Anyone with experience of glue ear in a baby?

[AmandinePoulain]

My 8.5 mo dd2 failed her newborn hearing screening and a follow up 3 weeks later in her right ear, and was diagnosed with glue ear. She had a followup this morning with audiology, the hearing test results were inconclusive (she was too distracted to continue the test after the first few noises but appeared to hear loud and high pitched noises on the left but not the quieter ones and the right wasn't tested before the audiologist gave up), but the congestion is worse and is now present on the left too. We've got a follow up in 8 weeks when she'll be retested; and then we'll be referred to ENT for grommets at a later date (18mo +) and hearing aids if indicated. She babbles constantly but doesn't repeat, and obviously is too young to talk (although I think by this age dd1 was saying dad and mum with meaning); she certainly reacts to loud noises but doesn't appear to recognise her name or any other words. I just wondered if anyone has any experience of glue ear at such a young age? Most of the stuff I've found refers to school age children.

Thanks

Ds was okay at him newborn screening, but started ear infections, with glue ear, at 3 months old, continuous until he had grommets in at 20 months.

Speech wise (he's my third) he babbled more than the others, but was slower at actual speech. But he was still very much above average, my other two were very early.
What he has missed is pronunciation. He's in year 1 and we occasionally have little gems from him like when he came and excitedly told me that did I know "sh" and "ch" were pronounced differently-he'd always heard them the same.

8.5months, is really too early to be worrying about speech, and it is also very difficult to thoroughly test them. In all honesty I don't think ds did a good test until he was over 3yo. So they could tell that he wasn't hearing brilliantly, but not tell how good/bad he was.
A lot of children won't say their first word until they're over a year, and it doesn't show how good at speech they will be later-dd2 said her first word "mama" at 11 months-but by 18 months was saying long sentences like "Me choosing myslelf because DD2 very particular about what me likes".

He did compensate very well. He liked to pat my cheek to look at him when we were talking-turned out he was lip reading. And he liked to be carried rather than go in the buggy, again, he could hear me better. He also liked to feel vibrations from noise.

Do spend time talking face to face, and closely to your dd2.

Thank you

I try to get her attention before I talk to her because otherwise I'm not sure that she can hear me, she doesn't seem to pay attention anyway but she's so young it's hard to tell. I'm very glad that we chose a rear facing pushchair this time so that she can see me as we walk along. We do baby signing which I'm hoping will help too.

I think that the thing I'm most worried about is her going to theatre (which is daft, I'm a paeds nurse and when I was training I took loads of children to theatre for grommets and they were always quickly back and absolutely fine!), I can cope with giving her extra support if that's what she needs, and hearing aids if we need those.

Thanks again.

DD had similar scenario - quite marked hearing loss due to glue ear as a baby. At 1, she wasn't distinguishing well between words, etc. Then it cleared up enough to not need grommits (can't remember the timings, but it was OK by 2). She now talks ten to the dozen - no speech problems at all (now age 3).

DS also had glue ear, which started later (picked up at 3ish). He was really not responding to sound much at all - I was constantly shouting. This too cleared up enough by the time he started school to not need grommits.

My DD had glue ear leading to a mastoid abscess at 5months and had a bilateral miriginotomy to release the glue at the same time as her mastoid surgery. Had very significant hearing loss till the age of 3 when she grew out of the glue ear, but still has a significant hearing loss now at the age of 9.
However, she lip reads really well as we always ensured she was looking at us when we spoke and we were very careful to clearly enunciate all our words with clear mouth movements. She spoke early and hasn't stopped since!

As someone who suffered from glue ear from 4 to 11 years I was very aware that clear enunciation of words was the key to helping her speech develop,

Hey Amandine, I?d suggest you to follow up with Pediatric audiologist since specialize in the evaluation and treatment of hearing loss in infants and children.

Hi I know this hasnt been discussed in some time but I am currently going through the same with me little boy and I am struggling to fi nd anyone else with experience with glue ear from birth. It would be great if anyone could update me with the progress of their little ones. My 18 month old has had glue ear from birth and his development is now clearly delayed. Thanks in advance x

Hello. my ds passed newborn hearing test & then developed glue ear. Speech delayed & very deaf.

Grommets changed his life. He's top of the class