Glue ear advice please

[Donutofdoooooom]

Hi,

My DS is 4 and is currently on double digits with ear infections and burst ear drums, an ongoing issue since he was a tot! Last year she was diagnosed with glue ear and had an op to remove adenoids and put in grommets. Unfortunately the grommets failed pretty quickly, after the first cold I think!

He's still under ENT but they aren't keen to do anything other than "monitor the situation" despite him being in pain regularly/sleep and speech disrupted etc.

I've noticed that everytime he gets a cold/cough etc, he then gets an ear infection or burst ear drum after a week or so. GP will prescribe a weeks antibiotics, and all will be fine for 3-4 days after finishing the course, then something else will crop up. A few times it's been a recurrence of the ear infection, sometimes tonsillitis, UTI or strep A/Scarlett fever. Does anyone else's little one go through this same pattern?

Any other advice on glue ear? Here's everything we're trying/have tried:

• Saline spray in nose to help clear colds
• daily antihistamine
• inhaler (for recurrent cough, made no difference).
• balloon thingy they need to inflate from their nose everyday
• shower cap or silicone ear covers in every bath/shower

-gave up swimming because it seemed to cause more issues, even with ear covers

• we don't use q-tips
• ears protected in cold/rain
• he's great at hand washing / blowing nose in tissue rather than sniffing

Why didn't they try grommets again?
Can you push for that? We are on 2nd pair after first failed (one after 2 weeks)

We used to go through a lot of recurring infections, with my eldest and my youngest. They both grew out of it eventually, without grommets etc. There was a real intense period of infections and then it got lesser and lesser.

@nhsmummmy I assumed that if they failed, they would retry as all the info beforehand had been about sometimes needing them redone, but they've now said we need to meet the threshold all over again and it's an 18 month waiting list again, but they want to monitor for a while first and see if he needs to go back on the waiting list!

Since they failed last year we've had 3 or 4 burst ear drums so I'm really pushing now because it isn't slowing down.

My sympathies to your DS, I've struggled with glue ear and constant ear infections my entire life. In my own experience, glue ear improved once the adenoids had been removed and my ears could drain properly. My adenoids have been removed twice as they grew back, and I'm currently waiting for a scan as I think they're back again!

Nothing over the counter works, and neither will holding his head over a bowl of steam, nose balloons etc.

That's really rubbish- we got them done fairly quickly the 2nd time and in the meantime had some temp hearing aids but his main issue was hearing- I'm sure the HA may not be a great idea with lots of infections!
It's so frustrating! When we were on the list I phoned fairly regularly to make sure we were on the short notice waiting list and to check where we were....I'm convinced that made a difference but I might be wrong! I also requested the GP ask for him to be seen urgently.
Hopefully it's sorted soon!

Olbas oil on tissue overnight.
We are on cold 1 since sept as we went away oct half term.. So imo vit d dit make a difference.

For dc1 small amount of piriton daily. So tiny bit. However she does niw have yellowish teeth...

She used to get high temp for ages before it burst and a lot of pain.

Does he drink enough.i think you want to ensure nose runs rather than stuck up in sinuses.

Does he have asd as i think that can impact immunity.

Could it be a food allergy?

Thanks everyone!

No ASD, we suspected some ND signs but these could also be put down to the glue ear/hearing issues. Nursery say they don't see anything, but they also don't really notice the hearing loss etc as DS is so used to managing it as he's had this all his life basically.

Fluid intake and general food intake is good. When it's at it's worst DS will chain eat cucumber or watermelon as I think it gives some comfort.

No other signs of food allergies but I did read earlier that milk/dairy can be linked to this somehow?!

I was going to suggest food allergy. Maybe try 4 weeks off dairy (and all hidden dairy) if youve got nothing else to lose.