Recurrent ear infections/grommets

[Bunny2607]

Hi everyone
my almost 11 month old has been on antibiotics every 10-14 days since September for an ear infection that won’t shift. We go through the same cycle where she gets irritable, waking every hour, then one day she wakes with pus and gunk coming out her ear (always the same ear), so we get antibiotics for 5 days she gets better then a few days after she finishes the course it starts again. GP thinks she needs grommets to clear a blockage somewhere so
we have been referred to ENT but the earliest appts are march. Does anyone have any experience of going private? Has anyone been in my position? If so what did you do? It’s starting to have a big impact as when she is poorly we get zero sleep, and when she is on antibiotics she has to have been on them 24hrs before nursery will take her which means i end up taking time off work depending how the days fall. I’m worried about how much medication she is having with calpol/ibuprofen and the antibiotics themselves. It can’t be good long term. I just can’t carry on like this and I don’t want my baby in pain. We can’t really afford private we only have £1k in savings but we’ll find the money if we have to. Thank you xx

For us we just ran through all our concerns and showed photos/videos of when the symptoms were bad.

The consultant checked her ears and she happened to have particularly bad glue eat at the time so he agreed that grommets would be sensible and put us on the list for surgery.

Same for us. Think he might also have had a hearing test before the consultation.

He read GP referral letter, asked us to outline history, looked in her ears and said "grommets" - checked his diary and booked her in 2 weeks later. Good luck!

Hi everyone
just posting a quick update incase anyone comes across this thread who is going through the same thing. So we went private and had the appt on 10th Jan, the doc gave her a preventative course of antibiotics which haven’t worked. She’s been on them ever since and had 2 lots of additional antibiotics cos the ear infection came back.
in the meantime the GP asked the hospital to see her sooner so we went last week and they’ve said she has fluid behind both ears and will probably need grommets. The hospital said they would see her again in 4-5 weeks and if no improvement would do grommets a couple of months after. She’s woken up this morning with a gunky ear again so back on antibiotics so i’ve spoken to the hospital and got her an appt with the doctor who apparently does the grommets for the end of this month. So the saga goes on but at least we are in the system.
the only advice i can give anyone in the same boat is just keep pushing and chasing for appts etc. my little one is still on antibiotics every 2 weeks like clockwork 😭

@Bunny2607 It is awful to see them in so much pain. The only silver lining is that it hopefully furthers their case for treatment.

For those who have had grommets, did you have any problems after with lack of progress? My daughter had hers 8 weeks ago and I feel progress has been limited with regard speech and listening/responding.

That said, she has been suffering cold symptoms for about 3 months (following a sinus infection), then when snot didn't clear up she was thought to have rhinitis. I also have concerns over enlarged adenoids due to excess mucus/sleep apnea/loud snoring.

Basically, has anyone had grommet insertion but speech/T&L has been impeded by other ENT issues? Or have you found that grommets took time to have a effect for communication?

Ds was the same from 10 weeks old. He had his first set of grommets at 20 months old and, although we were told it wouldn't necessarily stop the infections, it did and he didn't have another infection until his grommets had come out over a year later.

He didn't make amazing progress after the grommets, but just not having infections was brilliant. He did make progress, but he'd adapted a lot into what he could hear so wasn't like a switch going on iyswim.
What I did notices was a few comments he made that showed how much of his hearing was missing, more after his second lot of grommets at 3.6yo and third at 6yo.
One was he commented that "the leaves didn't crunch last year" when he was jumping on the autumn leaves. I realised it was just something he hadn't heard before.
Another one was he came home from school excited to tell me that ch and sh made different sounds. He'd never heard the difference before.

Just little comments, but showing how much he missed in terms of sound.

What I did find was consultants were more interested in hearing about lack of development than the infection, probably because the grommets make no guarantee about sorting that out. However liquid in the inner ear may well help your cause there, as ds asked for hearing aids instead of grommets#3 and was told that due to the inner ear bulging with liquid, grommets were a better option.

If they do decide to do them, I found it fairly quick from ENT to operation. The longest gap was only just over a month-and the shortest was 2 days!

Thanks @MargaretThursday

She had a S&L assessment last week and they just say to 'talk lots to her', but no actual advice of activities, there will be a follow up phone call in a few months to see progress so felt a but fobbed off.

