Anyone tried cranial osteopathy for glue ear?

[wilbur]

Ds2 (6) has had endless problems with his ears, and it has got much worse over the past year with a perf'd eardrum, infections and a lot of time spent really quite deaf. He's not been offered grommets as he's supposed to be "growing out of it", but he is small for his age and I'm fed up and worried for him as he's starting to have problems at school due to not hearing instructions properly.

I've been told cranial osteo (which we did a bit when he was a baby) can help with glue ear. Has anyone had experience of this?

If he's having problems at school then it could be worth pushing the grommets. Ds has had 2 sets of grommets and the difference it makes in both hearing an infections is immense. I had to push for the second set of grommets, but as soon as I said it was effecting schooling the consultant signed for him to have them.

We've been to see the consultant 3 or 4 times and every time he says, "let's see how it goes", even when ds2 has had a hearing test showing his hearing is poor. But because his hearing get back to "within normal range" after each infection, they won't recommend grommets as they say they only work for a year. It's very frustrating, and I don't know what the best thing to do is, which is why I thought I might explore some alternative therapies.

I know this isn't exactly what you asked but I thought I would include a link to the NICE guidelines Especially to page 6 where you should be getting support for School difficulties - if your ds is struggling then it really is important that he has the correct support. Also if you do reach a point you think grommets would benefit your ds then 'proving' school or behavioural difficulties may help your case so to speak.
You're right grommets only stay in for 9 - 15 months and the majority of children grow out of glue ear (dh grew out of his by 7 years), 30% of children need a second set of grommets - I assume the older the child the less likely a second set is needed (ds1 had his first set at 4yrs 10months so we're hoping he will be ok)
If he is having perferated eardrums with each infection then hearing will drop whilst eardrum is perferated and get better after 6-8 weeks when it has healed and the glue ear has temporarly gone - personally I'd check if grommets would help relieve the glue ear whilst he's 'growing out of it' the cycle of infections sounds horrible

As for alternatives - I'm going to ask about the ovent nasal balloon at our next consultant appointment.

I have been reccomended this probiotic for reoccurant infections.

I'm not a medical or alternative therapies person btw, I just have 3 children with glue ear, all of whom had grommits last year, please take any of the ideas below that may help and ignore the rest!

We've chosen to consult a homeopathist to build up the dc's natural immunity and support them before and after their operations, they take probiotics (especially after antibiotics as oral antibiotic wipe out the 'good bateria' in the gut), we've looked into allergies and cut back on dairy for all as its believed to be mucous producing, dehydration apparently makes mucous thicker so they have these for school,ear plugs for swimming and we used for 6 months after grommits fitted at bath time... We've not consulted a cranial oesopath but I have heard that it can help - its worth a try imo!

Thanks so much for that, it's really helpful. I have thought about the dairy thing as ds2 eats a lot of cheese and milk. Might see if he wiill accept soya milk on his cereal. Will definitely get him some probiotics and ask about those balloons.

He has another deaf episode going on at the moment, not a full blown infection as yet so the dr said to hold off on anti-b's and see if it resolves on its own. He can barely hear, though . If he gets another one before the end of this term, I will push for the grommets, if only to break the cycle and give him a year of decent hearing.

I have made an appointment for him with a cranial osteo tomorrow, just to see what they think. And in a completely random attempt at getting his passages open, I thought I might enrol him for singing lessons!

thats doesn't sound random what a great idea for developing listening skills - ds1 did ballet at the end of last term to help him with listening and his co-ordination, he liked it but got self concious in year 1 and stopped

also forgot to say our consultant said regular nose blowing for all to try and keep passages clear - I guess the nasal balloon is a more effecient way of doing that but ds2 often gets his ears to 'crackle' in the morning by blowing his nose when he wakes up (its part of our morning rountine after teeth cleaning)

My husband suffers from glue ear whenever he gets a cold. It is fairly unusual for adults to have this problem and is mainly confined to children. Anyway it was driving him mad and affecting his work. He went to the doctors after several months who said it would go away with time but it didn't even though he regularly held his nose and blowed as advised to try and clear it. He then came across a product called Otovent - inflating a balloon using the nostril. It worked within minutes clearing up the problem and has continued to do so whenever he gets a cold. You can buy the product from Boots or Amazon at around £7 to £8 for about 4 balloons. He found it quite tricky to use at first but mastered it after a few tries. I think a young child would find it difficult but is worth perserving with for how quickly it clears up the problem. Hope this helps.

Otovent nasal balloon cleared up my DS's glue ear instantly. It was like a miracle. Definitely worth a try. We'd tried cranial osteopathy too, but to be honest, I don't think it made any difference.

