Glue ear - but with no signs of deafness

[KBear]

DS is 4. Been to the hosp today to see consultant. DS is nasally, snores, breathes though his mouth, is constantly needing to blow his nose. Consultant says he has glue ear and probably enlarged adenoids. He's taken blood and had an x-ray and put him on a low dose anti-biotic for 6 weeks. Then we have to take DS for a hearing test and another consultation.

Consultant says DS is 30db down on his hearing according to his resonance tests BUT DS has shown absolutely no signs of deafness. He's at pre-school, they've not picked up anything. He doesn't need the tv loud, he speaks well, he responds when I speak, never says, "pardon" or "what did you say?". So how bad is 30db down? From what I googled it's not great but I can't understand why there are no signs of deafness.

Any ideas?

The consultant did only a resonance test and could say exactly how much hearing loss your DS had? The hearing loss in glue ear is usually up to 30 dB but you'd need a proper test for this (earphones or visually reinforced audiometry), not just the tuning fork. AFAIK the tuning fork only shows if it's a conductive loss but can't say exactly how much.

Don't worry too much, if it's just glue ear it is transitory and recovery is complete.

Thanks girls.

Christina - he also did another test which gave a print out result but I don't know what it was - he said it tested the amount the ear drum moved (due to fluid behind it it would be restricted) by putting in negative and positive pressure.

I have a lot to read up!

I'm not unduly worried but DS really shows absolutely no signs of deafness so I am puzzled. I talk to him the car with the radio on and he hears me no problem, I call him when he's running up the road and he hears me, last night he was watching tv laying on the floor and I stood in the doorway and whispered "can you hear me?" and he said "mummy I can hear you - why do you keep saying that?". We did get on his nerves a bit yesterday!

Anyway, after the anti-b's for 6 weeks they will do a hearing test and then we'll know where we are.

Thanks.

That would be a tympanogram. Again, shows that there is glue ear but not degree of hearing loss. Good luck with the testing. There's lots of info here {link{www.listen-up.org\listen-up}

My DD1 has just turned 2 and also has just had grommets inserted for glue ear.

We also could not notice any signs of deafness and her development had been normal including her speech and language. We had not noticed that she needed the tv or cd player much louder either.

It took us a while to agree to her having grommets inserted because we did not think she was particularly troubled by her below average hearing and she was not unwell with ear infections either. However, 3 weeks ago we bit the bullet and had it done and the difference in her is remarkable.

Her speech was good anyway, but it is even better now - even stretched to 'sh!t' yesterday (copying mummy!). She is generally more spritely and interacts better with other people - adults and kids alike. She now turns the tv and cd player down and hates to loud hoover - she never knew it was loud before.

I'm not saying that the same would apply to your DS - but this is our experience - I hope it's helpful x

It is helpful to read that meganandlucymummy! Of course I am guided by the experts but we were quite taken aback to find out he had some hearing loss - we initially took him for breathing problems!

Christina7 - interesting! Do you think he just guessed at his hearing loss after reading the results of the tympanogram? Is this your line of work or do you know all this from experience as a parent? I may have more questions for you.

Thanks all.

Parent experience mainly - DS is deaf and wears hearing aids. We've been to dozens of tests (about 10 a year, although less frequent now).

I'm struggling with this with 9 year old (have been to docs a lot over the years) and had hearing tests from a consultant - apparently hearing is fine but he says speech sounds muffly. We've just started a dairy free diet on the doctor's advice and he has nasal drops. The drops haven't done anything yet and his breathing is still very nasal. One more week on dairy free then we're going back to docs. Niece had adenoids out and her speech and breathing improved dramatically.