Positive stories of improvement after grommets

[user1468575728]

Hi,

Just over two weeks ago our son had grommets fitted. He is 2.5 years old and we think he has been suffering from bad glue ear for 9 months to a year. He was well behind with his speech, very poor socially and was always playing with his ears.

Since the grommets we have had some great progress. He is constantly babbling and saying new words all the time. For the first time ever he is repeating words that he hears and has started pointing at things like trees when we are out. He is also on the whole much happier, brighter and aware of what is going on around him.

The area we are keenest to see improvements in are his social skills. He has always been very social with his parents and people he knows but with strangers and other kids at nursery he would often act like they weren't there. This isn't surprising considering he has spend nearly 50% of his life living like he had his head under water. Since the grommets there have been some positive signs. He has started to play around other children more whereas before he would usually take himself off to a quiet corner. On a couple of occasions he has babbled to other children which again was unthinkable before the grommets.

So on the whole very positive and I wondered if anybody else has had similar experiences and how long it took before their child started to interact more with other children? We know it has only been 2 weeks and he has made a lot of progress. I admit we are guilty of hoping he will immediately catch up with his peers which isn't realistic. We need to be looking at this over the course of 3-6 months not 2 weeks.

It would be great to hear your positive stories and to help us manage our expectations.

They said he didn't fail but didn't pass either. He reacted to about half of sounds. They couldn't see any blockages. :(

Just had our follow up appointment 2 weeks after the surgery.

All seems to be healing fine and now we go back in 6 months for another follow up appointment.

Just need to do talking bootcamp with her... we have 3 months before her 2nd birthday and if by then i don't see many changes with talking I might have to talk to the health visitor to see what they say

Some new developments - our son is still making good progress and his language is starting to improve. Shared attention and social still not great but definitely showing signs of improvement. His awareness in everything going on around him has come on loads so we think he needs a bit of time to soak up everything new now he is living outside of his glue ear bubble. We've worked out that he is not very pleased about the arrival of his little sister (7 months old). When she is around he regularly ignores us and will turn his back on us. At least now with his improvements in language he knows enough to tell us "no baby" or "naughty daddy" which has helped us realise what is going on. Another hurdle to get over!

He also broke his foot over Christmas. Only a minor fracture but blood tests showed he was vitamin D deficient. He is on supplements to bring this back up so will be resolved pretty quickly. We think it will have contributed to his general energy levels, attention and tendency to get a lot of colds. I'd recommend getting it checked because apparently it is extremely common in young children these days.

I know it's only been a month since surgery, but my daughter still doesn't seem to say some sounds and not sure if it all sounds the same to her

owl
out
ow (ouch)

all sound the same?

I don't think clear speech is something that always happens instantly. It depends on how bad the glue ear was and how long they had it for. Our son had his grommets 6 months ago and we are only now getting to a point where we are getting some two-way conversation going and that is often unclear. We noticed his understanding and receptive language came on first. I always just look for continuous progress. It's not always in language. It might be in how interested he is in the world around him or how he plays with his toys etc. So long as I am seeing progress I am happy because I know that everything will come together eventually. If she is saying things like owl, out, ouch then I wouldn't worry too much about it if they don't sound right yet. It's great that she is saying those things!

Hi all,

Firstly Weirdness I hope you are making progress, can I stress that signs and symptoms of glue ear/hearing issues and early signs of ASD can look so similar. And as a teacher of children with special needs I would also tell you that should it be the case, ASD is not the end of the world by any means, it's simply a different wiring up in the brain and early intervention is key in social interaction, there are so much information and supports available so seek them out if you need them. I wish you and your child well whatever the outcome.

We are 5 months post op and just like OP we see progress all the time- but often in the most discreet ways- he is talking much more and more inclined to repeat what we say. It's very gradual. I made a few notes before we met with ENT and re read them after op , and I go back to them every few months and update them- what I see is some things he could do occasionally before he will do frequently now (call us/ take us by the hand etc) and other things (shared attention , pointing etc) he's done once or twice lately.. And i feel they'll get more frequent in time. What I'm saying is there is a definite pattern and once we can note some progress big or small all the time I'm very happy. I notice the most subtle things - staying where the people are instead of going off alone to play, taking much more notice of people, huge increases in eye contact with us and then others...

OP I think it's funny you notice a change with his little sister- we have a 9 month old LG and it was after she arrived I started really noticing his issues- he totally withdrew. He didn't show obvious signs of jealousy (prob cos he was just too young) but he certainly wasn't looking to hold her and hug her!!! He quickly 'tolerated' her but it went no further. He is only starting to interact with her lately now that she's getting vocal and laughing at him etc- she adores him!!! But I feel it will all continue to progress forward.

Just to say TinyTear- I also wouldn't worry about sound distortions just yet-all children mispronunce first and naturally children with glue ear won't have taken in sounds clearly.
My son says "wack" for quack .. , Bath is ' baaaaattsss' He has just started counting and it's 1,2, 'wee', bour, bive 6. But I'm so glad it's recognisable that I'm happy out- I just model it correctly and over pronounce things clearly in the hope he'll take notice eventually. In the meantime I'm rejoicing at the fact there are words at all!!!