Right, I'm definitely going to get the Otovent - sounds like it could be brilliant. Thanks!

it says you can get it on prescription - might be worth a try as they don't last forever and you might end up doing it quite regularly

wilbur, my son had recurrent glue ear as you have described. Even grommets did not help.

However, we went to have his hearing tested, and the consultant we saw recommended a dairy free diet. Complete dairy free, avoiding all obvious dairy but also switching to PURE margerine and avoiding caseins in all food. It is actually quite easy once you know how.

DS was able to tolerate goats milk, so that made things easier.

Anyway, after months and months of antibiotics, burst ear drums etc, he was clear within 2 weeks, and his exzema also cleared up.

I would recommend strict control of his diet for about a month and see how you get on - you will know very quickly if its going to work.

DS also outgrew his allergy within a couple of year on a dairy free diet.

Wilbur.. yes we did!

ds2 was diagnosed with glue ear and some hearing loss when he was about 3ish.
a follow-up appt 3 months later gave same results.
they wanted to see us again in another 3 months with a view to thinkking about grommets.

i didn't want grommets as he was quite young still and i felt he may grow out of it.
as we couldn't do anything anyway for 3 months we figured we'd give the C.O a try (had used it before with good results on the children and myself for various things)
aaanyway, long story short, he had 3 sessions of it and by the time he was seen again the fluid from one side (the sie the osteopath said was the better side after the treatment) had almost all gone and the other side was clearer too.
we saw immediate results with his speech developing very quickly.
he had a couple more sessions and has now been discharged from audiology completely.

i notice you're in SW London, I can highly recommend Stuart Korth in Tunbridge Wells.
he treated me as a child, and is like the godfather of paediatric cranial osteopathy! He's superb, i can't recommend him enough

Thanks for those - thisisyesterday, I will keep Stuart Korth in mind, although I used a CO when all 3 of my dcs were v small which was great for sleep help and I am going to see him a couple more times first. He said that ds2 definitely has some stresses in his skull and a very hard head (that would be from all the falling over, he is a very, erm, active child ).

hatti - interesting about the dairy-free diet. Ds2 is a huge milk and cheese eater and although it would be very difficult to cut these out of his diet, I have been wondering about that. He doesn't have excema, but has very dry skin. He used to drink goats milk as a baby, so I will get some of that as a first step.

wilbur, you can get goats cheese, milk and yogurts in supermarkets, also ask your local supermarket for a list of dairy free foods....some things will surprise you! For example, Hovis bread was dairy free, but kingsmill not - this is going back a good few years though, so it may have changed.

Subsequently, two cousins have been dx with dairy allergy, and my MIL also at the grand age of 60!

Interestingly, DS was under ENT at the time, and they never mentioned dairy allergy. But Paediatrician and audiologist both said its a well known issue.

Id convert to soy first for a couple of weeks, then try goats milk and see how you get on. It is likely to be cow milk specifically that is causing the issue.

Just want to add further praise for Otovent. We tried it on dd (7) last week, she's had trouble with glue ear for years on and off. The results were truly amazing. She went from being 90% deaf to being able to hear a whisper ON HER FIRST USE!!!! I can't recommend it highly enough, you can buy it from amazon or ebay.

Thank you all so, so much for your suggestions. We now have the Otovent, and as several have said, it seems to have had a remarkable effect and ds2 is hearing much, much better already. I think the cranial has helped in some ways too, he's been a lot calmer and is sleeping longer at night (falling asleep quicker, which has often been a problem for him) - I can only hope that this will translate into better overall health and therefore fewer colds/ear infections. I'm going to stick to a mainly dairy-free diet (he seems fine with soya milk on his cereal, so that's great) and also have the Animal Parade probiotic for inner ear support so will continue with that too.

If all this means we have avoided an operation and the worry about grommets falling out etc, then it is well worth it!

Just happened upon this thread and am really interested to hear about the otovent, my dd 6yo is on to her 2nd set of gromits. She still unfort gets quite a lot of ear infections, some of them chronic (last longer than 4 weeks).

It seems that when she is run down or gets any bug it always ends up affecting her ears

Op your ent consultant sounds a bit rubbish tbh. Gromits made a massive difference to my dds hearing, her speech, development, behaviour and attention span all improved dramatically after she had them.

Will investigate otovent though as sounds like it might be useful thing to invest in!!!

Oh and forgot to say did take dd to a craniopath when she was about 2.6yrs and didn't find it did a lot of good tbh. It was expensive and dd had about 6 sessions, when it didn't work she just said that my dd was a bad case

Hi! I know this is an old post, but any luck or updates? My 7 year old still having ear issues and we are desperate. Did your child ever outgrow it?