Toddler Failed Paed Hearing Test

[ELW85]

Hi

Looking for a bit of reassurance or just experiences really.

My son is 23 months; great receptive and expressive language skills (lots of ‘s’ words and ‘f’ as he hears and says his name that starts with an ‘F’).

Anyway, I noticed a pit on the back of his ear and a bit of googling led me to it being indicative of hearing loss.
Referred to ENT, not concerned but referred for a hearing test to ‘reassure’ me.
Had that today and he didn’t turn to look at the really quiet low frequency sounds.
They said his hearing is at 30 and it needs to be at 25 (whatever that means).
They’ve said we need to repeat the test in 12 weeks as he’s got glue ear.
They also asked if he snored etc. they suspect enlarged tonsils and adenoids too.
I’m not sure what any of this means or how worried I should be.
The audiologist said that she wasn’t worried at all and thought it would all go away on its own.
She then implied that because he can speak and understand us so well that it was unlikely he would get any treatment anyway because most kids ‘grow out of it and it’s not really affecting him’.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or any audiologists that can help me with the numbers or how accurate her advice was?
I ask as I feel very rushed out of the appointment…

Anyone?

The numbers are how many decibels the sound at each frequency is at when they hear it. The bigger the number, the louder the sound before they hear it. If your son is in the normal range at most frequencies, and only a little below at one frequency, and is speaking OK for his age, then it's likely its only a very mild case of glue ear. Basically the ear canal gets clogged, especially if they have lots of cold etc. You can get an otovent and see if he'll blow into it, it's good for clearing glue ear. Hopefully with spring around the corner, and the end of winter bugs, and him getting a bit bigger so his ear canals are wider, he'll have grown out of it by his next appointment.

@AmbushedByCake - thank you, his speech is great,
Lots of soft sounds and putting words together.
Nursery think he’s advanced and we’re surprised when I mentioned glue ear as his receptive language is great too.
Hopefully it’s nothing.
The audiologist said just below at 30 but not which frequencies.

@AmbushedByCake I also wonder if it’s an attention thing. I sat about 10ft behind him yesterday when he was engrossed in something and whispered as quietly as I could ‘chocolate’ - he spun around immediately and repeated ‘chocolate’ perfectly…

You could get in touch with them and ask for a copy of the letter they sent your GP, I've always been given one. It shows the results of the test for both ears on a graph. But it doesn't sound like there's anything much to worry about.

@AmbushedByCake - thanks, I’ll do that.

Worst case scenario in this situation would be grommets and an adenoidectomy/ possible tonsillectomy. But if the glue ear clears on it’s own (which the consultant told you in likely in your son’s case) then none of that will be necessary. Either way, glue ear that’s being monitored by your child’s dr shouldn’t lead to any kind of permanent hearing or language issues.

@HereBdragons - thank you, I guess I’m just concerned that it’s something more sinister than glue ear, relating to his ear pit.
I can’t help but think that there’s also an attention element if he can turn to a whispered word 10ft behind him!?