DS with a 'nee-naa in his ear' - WWYD?

[CinnabarRed]

DS (2.2) has been telling me for the past couple of days that he has a nee-naa in his left ear. Nee-naa is his word for siren.

At first I dismissed it - we live within a mile of a hostpital, police station and fire station, so I assumed that he was hearing passing ambulances, etc.

However, he has woken in the night for the past two nights, and none of the emergency vehicles use their sirens at night - there's no need as there's not much traffic. I wondered if it was his toy fire engine, which sometimes does make noises randomly, so I took it out of his room but that's made no difference. He isn't upset when he wakes up, he just wants to tell me about it and then goes back to sleep. However he has been waking much earlier than usual (5:30 AM rather than 6:45 AM).

Now I'm wondering about either an ear infection or tinnitus. When I ask him if his ear is hurting he sometimes says yes and sometimes no. I'm not sure if he understands the question, TBH. He's also due his last back molars coming through which could make his jaw ache sometimes.

Would you take him to the doctor to be checked out? I don't want to drag him to the surgery unnecessarily (or waste the doctor's time) given he doesn't seem distressed, but equally don't want to ignore a problem if one is there.

Thanks.

If it were my DS, I'd take him to be on the safe side. It might be tinnitus - I'd certainly want to get it checked out though.

Is he steady on his feet? If he's a bit wobbly it could be an inner ear infection (they don't hurt, just make you unstable on your feet)

My Dd suffers from sounds in her ears at times, she described soldiers marching!
She gets a build up of wax deep in the ear and they can get quite blocked which causes the sounds, could be just that, get them checked.

I took him to the GP. She says that there's no sign of infection and that he's probably hearing a build up of fluid in his sinuses left over from a recent cold. Nothing to do and nothing to worry about!

Thanks for your replies, it's good to have my mind put at rest.