Hearing problems?

[jessmack]

I realised yesterday that my dd cannot hear the difference between "big" and "pink" (following argument about which toy pushchair "do you want your pink one?" "NOOOO I want my small one!" "The pink one?" "NOOOO not the big one. The SMALL one!" and on and on....). She has had a cold recently, and I was wondering if this has bunged up her ears. Is this something I should get checked out? She is 2.5 and she speaks really well in full sentences, but she goes through stages where she is not very clear, she is having one of those stages at the moment. I don't want to drag her into the doctors for no reason, but I am a bit concerned, so I thought I would see what you all thought.

My gut feeling is that it's just her cold. Also, at 2.5, toddlers can be quite unclear with certain words.

jessmack i think this is quite normal at this age. My ds 2.2 gets things mixed up aswell. He is adament that his eyes are his ears and ears are his eyes, and then things like you mention too. I have found with my two that their ears a generally a bit blocked after a cold and it usually takes a week or two for them to be back to normal. I personally wouldnt worry, but if after a few weeks you are still concerned go to your HV to arrange a audio/visual test - a very painless test which will definately put your mind at rest!

Thank-you I knew I would find the answer here.

I'm also having a similar problem with my 3.5 yr old daughter at the moment. For awhile now i've been concerned about her hearing, as she frequently asks "what?" when she's spoken to. I know she's had a few colds recently with the change in weather, and it may well just be that her hearing has been affected slightly by that.

my daughter has hearing problems and was not diagnosed for a long long time. consequently she has missed out on a lot of things.

if in doubt please go to the doctor to get your childs ears checked. this may take an hour out of your life, but be invaluable to your child

Get it checked out. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing to worry over. If her speech and language and attention span has hitherto seemed normal. I had hearing problems diagnosed when I was 5/6 and definitely suffered when I started school because of it. As a result I was worried about ds and he was tested Jan 03 amd found to be fine although he had had some problems the preceding months. The paediatrician put this down to residual fluid in the ears following colds which then cleared.

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