Signs of glue ear in 9 month old and support route

[bongopow]

Hi everyone. My baby passed the newborn hearing screen with no issues. I recently came across the 9 month ASQ form. Now I know all babies develop differently, but in the communication section he can do almost none of it.

My DH has autism so DS may be more likely to have it, but I don't think this is related to that. DS makes excellent eye contact, smiles and laughs at us a lot, looks to us for approval, wants us to play with him, is quite clingy, loves cuddles, loves peekaboo with a blanket (except only does the action not any sound) and is generally very sociable.

However, he doesn't ever respond to his name or calls to get his attention. He is often startled by things that he "should" have heard coming but doesn't seem to. He has only recently started babbling single consonant sounds e.g. "buh" but mostly he's still just doing the sing-songy ghost noises like "oohhhOOHHHooohh". He doesn't repeat sounds we make, and if we copy the sounds he makes, he smiles but we cannot get any sort of back and forth copying game going. Sometimes he seems to be trying to join in when we do this but he's just makes his own random noises.

I was also worried after seeing things in the ASQ about them responding to instructions like "give me that". He does give us things sometimes but never because we asked. I do not believe he knows the meaning of any words e.g. he loves playing with his ball but if I say "shall we play with the ball?" he doesn't get excited until I actually get the ball out.

He can definitely hear some things as he likes to "headbang" to a certain song on one of his toys and he does look over when there's a loud bang. But maybe he just doesn't hear things very clearly?

I recently learned about glue ear and I am concerned it could be that. Is it the kind of thing I should speak to the HV about? Or the GP? I'm not a big fan of the HV but will obviously contact her if that's the best route to getting it checked.

Do you know if they are likely to do anything about it or do they tend to just wait and see? Is it possible to even do a hearing test on a 9 month old? I assume they wouldn't be compliant enough for the type of newborn hearing screen anymore and he cannot communicate to confirm if he's heard something or not. Anyone have any experiences to share please?

Ds started glue ear at 10 weeks old, with constant ear infections. By constant, I mean a 10-14 day cycle of ear infection, antibiotics (and yes he did need them), 2-3 days clear, ear infection.

He had grommets at 20 months, 3.5yo and 6yo. He continued with glue ear until he was about 12/13yo but at 16yo still gets ear infections. ENT haven't quite signed him off yet.

I wasn't really aware of how little ds could hear until he had hearing tests where he was old enough to react properly. Then they found his hearing was less than 10% of what it should be.
What he did do, was compensate wonderfully. I thought he had a cute little habit of patting my cheek when he wanted to talk. I thought being dc#3 he had found an attention getter-turned out he was turning my head so he could lip read. He could lip read well. Did you know a lot of people mouth their PIN number as they enter it? I didn't, until he started a party trick of telling people their PIN numbers in shops. Ooops. 😂
When he watched things on the computer, he always had subtitles. Helped him to read, but it meant that the words with the sounds he could hear helped him.

Anyway, I expressed concern on the ASD spectrum when he was probably about 4 or 5. I was told for the next 7-8 years one of two things:

1. Glue ear mimics ASD; he'll be better when the glue ear clears.
2. He's a summer boy; he'll grow out of it when he matures.

Anyway he's now diagnosed with ASD and ADHD-what they described as just over the line to meet the criteria for diagnosis.

So anyway, what I'm saying in a very long way is:
Yes, it could be glue ear. For ds, he was referred to ENT because of the ear infections. But you want to go in and express concern about his hearing to the GP. Give examples. (eg I opened a can behind him and he didn't turn round) If you go straight in with glue ear they'll probably fob you off a bit because it can come and go. You are concerned because you think he isn't hearing very well and it is effecting his development is the best line to take.
He'll then be on the waiting list, and, sorry, it can be pretty long. I think we were referred about 9 months and he got seen at 19 months. But better to be on that list-if your concerns go in that time, you can refuse the appointment.

But although it could be glue ear, it could be autism too. So if he does have glue ear, but as he improves with glue ear (and most children are better by around 8yo, ds was unlucky that way) don't discount the possibility of having both. In particular, don't be fobbed off.

And if he is on the autism spectrum, he is still your lovely little boy. Don't feel that it will limit him.
Ds is one of the beautifully quirky (he better not see this!) children with ASD. He has a lovely group of friends that are quite similar to him, and had just got a good set of GCSEs and is on to A level. The diagnosis has meant he can gain in confidence knowing that it isn't just him being "naughty" and it helps us understand when he reacts in certain ways. It has really helped him both at school and at home.

Thank you so much for your reply and for the advice. I will definitely avoid specifically mentioning glue ear and will instead focus on his hearing and potential affect on his development. I will start noting some specific examples as well to explain.

Good point as well about the fact it could be both. I will keep an eye out and make sure we aren't fobbed off. My DH has autism and I have ADHD so we are prepared for the likelihood he won't be NY and will make sure to fight for any support that he needs when the time comes.

Thank you!

My son had glue ear from this age. They can absolutely do hearing tests on a baby this age, they play noises in different places and see if the baby turns his head to the noise. My son had his first set of grommets at 21 months and his 2nd set at aged 6. Then covid hit and the waiting list for grommets was so long that we switched to hearing aids when he was 8.

Make a GP appointment as a first step.

They can do hearing tests at that age, but they're very dodgy because it just requires them to look round at the right moment.
Ds responded brilliantly to his hearing test at 9 months. You wouldn't have known he couldn't hear much, but he was very good at working out things were going on. Dd2 didn't respond at all because she was far more interested in trying to open the cupboard next to her. She could hear, juts was not interested in the silly noises going on.
They can do the puff test though, which does give a good sign of if there's glue ear present. You want to see a good peak on the chart. Ds' was often completely flat.

The hearing test they did when he was 19 months, they put the headphones on and told him to put a "man in the bus" (toy) if he heard a sound. I worked out fairly quickly that he was not listening at all, but watching the nurse and using her body language to work out when to do this. When I'd pointed this out they aborted the test and decided he needed grommets anyway.
Once he was old enough to do the computerised one with press the button ("being a pilot" was how they made it a game) then he started getting accurate readings. I think he started doing this around aged 3yo, because the "man in the bus" game was useless as he was so good at reading people round him instead of hearing.