Glue ear / Grommets / general anaesthetic worries

[Glo1988]

Hi

My DD2(almost3) was diagnosed with glue ear over last winter. Since then she has for most days (but not all) complained of ear pain. This has become much worse in the last few weeks, and she’s struggling to sleep at night - can’t lie still at all. Calpol and Ibrufen has managed this for the last few days but obviously we can’t help her this way long term.

we’re fortunate to have private health cover for her and have been offered an operation for grommets to be fitted, privately but at a leading NHS children’s hospital within the next few months.

For context My DD7 also had glue ear diagnosed at age 6, but as she was almost at the age of ‘growing out’ of the issue (I understand the ear tubes grow and change angle and the problem clears itself up) we declined a grommets operation. 1 year on, it does seem to have resolved itself.

But for my youngest, I’m not keen on waiting another 4 years ish for this to resolve naturally.

We’re interested in anyone’s experience or thoughts on:

• how successful grommets are in resolving glue ear long term.

• experience / risks with General Anaesthetic. What I understand to be the risks of GA is my main hesitation with going ahead. if it were a procedure that could done under local (but this obviously can’t) , I wouldn’t hesitate. I don’t know if I’m just being overly anxious.

• is there anything ‘natural’ we can do to minimise this for her in the meantime. Ie completing avoiding swimming? (Half the people I speak to tell me this could be causing it, but the doctor insists not?)

Thanks in advance for any wisdom or advice!

I had grommets at age 13, some 40 years ago. Don’t remember any issues and was a straightforward procedure. I felt funny about water in my ears for a while then just forgot about it.

If you look at the Royal College of Anaesthetists website (rcoa.ac.uk) under the 'for patients' tab there is a lot of accurate information about anaesthesia for children.

My DD suffered really badly with glue ear at the same age, her eardrum was bursting and she was at risk of long term damage.

It was a good few years ago now but I remember the op being really quite quick and straightforward. No side effects and was back home really quickly.

The only advice I would give is to keep the ear as dry as possible. We got moulded putty like ear plugs and used an ear bandit headband for the bath too - just the ear plug for hair washing.

For the pain dd found lying on one of those microwave heat pads to give a bit of relief.

The grommet really made such a difference, she never had any trouble after the op. Good luck

Grommets don't resolve the issue long term. They are there to act until the ear canal grows bigger, and they normally fall out after around a year. However no guarantee how long they last.
In my ds' case he was 13yo. He had three lots of grommets lasting between 10 months and nearly 2 years each time. I was told 10yo for growing out, not 7yo. He was unusual in that he was 13yo, so he is still checked at 16yo annually. There have been few issues since he was 13yo though.

Risk on general anaesthetic, assuming no known medical issues is very low. Ds doesn't react well to them, but in his case it means he takes ages to come out properly, and vomits. He's still lying dozing a couple of hours after those in after him are running about and going home. But it's not dangerous.

Swimming can cause an issue. ENT did ds some moulded earplugs which pretty much solved them. Not all NHS ENTs do them, I think, but I suspect if you're paying private they will.

Also hair washing if they put their ears under water. Ds used to say he had "clouds in his ears". We used cotton wool for him.
Other thing is hats covering the ears in winter or if windy.
And for him it was a case of catching it early. So if he said his ear was painful, then hot waterbottle, calpol, and antibiotics when he needed them asap. luckily our GP was great, and when he was at the stage (age 3-8yo) that his ear drums burst if he didn't get antibiotics in quickly, I'd just have to phone, leave his name and they'd get the prescription out. Any time I thought it wasn't too bad and left it, his ear drums would burst, which was worse.

My dc had horrendous problems with glue ear and ear infections, by the time the grommets went in her ear drums were very scarred and her hearing and speech impacted.

Our ENT wanted to watch and wait because so many grow out of it.

Once grommets in it made an immediate difference to hearing, and infections.

There have been long term Issues with hearing due to scarring and it took two operations to sort a problem out due to the extensive scarring of the ear drums. Not to mention the number of antibiotics over the years and now first line antibiotics don't work.

I have no doubt the delay to grommets contributed to all of this.

My son had glue eat from 6 month to two years. The sleep deprivation is etched in my brain…

if she is complaining of ear pain more than usual does she have an ear infection?

My dd had grommets twice, the first time she was two and it transformed her hearing.

Unfortunately her ears continued to cause issues until she was a teen and then they finally sorted themselves out.

The GA for grommets was very quick and I don't remember it being a problem.

@Glo1988 we’re in a very similar position. DS1 is 2.9 and we discovered a few months ago via a private hearing assessment (after waiting on NHS hearing test for 8 months & counting) that he has glue ear in both ears and moderate hearing loss in both ears. So I’m following this thread with interest!
We are also fortunate to be able to go private and DS is booked in for his grommets op next month. After speaking to ENT consultant and other parents of children who have had glue ear then grommets, I feel reassured that this is the right decision and a very straight forward operation & recovery.
For DS the main concern is his speech delay, he’s had the odd ear infection but no more than your average toddler. I’m hopeful that once DS can hear more clearly, his speech will come along, but maybe not. Either way, I’m not prepared to leave him with severe glue in his ears. I’m aware the grommets will fall out and he may need another set so I have been looking into “causes” of glue ear.
My DS has CMPA since he was born, we’ve recently started the milk ladder and I’ve read that allergies can trigger the build up of glue/mucus. Does your DD have any allergies you’re aware of? I’ve also read that osteopathy can help to prevent the glue building up again after the grommets op?

My 10 year old has had glue ear since he was 1. He had 2 sets of grommets but the 2nd set fell out after 6 months and the wait to get new ones was so long so he got hearing aids when he was 8. He had a massive ear infection last year and developed a cholesteatoma which needed surgery to remove it.