Really well summed up Oslogirl.

Thanks Oslogirl!

This weeks new word has been tishoo (tissue) thanks to her heavy cold, so she is learning new stuff - even mermaid! mehmaid

If only she didn't learn the blasted shrieking from her 5yo sister!

I just need to be less impatient...

Hi all,

I don't know why I havnt read this thread before as I've been on this board quite obsessively the last few weeks worrying about my 21 month old DS.

He was 6 weeks early and is a bit behind developmentally. Lots of babbling and no spontaneous words yet. It can be hard to get his attention but it's been improving instead of getting worse. Otherwise he's very great with eye contact and very smily and happy and loves being around people.

He had a hearing test 3 months ago which he passed. Not sure what it was called but it's the one where they play sounds of different decibels and see if the child turns to the noise. He did for all of them. However when the consultant looked in his ears he said he noticed a bit of a buildup but since my DS was recovering from a cold at the time he said we should follow up on a few months. I havnt heard from them yet but will be chasing them up tomorrow.

Do you think he could have glue ear? Sometimes he will put his fingers in his ears and sometimes walks with his head tilted to one side. Not all the time. He doesn't like having his hair washed either but then again I figured most toddlers don't.

Could be, but as he passed the test, not sure.
my daughter before the surgery didn't pass that test, quite a few sounds she just wouldn't hear and turn to the toy...

Good luck chasing it all up

Hi mscongeniality, most children will get glue ear at some stage and in most cases you probably won't even know and it will clear by itself. The difference for some of the people on this thread is that their children had/have glue ear so severely that it has impacted on the development of the child.

Putting fingers in the ears, tilting the head to one side is a sign that a child is having some sort of discomfort with the ears. Our son used to do all of that and still does a bit if he has a bad cold. If I was you I would read through this thread and look at the symptoms/issues other children were having. It doesn't sound like you are having any major issues and I've been told before that premature babies will appear to have a delay because their development can really only be measured from when they would have been born, not when they were born. But you probably know a lot more about that than I do!

So to summarise yes it's very possible your child does have glue ear but that in itself isn't anything to worry about. I would only worry if your child starts acting distant, stops responding to you, starts dropping eye contact, falling behind socially etc. That would indicate that the glue ear could be severe enough to impact on their development.

Hope this helps.

user thank you for responding!

I actually went back to check his assessment report after his hearing test and I was surprised to see that the doctor had ticked 'glue ear' under the Right ear. So it looks like he did have it and that's why they want him to come back in a few months time to see if it has cleared up or not. The thing that I found interesting is my son always puts his right side on his shoulder where the glue ear supposedly is. His attention was worse and he wouldn't respond much but he has been getting better lately so maybe the glue ear is clearing up on its own?

I'm quite keen for him to have another look by the ENT doctor so I can find out for sure though.

Hi all,
Hope all your kiddies are doing well.

We had our second SLT app this morning. We are continuing to see great progress. He has starting pointing (occasionally) and giving a few 3/4 word sentences- most are commenting "this is a book /dog/ horse" etc but some are requests- "go for walk" "go car" "upstairs" "dance" and those are said with non verbal gestures of taking us by the hand etc. Vocal is increasing all the time, naturally coming out with new words and repeating what we say etc.
He has started engaging in imaginary play with teddys and dolls mostly- making them "talk to each other" , makes the animals noses etc and moves them around in his hands... as in makes the horse gallop - hope that makes sense. This is the first bit of this kind of play- he's not feeding dolls or talking on the toy phone etc
But progressing ALL the time. We are so happy. He's more interested in kids and playing alongside them and is starting in nursery next week so to date he hasn't been minded with others only his baby sister , whom he is warming up to!

SALT didn't see these things today however and could only note my comments. She sat him down to a tea set - after I said he'd have no prior experience of this kind of imaginary play- and she fed a hard plastic teddy and drank etc and noted how he didn't look at her or look to copy her etc... if she'd given him a few soft teddies she'd have gotten more from him. She noted that he only made fleeting eye contact with him but said she say increased levels with me. She said he spins things a lot, not pervasively and occasionally plays with his fingers- I would have seen those things too in the past but they are decreasing in frequency rapidly while his eye contact with us and others in improving-

I'm sure you know where this is going- she's referring him on for an ASD assessment
I have to say I would have been very upset at this last year as I feared he'd never communicate. But to see his development in the 5 months since grommets I am happy so whatever he does or doesn't have is irrelevant to me in so far as once he can show me what he wants needs and feels I'm happy- and he's doing that already and it's progressing daily.

Like I've said I teach with children with ASD and am passionate about the area. Also however I have seen many children over the years where they have been misdiagnosed and don't present with ASD at an older age compared to what their reports from younger years would say- this is more than those who grow and develop and sign of ASD lessen- this is actually children who we've had reassessed and it's been shown they don't have ASD. My point is it's not always right.

And now knowing what I know about ear issues and their effects I feel his hearing loss accounts for his behavioural red flags.

There is no other issue with food sleep, routines, sensory behaviours etc that would make me think there is more to it.

