Glue ear in 4yo

[intrepidgiraffe]

A few months ago we noticed that we were having to repeat ourselves a lot to our 4yo. Other symptoms at the time were that he seemed very tired, irritable and easily frustrated. The GP saw lots of wax, couldn't see any glue ear but referred us to audiology.

The appointment was today and he's been diagnosed with glue ear in both ears as well as lots of wax.

I know we will now have to wait 3 months, but I feel so guilty as my gut feeling is that this is a long term issue. In recent weeks his hearing seemed completely better and I only took him along today because the appointment was booked, not because I had any ongoing concerns. The tiredness and irritability had been much better. Preschool have never raised hearing concerns. He's never had ear infections.

I now think maybe we have just got used to repeating ourselves if he doesn't hear us.

DH and I are both introverts, and it's therefore been no surprise to us that 4yo doesn't really love loud places, and prefers to play alone or in a small group.

4yo does still have some unclear speech, but he's always been advanced with speech development, it's more that some sounds are still unclear (eg f instead of sp ie 'foon' instead of spoon).

I now worry that maybe he's not been able to hear properly for years and it's had an impact on speech and social skills. He starts school in September and I'm concerned with the 3 month wait there isn't time to get it sorted out.

We have ordered an Otovent and are going to use olive oil to hopefully help with the wax.

Has anyone been in the same situation of being diagnosed with glue ear and thinking with hindsight it might have been ongoing for some time? What ended up happening?

Both my children have had glue ear and both grew out of it eventually. They were both on the list to have grommets fitted, although I wasn’t keen on them having an operation so was hoping that time would sort it out. My DD grew out of hers during Covid and my youngest needed a hearing aid for a while but is fine now. Both were fine by the time they were 7.

@Fluteytooting thanks for the reply.

Although their hearing is now fine do you think it had any long term impact on their speech or social skills?

I think I would prefer hearing aids if he's likely to grow out of it soon anyway - did your son get on ok with them?

No, I don’t think so. The hearing aid was a bone conductor aid which he wore in a band over his head. It worked well and most children in his class thought he was just wearing a cool bandana.

Don't worry about not spotting it.

Ds had bad glue ear. At one point his hearing was less than 10% of what it should have been. If he hadn't had constant ear infections then I wouldn't have spotted it.
ENT pointed out how much he was lipreading - I just thought his cute little habit of patting my cheek when he wanted my attention was because he was competing with two big sisters. He liked subtitles when watching, but I thought he was just interested rather than using them to help hear etc.
ENT said it was totally normal for parents not to realise as they just adapt round the child.
He could hear the word "food" whispered at 50 paces...

Edited to say: Ds asked for a hearing aid (another dc in his class had one and he thought it was cool) instead of his third set of grommets. They said that because his ear drum was bulging, grommets would be far better, as otherwise his ear drum would just keep bursting.

He is 17yo and hasn't been discharged from ENT because he still does have some glue ear, but they see him on request rather than regularly now. He had regular appointments until about 12/13yo because it was still quite an issue for him.
Most children grow out of it by about age 10yo.

Thanks so much @MargaretThursday that's really reassuring

DD6 is having grommets on Sunday. She does have a hearing aid on occasion but it’s more the constant bursting of the ear drum. Last weekend they both went while we were away and she was screaming in pain in her sleep. It’s taken a long time for us to get to this point (way over 2 years) but her vocab is very good for her age and no effect on her reading.

I had this as a child, i learnt the ability to lop read and had no idea this wasn't how everyone else heard! I remember being 6ish and my family could hear a plane overhead and I couldn't hear it at all. I had ENT appointments and a few rounds of grommets. My hearing now isn't great, I use subtitles and lip read a lot.