I have been making a greater effort to play with her 1:1 and repeat until the word loses meaning. I just made a list of the new word (sounds mostly) she has started using in last week or so. Have approx 5 but she isn't using them consistently. Eg she says beep beep for any type of vehicle, 'aww' when stroking teddy baby sister etc. She uses them sometimes but not others.

The explosion of language people talk about children gaining 40/50 words; are they counting words their child have used once or twice or ones they are using consistently?

@Emerald237

I assume that they've talked to you about encouraging language by using what she says. Like:
Her: Bmm
You: Yes, that's right, it's a car.
Her: Bmm
You: That's right. A big car bmmmm

So you're modelling back the word you want her to use, but praising her for what she does say.

Use single words while she's learning. If you give her something name it.
"Drink" or "coat" etc.

Using the words isn't always consistent. Maybe the next time she sees a car she isn't sure it's a car. How does a child know the difference between a car and a van and a lorry etc? They learn, but sometimes get it wrong. Maybe she's a bit more cautious about it if she isn't sure. Or maybe she just didn't want to say it.
When she makes a sound, even if it's nothing like the word you can say "well done! it's a car" excitedly, and then she may think speaking is a great thing.
I know someone who fed their dc 12 cupcakes in a day the day her dd learnt to say "cake" :)

If she likes books then point to things in books "there's a flower" and see if she will find them too. "Can you find a flower?" and then point to them-you can use her finger to do that if she is happy for you to do that.

Try and make sure she's on your level and you can get eye contact ideally.
Use a few signs. They help with communication and encourage them to think about communicating. I used food, drink, more, thank you as basic signs. One of mine did lots more, but those three were just good for them to be able to use.

And she almost certainly will just have an explosion of language and catch up without intervention. However keep her on the waiting list because it can be quite long.

I've told people before that my oldest was a good talker, and I had a friend who had a dd almost exactly the same age. We lost contact around about when they were 2yo, at which point dd was saying full complicated sentences and her dd was just beginning SALT and had no more than 2 words. We met up again about 2 years later and no one would have been able to tell which was the early speaker, and which had had SALT intervention. It was no sign of genius or being amazing; simply just "early talking", which in the long scheme of things doesn't matter-even though it does when you're going through it.

With 40-50 word explosions that's subjective. Some people will hear their child say "ta" as a car passes and note that they can now say "car", and "cars", someone else will not note that they're saying "car" until they pronounce it perfectly and have used it several times in correct circumstances.
Also remember at that age it's also often called "appropriate sounds" rather than words ie bmm for car counts just as much as saying the correct word. So feel free to bark at dogs etc.

Also don't think it's your fault. I know they talk about "talking with your child" and "encouraging language" but really it's as much about your child will learn when they're ready. My friend above worked in early years and knew exactly how to communicate and did so all the time. "Talk lots to her" sounds like they're implying they don't think you are-I don't think they are. It's just telling you to keep going.

We had this with our son when he was little - recurring ear infections, speech delay, diagnosed with glue ear. He was about 18 months. Grommets were suggested but because of the wait we decided to try a cranial osteopath while we were waiting - obviously had to pay for that. We also took him off all diary completely and substituted goats milk/cheese in his diet completely.

Within a month his glue ear had completely cleared. We carried on treatment for about a year with the osteo and in the end didn't need grommets. If you have a long wait it might be worth a try?

@MargaretThursday

Thank you so much for all your tips and reassurance. Some days it really gets you down as it feels like nothing is getting through to her and other days she just says words out of nowhere and it is the most satisfying thing in the world.

It is crushing when she is along with peers and they are running around asking questions and narrating what they are doing and she is just lost. It makes me envious that most children pick up words via secondary means (ie general family chit chat) and don't need the intensive repetition.

You have buoyed my spirits to persist and hopefully the word explosion will come soon. Thank you

How did you find the cranial osteopath route?

I have considered it due to glue ear/speech delay. Have had grommets in slowly we have some progress.

I still have concerns over other ENT issues namely enlarged adenoids and sinus. Did you find it helped speech progression at all or was it more a resolution of the ENT problems?