There is such a public wide awareness of ASD and it's outward features and a little knowledge can be a bad thing

And all of us here know there is so little out there about the effect hearing loss has on social development...

So I am going to continue as we are, starting him in nursery next week and letting him off with our kids and see where he is at in a few months

What I'm wondering is if any of your children have raised similar ASD red flags with professionals and your experience of it

Thanks in advance!

Spotted a few typos- hope it makes sense for the most part!

It is difficult because there seems to be so little knowledge out there about how hearing can affect a child's development. I don't know if that's because we are unlucky and this is very very rare or if it is because there simply isn't enough focus on it.

My biggest worry is that somebody will swan in, spend 30 minutes with him and then make a snap decision that he is autistic. Or refer him on for assessment and make a misdiagnosis. I have always said that we will keep an open mind although I would be very surprised if it turned out that he was autistic. But until he catches up with his peers we can never rule it out entirely.

Our experience with health professionals is varied. Usually, once we explain everything that has gone on they are willing to give us the benefit of the doubt and work with us. Actually, our health visitor has been incredibly reassuring and helpful and she is very optimistic about his progress. You can see sometimes people don't believe you but the trouble is that to understand his development and progress you need to spend quite a bit of time with him over a period of a few months. Yes, of course, he is developmentally behind, he turned 3 a month ago and only passed his 2-year check a couple of weeks later! But compare that to 6 months ago where he would barely even make eye contact then he has come on a great deal.

I suppose if your son is going to make progress and catch up then he is going to do it regardless of what labels people try to slap on him. Just keep doing what you're doing. The fact that he is making animals talk to each other etc sounds very reassuring. We don't have that yet although we do have a lot of driving cars around and flying helicopters which is similar. We did have the toy baby put to bed once with a back rub but most of the time she is hurled head first out of the toy buggy instead!

In other news, we found out one of his grommets has now fallen out and have seen a noticeable dip in hearing and balance. It does actually help how much we can track certain behaviours to his hearing because it gives a reason for things. He does have a cold so we'll see how things go when that clears up. If it doesn't change then we may be heading back for a second set of grommets although the consultant wants us to try again to get a hearing test result. Oh joy! This will be our 7th attempt!

Oh thanks so much for replying- it's so reassuring.

We feel exactly the same- so hard to tell but my gut instinct is that it's all due to ears. I have a very experienced colleague who always gets parents concerned about ASD to get ears checked first...
she is satisfied that the glue ear issue accounts for all of my sons issues and said if there was a ENT, and audiologist present for the assessment she'd be happy to let him off but as there is not she thinks I should delay it until summer for fear of misdiagnosis- and you're right if he's going to develop he will continue to do so, I just feel like I've to fight them off a bit. Then I second guess myself and wonder- I don't want to deny/delay any help he should need but to be honest he is improving all the time so I don't actually have any concerns once he continues to progress

Anyway thanks so much for your reply. It will help me on through ..

Anybody done an ABR test for a child with glue ear? One of our son's grommets has now fallen out and his hearing & behaviour have taken a dive. Looks like he has congestion again. He's pretty miserable about it poor guy. On the up side it is more proof to us that the hearing and various other glue ear issues do profoundly affect him. Obviously we would rather it hadn't happened but I take any positives I can get!

We have never had a successful hearing test because he doesn't play ball in the tests. We have one more attempt coming up in a few weeks which I am sure will fail. So the next step I think will be for an ABR test where he will be put under anaesthetic and they will measure his brain responses to various tones.

My dn had one because she has profound lds so couldn't do the usual tests - it was useful and she coped fine with the ga

My child's grommet fell out one side only and with hindsight I would have gone private and insisted on a hearing aid for the side without the grommet as it affected him hugely until the other fell out, he then got another set of grommets and things started to improve again.

No experience of ABR but def agree with the further proof of hearing affecting him - whenever we see a dip in responsiveness sure enough a cold /flu congestion follows- and it is affirming and confirming- and yes of course you don't want them ill but it hammers the facts home, doesn't it?
Could they do test and replace grommets in same procedure ? Would mean he'd only have to have the one GA

Not sure if they can do both. We'll find out and let you know! Pretty baffled what is IDS?

Also , how did you know one grommet fell out? Was it ENT or did ye realise it?

He started having some pretty bad days so took him to the private consultant who had a look in his ears.

This thread is very interesting:

www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/baby-794/drop-clinic-652/782570-glue-ear-sensory-behaviour-all.html

We have all the issues with putting things in his mouth and always being hungry. He was doing great early Jan and had stopped hunting for food all the time. Since the grommet fell out he is back wandering around the kitchen all the time!

If the grommet falling out has done one positive thing it has really highlighted behaviours that are caused by the glue ear.

So interesting.thanks for the share

Our little man has a heavy cold and listening and responding is gone way down. We've noticed his voice is high pitched (maybe always but very obvious at the mo) and his babbling is very high. Wondering if he is only hearing higher pitched sounds.., he says "oooo" "oooo" for woof woof and little things like that. So I'm anxious to try a hearing test to see

Big increase in sensory behaviours since cold came on too. Just like you, all pointing in the one direction...