Hearing problem DS3 aged 3 - glue ear or other hearing impairment?

[AFingerofFudge]

Hi, just wondered if I could pick anyone's brains?
Ds3 is 3 years old, and over the past year or so I started to wonder if there was some problem with his hearing. He constantly asks for the tv to be turned up, cranes his neck when listening, now he can speak better he will say "can't hear you" etc. His speech is not very advanced for his age.
Anyway, I spoke to the doctor who referred him for a hearing test which we had last week. They did various "games" with him, and more mechanical type things, putting probes in his ears and testing vibrations and have concluded that yes there is some sort of hearing loss.
They are not sure though whether these hearing problems are caused by glue ear or some possibly more "permanent" loss. He does have some physical signs of glue ear, there was fluid in his ears, but he has never had an ear infection, perforated ear drum, no blocked nasal passages, and so they want to refer him to an ENT for further investigations.
My question is I guess, has anyone else had this kind of experience, do you know what might happen next??
I'm feeling really sad for him, and really sad when he misses things that he just doesn't hear, I know we're now basically in a waiting list, but I just want it sorted.

I'm surprised they can't be more specific as to where the impairment is coming from. Usually all those tests determine where the problems is coming from as well as how severe it is. My son had recurrent glue ear from about 1 until 3 ish. It did affect his speech and we were referred to SALT pretty early on which helped. His glue ear was fairly obvious but it isn't always the case. If it's glue ear they can put in grommets which will solve the problem fairly swiftly. I don't have experience with other probs I'm afraid. ENT will be able to give you more specific answers and options for treatment, regardless you should get on the wait list for SALT ASAP, like Monday. It takes a while and you are already seeing issues, they are great, please don't worry too much, you've realised early and much can be done to get him to catch up

thanks mince. Yes as soon as I got home from the hospital I phoned the health visitor and asked for a SALT referral. I'm not sure how long the waiting list is for that around here!
Yes I'm suprised they can't be more specific either, but I think it was partly because he had a bad cold and they wondered whether the fluid was from that and that there was an underlying problem. I feel like a fish out of water as I have no experience of ear problems, hearing problems etc, none of us have even had an earache!!
Also just wish I knew when we'd get an appointment for the ENT.

Our ENT appt did take a while, but we had ongoing tests at a specialists auditory centre at GUys so it didn't make much difference to us as we had all the info anyway. Ring and see when they are looking to fit you in and see if you can go elsewhere beforehand to speed things up if required. They do need to get a move on as he is at a crucial age for language acquisition though, so push if you have to. My friend had her DD's done privately, but I think it was an arm and a couple of legs.....

Am going to ring on Monday to get some more info on when the ENT appt might happen. I was really bombarded with information on the day and to be honest had mostly expected them to send me away with a "his hearing's fine, stop fussing" type of comments. The doctor did say that she would send us a copy of the letter that she'll send to the GP, so at least that should jog my memory on some of the stuff we were told.

Hi, DS2 has a hearing impairment & has permavents (a permanent grommet) & wears hearing aids.
We discovered that he had both a conductive (glue ear) loss & a sensorineural loss (permanent loss) at about your sons age. They did an ABR test under a GA whilst they were doing his grommets & the results showed a loss from the nerves.
All that sounds a bit scary but he had such an obvious & severe speech delay, it was clear it wasn't a standard case of glue ear I think.
Good luck with ENT, I hope they speed up the referral for you.

I had glue ear till I was 10 and my DD had 50% hearing loss between the age of 3 months and 3.5 years and now has a 15% permanent hearing loss. There are lots of things you can do now to really help and they are free and simple.
Firstly make sure your DS is always looking at people's lips when they are talking, talk slowly and clearly enunciate. Facial hair makes it much more difficult to lip read. As I was very aware from my experience I was very careful that all DD's carers were aware of how to help a child with hearing loss and consequently learnt to talk normally. Even the profoundly deaf can experience music by feeling the vibrations from the speakers and light being used to emphasis it.
DD's experience of ENT was amazing from the paeds audiologists to the wonderful surgeon who did her mastoid surgery when she was 5 months old.

