Glue Ear and Grommets, please share your wisdom

[Lilybunny]

Hi all. My dd has had glue ear since she was about 2 (now 4.5). We originally were seen due to bad night time snoring and they picked it up then, apparently it's all connected to her large tonsils and adenoids.

She was supposed to have her T's and A's removed and grommets inserted, at the end of last year, but as we saw a big improvement we held off. So long story short, her hearing test today showed she would still benefit from the grommets.

We thought her hearing was pretty good at the moment and are reluctant to put her through an operation unless it will significantly improve her quality of life.

Please share you experiences with me as we have no idea what to do!!

Thanks in advance of all your fab advice

Hi there, my ds is nearly 8 and had glue ear since he was really small. He had grommets inserted at 2.5 as he was also suffering from constant infections. After the grommets were in place he had constant discharge from his ears, so they did the trick - teh fluid was not sitting in his middle ear at least! The infection rate certainly improved by about 85% I would estimate.

The grommets came out of their own accord, he gets nowhere near as much infection now and his hearing improved. He still has 2 huge perforations in each drum but that is infection damage not because of the grommets IYSWIM.

If you done long term anti b's and lots of watchful waiting I would say it is now time to try grommets.

Good luck.

Ds has a perforated ear drum one side and glue ear tendencies on the other. Our consultant has recommended not going for grommets, even though he fitted sets for dh () and says he hopes that ds will 'grow out' of the glue ear and if its not causing any significant problems, better to leave for the moment.

One thing that we found was that moving onto goats milk helped with the congestion which resulted in the tubes blocking - he's gone back onto cows milk now without a problem, but we had 2yrs off it with a noticeable improvement.

Thanks. We've not tried antibiotics as no one has ever offered, though I'm not sure they would help as she doesn't suffer from ear infections at all really. I think her glue ear is cause by her eustachian tube not clearing due to the size of her tonsils and adenoids, rather than repeated infections.

My DS (4.3) is down to get grommets in the next few weeks. He hasn't had any ear infections that I know of, but I suspect he's had fluid in his ears for a couple of years.

Did any of you notice a change in your DCs behaviour once they're in?

Oh, and was there any problems with the general anesthetic?

DD2 had grommets last year [age 5] after repeated infections, hearing loss and 6 months attending a hearing clinic. She hasn't had an infection since and her hearing at her follow up test was perfect on both sides. Any behavioural changes have been harder to detect. Certainly I was slightly surprised [don't know why really] that she ignored just as many of my requests as usual!
Friend took her daughter to the chiropractor and she hasn't had to have grommets so far.
No problems with general anaesthetic.

No problems with GA at all. Though it is a worry at teh tiem for us more than the kids I think....

ds bounced back super quickly after grommets and adenoids last year. He was just 2. Honestly, he was fine within 12 hours. There was a massive and instant improvement in his speech, and the ear infections cleared up straight away. It was a huge and very welcome change.

We went through lots of visits to the ENT Consultant who said that DS1 would hopefully grow out of the fluid in the ear.... he was about 6 or 7 then and yes I suppose it did get better - tended to have more fluid and problems in the winter.

He has suffered with ear infections constantly since he was a baby.

Tonight we had our 3rd visit to the dr in about 5 weeks. New dr, very nice who says he would like to see DS1 in two weeks time - he has given him different ab's to what he would normally have and if there is little or no improvement with the infection/fluid then he will refer him for grommets.

DS1 will be 13 in June and I wished I had pushed for these years ago, instead of him suffering.

bella - our consultant has given us antibiotic drops which go in the affected ear. For ds these work wonders - and the infections rarly reoccur quickly, unlike the general antibiotics that are taken orally... For some reason Drs are loath to prescribe them though.

Thanks for all your advice, we are going to try an otovent and see how we get on before our next appointment.

My DD had grommets in last year when she was 6 and a bit. She was due to have As removed too but they didn't in the end as they weren't too bad. i would say it's made a big difference. She is more cinfident socially and in the classroom, and we areenjoying not having to repeat everything lots of times! I wish she had had it done earlier because her hearing was badly affected. I would have the grommets. DD was absolutely fine within 24 hrs and TBH after about 6 hours after the op was hoppiong around. the anaesthetic isn't huge for grommets and they come out the same day.

DS has had two lots of grommets , last time they were inserted they took out his adenoids as they were enlarged and so they tend to block tubes up. He also has emlarged tonsils but has never suffered with tonsilitis so they remained in.

On first occassion ,age 4.5 he was back at school next day, second time he had to have a week off school as per post op instruction after adeniods out , (tonsils as well would have been two weeks)

With the grommets inserted obviosuly his hearing improved alon with his speech , he could hear much at school so please bear this in mind with your DD.

The op is very simple - about 20 -30mins under GA at day surgery unit. Thetiming of the op is done by age so the younger you are you get be at the top of the opertaing list for the day. The first time we were home by mid day and he was running around as normal !

A otovent will clear the glue initally but it will then come back when you stop using it. We used it when he was orginally diagonised but by a few months it was back and he had the op.

Agree with the antibiotic ear drops they work wonders , far better than oral ABs .

Thanks everyone for all your advice. We are back to the consultant soon so well keep it all in mind.