Flying with Glue Ear

[ooooooeak]

DS 7 months. Is it ok to fly or should we cancel our long haul flight?

Any idea anyone?

bumping again

Does anyone out there know?

i would say not - glue ear is when the eustachian tube is blocked - which goes from the ear to the back of your throat - this is the tube which allows your ears to "pop" and equalise whilst going up or down. If your DS has really bad glue ear and the ear cavity is totally filled with fluid then they may be ok as the fluid is not going to expand like air would.

basically get it checked by the GP or ENT specialist - and please please be as much of a pain as you need to be to get it sorted. DS1 had almost constant ear infections from 6 months until he had grommets done at 10 months old - it's only looking back now we realise how much he was ill and how it impacted on his hearing (even though they told us it wasn't affecting it)

with grommets you can fly no problem

good luck

Thanks so so much for answering thelittlebluepills. Just got back from GP as DS has an ear infection. But he was shocked we were on the waiting list for grommets as DS was so tiny. He was very anti grommets. Totally confussed now!

our GP was anti grommets too but the ENT specialist felt they were justified. No consultant is going to operate on a little one unless they really do think it's worth it

although an op (and a general anaesthetic) is not a minor thing - we realised that a 20 min operation was far far preferable to the gallons of calpol, nurofen and antibiotics we were giving DS (and which he was constantly trying to spit out)

we never regretted our decision - despite the fact that he needed the operation again when he was two. he is now 6 and has been discharged from their list. phew.

might be worth posting a new thread asking about people's experience of grommets at a young age? there are lots of grommet-experienced MNetters out there!

Thanks so much!! I will start a thread!