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Children's health

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Original poster

hearing loss, glue ear

42 replies

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 20:02

Hi,

My dd (age 3.5) has had two perforated ear drums and suffers from glue ear intermittently. Her speaking is slow/delayed and I was told today after an audiology test that her hearing is a bit dull. We are on a 'watch and wait' and her hearing will be checked again in May.

I just wanted to ask if anyone has restricted dairy in their child's diet to help alleviate glue ear symptoms and if it made a difference.

Thanks.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

MadameGazelle · 07/02/2011 20:11

Haven't restricted dairy, but DS was treated very successfully for glue ear by a chiropractor, if that's something you would consider exploring?

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 20:12

Would do anything to try an avoid grommets. What does the chiropractor do?

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MadameGazelle · 07/02/2011 20:26

She manipulated his head and neck very gently, took 3 adjustments in total and he went from having a completely flat line

MadameGazelle · 07/02/2011 20:29

sorry - pressed post by accident! he went from having a totally flat line on the hearing test to having perfect hearing in one ear and slightly compromised hearing in the other. Would definitely recommend on the basis that it worked for us.

thisisyesterday · 07/02/2011 20:39

we are in similar situation

ds2 is 3 and has very delayed speech, we're also watching and waiting

he has no dairy or egg in his diet anyway as he is intolerant to them, so i can't say that has helped! lol

we've also had 3 or 4 sessions of cranial osteopathy which appeared to help a LOT, but the fluid levels had gone back up last time his hearing was checked, so I think that while it can alleviate it, it certainly isn't curing it iyswim

nannynobnobs · 07/02/2011 20:45

Following this thread- DD2 (4.2) has just been diagnosed with glue ear. Speech is behind her peers with forming sounds, missing beginning and ends off words etc though understanding of words is fine. She has been prescribed two months of cetirizine then a retest. Does anybody know if it has a decent success rate? Hoping to avoid grommets, DH had them and his hearing is bob awful.

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 20:53

My DDs speech is a bit like your wee ones nannynobnobs. She can understand but she mispronounces a lot of words and when she speaks in sentences it is mostly gobbledegook... she knows this now and is starting to get frustrated. What will the cetrizine do?

Where can I go for cranial osteopathy?

A few people have suggested cutting out dairy as she also sounds vey mucousy and congested a lot of the time. I don't want to do this as she loves yoghurts and milk and it is good for her to eat them. Although I will cut it out if some people have said it has helped.

OP posts:

nowwearefour · 07/02/2011 20:57

why are people keen to avoid grommets?

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 21:02

We are just at the initial stage of ENT consultations, they want to watch and wait and I want her hearing to improve and alleviate the glue ear as soon as possible. (3 months seems like a long time for a wee one)

I would also like to avoid an operation for my DD if poss. However, if I am advised that is the best treatement for my DD when we go back, that is what we will do.

I'm just looking into other avenues.

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jenpet · 07/02/2011 21:04

Am interested to know why people are keen to avoid them too. I'm in a similar position - DS2 (2.5) has had 8 lots of ab's and 2 burst eardrums since August last year. Our GP has referred him to a specialist, but she's almost sure he'll have grommets & also adenoids out. It's the adenoids I'm not sure about as I know they can grow back too. We're in France and although he talks non-stop at the moments, the GP is terrified any slight hearing loss will affect speech & language development in both languages...watching with interest.

thisisyesterday · 07/02/2011 21:15

i want to avoid grommets because I would rather try and treat this without my ds2 having to undergo a general anaesthetic
and there is also a risk of permanent damage to the eardrum from grommets

if he was having frequent ear infections and stuff like that then it would be a different matter. But right now his only issue is with speech.
this has improved greatly since the cranial osteopathy, but as I said, this isn't a cure, and we may have to continue and hope he grows out of it

thisisyesterday · 07/02/2011 21:16

homeagain whereabouts are you? i can recommend an osteopath if you're in the south east?

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 21:27

I'm near Glasgow

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nannynobnobs · 07/02/2011 21:40

DH had grommets to treat glue ear when he was small and has had recurring, treatment resistant ear infections all his life. They only stopped when he was in hospital for cutting part of himself off on a big machine and they pumped him full of serious IV antibiotics. He had yellow goo coming out of his ears onto the hospital pillows!
Of course the constant infections (and none too great hearing) may be unrelated to his having had grommets but like others I'm keen to avoid putting my little DD under anaesthetic if possible.

nannynobnobs · 07/02/2011 21:42

Homeagain I'm really not sure how the cetirizine is supposed to treat it, cetirizine is an antihistamine I need to read up about glue ear more though as I don't really know what causes it.

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 21:44

That sounds terrible nanny - can understand why you are looking into other options.

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deemented · 07/02/2011 21:45

Funnily enough, my dd was today referred to the local ENT as she has glue ear in both ears. We've been told to expect her to have grommits.

Her speech is a little delayed - not as much as it was three months ago - but she constantly has ear infections, and she has very sticky ears - literally rinning out of her ears onto the pillow. She's 2.9.

I don't know much about grommits, or controling this by diet - it's all new to me.

deemented · 07/02/2011 21:46

*rinning = running.

nannynobnobs · 07/02/2011 21:53

I only worked out DD had a problem when she just couldn't hear me, even when I was talking about sweets! And she talks VERY LOUDLY, asking me to repeat myself quite a lot. She will hear a line from a song or from a favourite film and repeat the melody or the phrase correctly, but it will just be the basic sounds, ie "Up above the world so high..." is "Uh Uh Bu Du Wuh So High..."
I've just read the NHS page on glue ear and it says that there is no treatment that is effective. Why were we prescribed antihistamines when their own advice page says it does nothing?

nannynobnobs · 07/02/2011 21:54

No treatment should say no medicine!

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 22:06

We were told that glue ear can come and go and it can be particularly bad in the winter months due to colds etc. That's why we are going back in May for another hearing test, the consultant wants to see if it can clear up on its own.

She never mentioned antihistamines to me - she just commented that my DDs nose was needing a good clean out - I'm trying to teach her how to blow her nose.

I've been googling glue ear and i saw an octovent (sp) is supposed to be good. I think they blow a balloon up with their nose and this helps clears the tubes. Worth a try?

I might even get some anti-histamines. I'm terrified her eardrum will pop again - it caused a lot of pain both times.

My DDs speech is very similar, not clear at all. I was also advised to face her when speaking and to speak very clearly and read plenty books to her. We've been doing this forever - no improvement yet.

OP posts:

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 22:09

sorry - otovent

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Luvvies · 07/02/2011 22:10

On the way home from hospital after having grommets inserted, my DS (4 at the time) excitedly said "I can hear birds". And then at home he asked whether the sound the cat was making was purring.

He had had glue ear, although not really had any infections. We had a long road ahead, with quite a few ear ops as things progressed, but that initial grommets operation made such a difference to his hearing.

Original poster

homeagainhomeagain · 07/02/2011 22:46

Good to know, thanks Luvvies

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DeWe · 08/02/2011 15:34

Ds had grommets in at about 20 months. He had recurrent ear infections, roughly every 10 days to 2 weeks from 3 months until he had them in. In the next 18 months he had 1 ear infection. This autumn his grommets came out and since then he's had 3 burst ear drums and a couple of infected ears. Seeing ENT tomorrow to see where we go. His speech improved dramatically with grommets. Hated seeing him go under the general, but the difference it made to his health.
Grommets do scar the ear drum, but so do repeated infections, so you have decide the better of two evils there.

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