don't know if these would be possible without good hearing.

Hope this helps.

Glue ear runs on both sides of our family - I & my sister had grommets, both my nephews had them & now my DD2 (at 22 mths) is due to have them. She has been monitored for a year for her glue ear but it hasn't cleared up by itself and whilst she has very good comprehension of speech, she currently has only about 10 words & many of those are only comprehensible to close family as they are 'blurred' by her hearing loss. She also lip reads a lot & is therefore obsessed with eye contact - even with the cat!!

We have been offered grommets but there is also the option (for bigger kids so you might not have to have a second set if the glue ear returns) of temporary hearing aids until their eustachian tubes expand (as their skull's grow) & their inner ear starts to drain naturally.

Grommets make a massive difference & I personally can't wait til DD gets her's & can start to communicate more effectively. She currently gets quite frustrated by our lack of understanding of her speech.

My ear drums are a mess but that's because of all the ear infections I had as a child, not because of my grommets. I'm just glad that our family history meant the kids got monitored before school & didn't have to wait til the school check for it to be spotted.

Sounds like they've done a good job of spotting your DS's hearing loss & he's so young he won't really notice a lack of swimming for the six months they're usually in, (though admittedly one of mine took almost a year to fall out). Good luck.

Maybe mine is too do with ear infection?! I just know there is massive scar tissue there. I'm not in any way trying to say they are bad, just that back when I had them done they would just operate rather than (like what's been mentioned) wait to see if they cleared on their own.

Thank you so much, it is great to read these posts.