Any experience of glue ear and tinnitus/hearing noises in children?

[whyme2]

DD is 7 and has had glue ear for a number of years now. She has had grommets twice which helped her hearing until they fell out( a matter of months)

She is waiting for a third op for permanent grommets scheduled in June now.

This morning she told me that she hears lots of beeping noises all the time like the beeps on the hearing test was how she explained it to me. After some questioning I found out that the noises are random but happen a lot and sometimes it can be painful for her in her ears and head when people talk to her.

Tbh I was really taken aback by this, she has never mentioned it before but seemed quite distressed by it when she was re counting it all to me. (This was all on the walk to school btw.)

I don't know what to do now. Should I go back to the GP, or just wait for the grommet op and see if that helps. We are not down to see the consultant before the op I think unless we see him at the pre op. I can't remember now.

Should I be worried? I feel panicky because she has been going through this and I didn't know.

My son has tinitius, but it doesn't particularly bother him. He has never known anything different. The tinitius has got better when the glue ear cleared up.

Ds found that wearing hearing aids helped with the tinitus. A lot of areas are using temporary digital hearing aids instead of grommets. Especially as the risks of permament damage to the ear drum increase with multiple grommet insertions.

The national deaf children's society website is a good source of information and support.

Thank you for your reply - I didn't even know if tinnitus was something that went alongside glue ear. Will look at the website.

Hi,

Sorry to hijack, but we have just come back from an appointment at which the doctor suggested my son has tinnitus.

He has recently repeated his school hearing test, having had problems id first time around. The second time he 'passed'. I think he does have some low level hearing problems, but now don't know whether this is as a result of the tinnitus. He also has very large tonsils - not sure if this has any bearing, but the Dr. did make a comment about it.

The Dr. has just said to monitor it. At what point should I push for further investigation? He has fallen asleep at school this week because of his night time 'bleeping' having woken him up.

Thanks.

Sorry Sage but I don't know the answer. Did you see an ENT doctor? If not I would certainly push for a referral to them at least. I didn't even realise children could be affected by tinnitus. I think I am going to take my dd to the gp next week just to check.

No, a G.P. We have been told to give it a month before referral in to ENT. It's not long I suppose!

Hope all your stuff goes OK.