Glue ear - how often does it sort itself out - i.e. no need for grommits?

[Witchycat]

DS (5 yesterday) had a hearing test at ENT today and they told me they were having to turn up the volume slightly on the faint end of the scale. I.e. his hearing is slightly impaired.

They think the reason is glue ear & said there is fluid in one ear and signs that there's been fluid in the other ear.

I think he's had mild hearing problems for a couple of years. His speech is fine, school hadnt even noticed a problem & he has no ear ache.

If the situation is the same when he's checked again in 3 months they might recommend grommits.

Would you have them fitted if there's no obvious problem?

Mmm..hard to answer, My ds (5 at the weekend) is hearing impaired, with chronic glue ear. He was not speaking (had 6 words) at age 2 but it took 1 year and repeated testing to prove that that glue ear was chronic rather than caused by a cold. He has had grommets, he tested as 'hearing' after the first operation, but was obviously impaired again within 3 months (despite having open grommets). Recently (18 months after first time) he has had grommets re-inserted and once again tested normal after the op. and seems to be impaired again now.
With my ds, the hearing loss is affecting a lot of things, he lip-reads well, but gets very tired because of it. He was assessed as at a lower level than he really was when he started school and has had a very unhappy stressful year (he is finally getting work more suitable to his ability and all of a sudden we have a happy boy). He was having problems socially as he couldn't keep up with chatter. He finds it difficult to understand colloquialisms(?spelling sorry) due to having less exposure to language than the average 5 year old.
It seems from your post that your son isn't showing these sorts of problems so in your position I would be reticent about the op. unless your son's doctors come up with a good reason...in this area you have to really push to be offered grommits, they like to a) wait and see and b) give medication ( I seem to remember anti-histamine being mentioned but maybe I imagined that).

I thought these days grommits were a last resort? It does sound a bit extreme to me especially if he has no obvious hearing/speech problems.

Ds2 had glue ear from around 6 mths to 2yrs and failed at least 6 hearing tests. Eventually he was released from ENT this year (he is nearly 4). His glue ear does seem to have cleared up. The turning point for him was a low dose of antibiotics taken daily for 2 months after that everything was fine. I have heard people say the antibs didn't work for them though.

I would get a second opinion or at least ask for other options before going straight for grommits as the do have to be implanted under general anasethic I think.

Sorry to hear it's caused all sorts of problems for your ds Bluebear. We've been pretty lucky so far with ds although he is shy when being questioned by people he doesn't know (doctors etc..)or in groups where the spotlight is on him (e.g. circle time at school) & I'm wondering now if this stems from a hearing problem.

Obviously I need to wait for the test in 3 months but it's interesting to hear other's experiences. Have the hospital/GP said why the grommets aren't working in your ds' case?

23 balloons - yes, I would be keen to try other methods before grommets. The leaflet they gave me about glue ear even mentions complimentary therapies.

Anyone ever tried anything like that?

(I know about the link to dairy food but he doesn't have much anyway)

My DS was diagnosed with glue ear recently (he's 5 in Sept). I originally took him to doc re his breathing and snoring and constant runny nose and he was also very nasally when speaking etc.

Consultant said his adenoids were enlarged and he had glue ear. Gave him anti-biotics for 6 weeks then we went for a hearing test = slightly impaired hearing.

Saw a cranial osteopath once a fortnight for 3 months then went back to consultant. Glue ear gone on one side, cleared up considerably on the other. Continued with the cranial and hoping for it to be completely gone when we go back next month.

Personally I would try anything before surgery and as my DS didn't have a speech prob, ear ache or any noticable hearing problems (although the hearing test did come back as a slight problem) we didn't want him to have grommits unless absolutely necessary.

KBear - how does the cranial therapy work? Sounds interesting.

No one has told us why the grommits don't work - but since ds also had sleep apnoea (stopped breathing when asleep several times a night) he had to go under general to get his tonsils and adenoids removed. Now sleeps like a baby, thank goodness. Original thoughts were that the adenoid was blocking the eustachian tube so that it couldn't drain fluid from the ears...now there is no adenoid there is no new theory for why his ears don't seem to drain - I guess his tubes too small and horizontal and that with time, they will get bigger and slope downwards more, and eventually they will drain naturally. The grommits merely 'ventilate' the ear, so i guess ds produces loads of fluid, whether ventilated or not.
S'all guess work though. In the meantime I tell all his teachers that he lip-reads and he sits at the front of the class. He also is very routine-dependant so they usually make a point of telling him if the routine is going to change.

Message withdrawn

hello

this is otovent . basically it is a way of getting small childern to make their ears pop, htis stretches the eustacian tube, helping the ears to drain more successfully. this improved DS's glue ear by 100% in the summer months but it couldn't really cure it complelety in the winter.

we then had cranial osteoptahy. i was shown how to do the exercises on DS each night, this was wonderful too but i did have to spend 10-15 mins each ngith doing the exercises. atm we don't do the exercises nor the Otovent but over the last week DS has been complining that he can't aleays haer his friends.
time to re-intrduce them i think.

the ototvent is avaailble over the counter and is about £8 for 5. it odes need toi be used for a while before you see resilts.

ds was similar to your DS witchy, altho' he was getting ear infections. i wanted to explore other avenues before opting for a gen anaes for what i feel may be a 'fashionable' op. i'm very glad we opted for the alternatives and stuck with them.
i have also heard of dairy prducts making things worse; you could give that a try.

Ds had cranial osteopathy, well i was taught how to do it on him

Thanks for all your replies & sorry if it seemed like I'd disappeared for a day or two.

I'll try some of the methods suggested if the Audio in 3 months gives the same results as I expect it will becuase I think this has been going on for a while now.

thanks again