Glue ear toddler - could Cranial Osteopath help?

[Bearlionfalcon]

Just found out my 18 month old has significant glue ear. The paediatrician said they would now monitor for three months and if it doesn’t resolve on its own he may need grommets.
He said the glue is such that he probably hears like he has fingers in his ears all the time / like he is underwater. It must be so horrible for him. He isn’t speaking much - he loves books and nursery rhymes and tries to make lots of sounds and to repeat words I say but all his sounds come out wrong. He struggles and gets frustrated in noisy environments.
I’m desperate to try something that might help to drain the fluid and have been looking into cranial osteopathy. Has anyone had any experience with this helping with glue ear? I’ve emailed one who said she has seen good results but I don’t know if I’m being taken in by a snake oil cure because I’m desperate for something that will help him.
Any other tips on managing this or things that could help him would be very welcome. We are reducing background noise and stoping tv/ radio use around him and obviously trying to tap to get his attention before speaking to him and that sort of thing.

There's a good article here on preventing the ear infections that cause and worsen glue ear, and strange as it may seem, chewing xylitol chewing gum has evidence that it helps - more evidence than cranial osteopathy, unfortunately.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279382/

Ah thanks a lot. Unfortunately he is only 18 months so a bit small for gum but appreciate the reply!

Not an immediate solution but I would recommend getting his tonsils and adenoids checked by an ENT if the glue ear persists. Especially if he also snores or mouth breathes.

My DD had glue ear as a toddler and with hindsight it was linked to small tubes due to large adenoids and tonsils, this also caused sleep apnoea - had them removed age 4 and all much better.

Oh sorry, forgot to add, we tried cranial osteopathy for glue ear. I don’t think it did much. However hers was intermittent anyway so it’s hard to say.

Cranial osteopathy is pretend, so I shouldn't think it would help.

We got grommets for our DC, they were a big help and naturally fell out as DC grew.

Cranial by chiropractor worked on my DS, either that or it was coincidence he never had any more ear related issues after 2 nasty burst eardrums at similar age to your DS, but we went on a regular basis, right up until he was 4. When the ear tubes grow they can flatten out which causes issues, gentle manipulation around this area can help the flow, I don’t know the correct medical terms. The chiropractor we went to for this specialises in paediatrics and pregnant ladies. It may help some, but not others, it did help DS though.

Honestly our son had grommets at 9 months. I'd push for an earlier appointment if you could. It rarely gets better on its own at this age. Our doctor gave us an exercise where you hold your nose and blow( like when you r trying to get your ears to pop. He said twice daily to help the ears drain.
Hard in a toddler I know!

@Bearlionfalcon

NICE do not recommend cranial osteopathy

There are things you can do to help manage his symptoms over the next 3 months eta; (which you've already mentioned you're doing)

Chiropractic is also pretend. Let alone "cranial by chiropractor". It will not have had an effect on your son. He probably just grew out of it.

Chiropractor’s are not “pretend”. Where on earth has this come from. (I’m not a chiropractor).

In young children it’s generally caused by the Eustachian tubes being more horizontal than vertical, and this usually only improves with age and growth. Please take the grommets if deemed necessary - his speech will come on leaps and bounds almost instantly! They will naturally fall out as he grows.

"Chiropractic" as a treatment is pretend. There is no evidence it does any good, but there is documented evidence that it can, and does, do actual harm.

I don’t know the correct medical terms

That is because there are no medical terms. No "gentle manipulation" of the scalp, or indeed any non-invasive procedure, can change the angle of the Eustachian tubes.

Haven’t read all the replies, but have read your posts OP.

My DC went through the same thing at a similar, maybe slightly younger age.
All hearing and congestion tests they did between 10months and 2yrs they said glue ear and mild hearing loss.
but it was a ‘wait and see’

At 18months didn’t have many words at all, not even ‘mama’ or ‘dada’ but by 20months their vocabulary had exploded!

last month, at just before 3, they had their first congestion test that showed they didn’t have glue ear.
It’s likely to be transient, may come and go. But I think as they have got older, it’s resolved itself.

Don’t lose hope yet! It may resolve on its own!

Cranial Osteopathy is magic, so it may make you feel better but it's not going to cause any physical change to your child's body.

Otovent devices do work and were recommended to us by an ENT doctor, but 18 months might be too little to follow instructions to use it.

The NHS paediatric ENT surgeon we saw told us that massaging and manipulations around the lower ear and jaw could help the fluid drain from DS’s ears through the Eustacian tubes. No it won’t change the angle of them obviously, but it could help loosen things up and help the fluid to drain according to the doctor. This is what prompted me to ask… I’ve been trying to massage him as the doctor suggested but obviously I don’t really know what I’m doing whereas osteopaths would have more experience in this area. I’m well aware that NICE don’t recommend these treatments but absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence especially when it comes to areas of medicine where research is problematic (experimenting on infants and toddlers, pregnant women, etc) which means that the number of evidence based treatments is extremely limited. (See for example the number of medicines which are deemed ‘safe’ in pregnancy according to NICE). Just because these practices don’t meet the (rightly rigorous) NICE threshold doesn’t mean they won’t help DS at all. In the case of a child who has been told he must wait three months until Grommets can be considered, and whose speech and development is suffering every day, some of these techniques might be worth a punt, especially at about £100 a time, since we can easily afford that and it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t work. I therefore wanted to seek the experiences of other people who have actually EXPERIENCED this with their child, to hear what actually helped them in real life. For those without direct experience of it- I’m more than capable of using Google and seeing for myself which treatments meet which evidential thresholds, thanks all the same.

Thanks so much for this message which has given me hope! So happy it resolved on its own for your DC

I had cranial osteopathy recommended by a midwife who frankly should have known better. All it did was part me from money I couldn’t afford to lose when I was in a vulnerable state. Please learn from my mistake.

I absolutely will. We’ve been told he needs to fail two hearing tests three months apart though so we are waiting for that and to see if it resolves in the meantime

This is interesting, was the adenoid operation prompted by the glue ear?

Enlarged adenoids often cause glue ear.

No don't bother. Spend your money on private ent if you have it to spare.

I would push for adenoid and tonsil assessment and for the grommets to be put in ASAP. My ds had glue ear and it's really affected his speech.

Thanks, I didn’t know this @VikaOlson . The doctor wasn’t able to examine DS’s tonsils or adenoids annoyingly because he wouldn’t open his mouth 🤦‍♀️

I have actually EXPERIENCED it with my child, as I said. Grommets helped, I believe. No other nonsense was suggested to us.

We had this too and linked to speech delay.

Had one set of grommets first and the 18 months later another set with adenoids and tonsils out.

The ENT wasn't that bothered about looking in the mouth, it was more about me keeping track of the sleep apnea. The adenoids were big when they took them out but I was told the only way to know they are big is to take them out. So it's more on symptoms. We had health insurance through DHs work so could go private.

Grommets really is a very quick operation. Adenoids and tonsils a bit longer but straightforward.