I feel that once we had the ENT issues sorted, his speech gradually improved - he had a little speech therapy in nursery but by the time he joined year 1 it was no longer needed. I feel the cranial osteopath hugely helped - maybe we just got lucky but if you can find a good practitioner it can't hurt to give it a try. We did it every second week for about 4 months and then monthly, down to every couple of months by the end of the year.

Thanks for bumping this thread OP. We've struggled with my preschoolers hearing for a while and got the 'it's just wax buildup/it'll clear on its own' until I complained and DC was referred. We saw a specialist and were given nasal drops (Vistamethasone) but we're back in 8 weeks to see if they've made a difference. We were also given a nasal balloon for Dc to blow into using his nose but he's not keen on this. I think we're looking at surgery too.

I'm glad you're now somewhere in the queue and I can't even imagine how exhausted you must be. And your poor baby. Earaches are hell for adults and we have options. Wishing your baby a speedy recovery soon.

How does CO help glue ear? Genuinely interested to know. I'd rather try complementary medicine to see if it works before resorting to surgery.

I think it helps to restore the lymph drainage system - I had a pretty easy birth with him but it was very fast. Whether that had an impact I don't know but I've heard people say that it can have.

He was laying on the massage table with his head cupped in the osteopaths hands - literally the massage movements were so small that I couldn't even really see that they were doing anything but he fell deeply asleep straight away the first time and immediately seemed more relaxed when he woke.

At that point I was pretty sceptical it would help but was willing to try anything. It was the osteopath that said to completely cut out cows milk and cheese which I also think hugely helped.

Google mouth breathing too - something that he used to do. It's all linked I think.

Thanks for this. Interesting you mention the mouth breathing. We've had a number of sleep studies done because of my son mouth breathing from very early on. In the end, they said it was nothing (oxygen levels all correct and present) and that he would 'grow out of it'. I'm making an appointment with an osteopath today. We saw one when he was a baby because he just cried all the time and wouldn't settle. It didn't help with anything then but hoping they use different techniques on preschoolers.

Good luck @dottypencilcase and I hope it all goes well.

All booked in for Tuesday next week. Really hoping it helps. He's my tricky child, god bless him.

My little boy was exactly the same. Constant ear infections from his 1st birthday right up until he had grommets fitted at 2 years old. He hasn't had an ear infection since he had the operation and he's now 7. Only thing I will say, is he tends have a lot of ear wax not sure if this is in relation to having the grommets fitted as they are supposed to fall out after 12 months. I've never noticed them coming out.

@dottypencilcase How did your little one get on? Hoping that one way or the other you are seeing an improvement

Thanks for checking @Isithalftermyet! I was meant to update the thread and never got round to it 🙈 THANK YOU so much for recommending Osteopathy- I'm not going to lie, I believe in alternative medicine but for some reason thought Osteo was a bit woo 🙈🙈 but after two sessions, I'm seeing some changes with my son. We've been given exercises to do at home to loosen the wax/fluid build up and I've spotted some loose ear wax coming out from his ear. We've got a follow-up appointment with audiology in a month and a half so we'll know if it's had an impact then but for now, my son enjoys his 'massages' and the therapist at the London School of Osteopathy he sees is worth her weight in gold- so friendly, calm and she explains what she's doing as she does it. I need to book myself in with her too.

And, yes, he's definitely sleeping straightaway and longer than he ever has before (we've always struggled with sleep too).

@dottypencilcase I'm so glad! That is really good news - I know what you mean about feeling a bit woo about it, we were the same. But like you we definitely saw results. Fingers crossed that things keep improving!

Hi everyone,
so from my original post last year we’re still no further forward 😭 baby is 13months and still getting ear infections constantly. we had a hospital appt last week and she had a hearing test and she couldn’t hear the quieter sounds. The doctor said its a classic case of glue ear. So he’s put her on a low dose course of trimetroprim and said he will see her again in 3 months and then decide on grommets or
not. She’s been on that 7 days and then yesterday her ear is all gunked up again and back on another high dose of antibiotic from the gp. Iv rung the hospital to say we can’t wait 3 months but I can’t get another appt til 4th april. I’m wondering about a loan to go private with her, its disrupting everything she’s in pain nobody is sleeping etc i just don’t know what to do 😭😭

Our son was dealt with privately for this when he was 4, but even when we went private they still had to let him go a little while before they could do the operation, because they needed to work up his own 'file' as it were rather than depending on the NHS records.