DS1 (10) has suffered for years with chronic nasal congestion and age 6 had his tonsils and adenoids removed in an attempt to help this, which it did, a little. But the congestion continued and despite me insisting at the time that his hearing was impaired, tests seemed ok and grommits were not put in because of this.
In March this year (possibly coincidental, maybe not), he had braces fitted and since then the problem seems worse, to the point where he is getting repeated infection and also pain from pressure in his ears due to the congestion. His hearing is also noticeably worse.
Today we saw ENT consultant who said his hearing test was terrible and says we need to get to the bottom of the nasal congestion (standard skin prick allergy tests all came up negative) so has referred us to the relevant consultant. He is also going to put grommits in in two weeks to help with the hearing. We discussed possible dietary allergens and he says it is very unusual for dietary allergies to cause congestion. Also that the braces may well be contributing to the pain in DS's ears, but of course the root cause is the mucus.
What I'd like to know is if anyone has any similar experiences with any of this, (including braces) and whether they made dietary changes successfully? DS eats very little dairy, dislikes cheese and yoghurt, has lacto free milk on cereal, a little butter here and there. But eats lots of wheat, like most kids - bread, weetabix, pasta, croissants etc. I wonder whether it is worth trying cutting these out? Probably worth mentioning that after a cause of strong antibiotics for a nasty infection before the summer holidays he was clear for about a month, during which he ate bread etc every day, I think if that was a problem it would have come back more quickly? Clutching at straws to try and help, he has been in so much pain the last few days since braces adjustment that he hasn't gone to sleep until nearly midnight - its an important time at school to be suffering like this!