Thanks for your replies - it was interesting today as we went to lunch at the in-laws and I was telling them about the tests and they were quite suprised as they hadn't noticed it at all. Then once I'd told them they really picked on the amount of times he says "what you say" or "can't hear you". It's like we became a bit impervious (?) to it.
I'm just hoping this ENT appointment is soon!!

My DD was the same, she wanted the TV so loud it drove me mad!! I constantly had to repeat myself, and she didn't have ear infections?

We were referred to ENT and he diagnosed glue ear immediately, she also failed a hearing test. We were told to wait three months and go back, there was no change.

She had grommets and adenoids out and she has been brilliant since then! Also passed hearing test!

My 3 have all had glue ear and grommets, only one has suffered with ear infections n the littlest s noticeable speech and language delaay but others not so much
It sounds like u had a hearing test at a clinic so its probably that the technician wasn't qualified to diagnose what might be causing the hearing loss,did your gp look in your ds's ears? gp descibed our ds's ear drums as dull and flat which indicated glue ear
The referal to ent is great as you are seeing the expert,it took us almost a year to get referal with ds1 so brilliant you are in the system and hopefully close to an answer,i would ring the consultants clinic and find out how long you have to wait,try not to worry I think its brilliant that you have picked this up pre school x

Thanks for your messages - interesting to hear that you can have glue ear but not suffer with ear infections etc as I hadn't realised that.
Good suggestion incy about phoning the consultant to find out how long the wait is.

If your child has glue ear you could try a product called Otovent. It involves the child inflating special balloons using a device placed next to each nostril. The pressure forces the fluid out of the ear. They are specifically designed for children as they mainly suffer from the problem. My husband gets severe glue ear after a cold but regular use of Otovent over the course of 24 hours usually clears it up (before he found out about Otovents the problem would last for months and months). The balloon inflation is quite difficult to master but is worth perservering with because of the almost instant benefits. You can buy Otovents from Boots or Amazon for about £7 to £8 for 4 balloons which can only be used so many times each.

Your son sounds exactly like mine at that age (he is 10 now). He turned out to have both glue ear and a permanent loss. I think it is common to have both, the glue masks what is really going on and they can't get accurate results till it is gone. The age also makes it tough to test accurately. DS had grommets and had audiology at 3 different hospitals before they decided he did definately have a permanent loss, he did not have speech delay which meant that they seemed to have difficulty believing he had good speech but could still be deaf. He eventually got hearing aids and has done well despite continuing to loose his hearing, he is now being assessed for cochlear implants. The national deaf childrens society has a good web site which includes a chat room called parent place which is really useful.

Thanks for the advice! Have contacted the doctors and the hospital this week to try and see what's going on but so far it seems to be just a series of me leaving messages on various answer machines but haven't heard anything from anyone yet.

In case anyone is still around........have spent the last 3 weeks chasing up the letter, and it finally arrived this week! Didn't really tell me any more than I could remember. However, got a phonecall yesterday to say they had a cancellation and would I like to bring him in tomorrow (Thursday) to see the ENT. They are going to do another hearing test beforehand.
Am really pleased I'm not waiting months as I expected I would do....
so will keep you posted on how it goes.
I have been feeling a bit exasperated about raising my voice so he can hear. I try and sound nice but when I raise my voice I sound cross!! I don't like "shouting" at him!!

Great news!!
BTW I am not on here 24\7 !!! It was just a coincidence I had a quick look between meetings (honest!)
I know what you mean about shouting ! I just used to try and make sure I was close and level for eye contact rather than yelling at him !!!!!
Hopefully you will get some answers tomorrow

Thanks mince will let you know!
I try not to be on here permanently often, but dip in and out during the day!

Am back, they were very efficient and on time!!
He had another hearing test, and then we went into see the consultant, she described his hearing loss as not terrible, but not great.
She has decided that he would benefit from hearing aids rather than grommets, and although am feeling a bit upset about that, I do understand her rationale.
She said that as he hasn't ever had an ear infection, or perforated ear drum, then it would be a shame to do something to them.
Has anyone had an experience of a 3 year old with hearing aids? How do they fit them? Do you really notice a difference??

Hello Finger, glad you have some definitive answers. I only know of my friends baby who has hearing aids from almost birth, and they are tiny and actually quite trendy! I guess whether you will notice much of a difference will depend on how serious the hearing loss.
Sure someone will have experience on here