Ear pressure imbalance, nasal inflation balloons, glue ear?

[Gipfeli]

Since Mumsnetters know everything about everything, I wonder whether some of you can answer my questions.

Background:
Firstly we live in Switzerland, so things happen a bit differently here and we have some language difficulties to overcome.

ds (4.1) has a slight issue with his speech in that the sounds he makes are not very clear. Some of the things that children "normally" have grown out of by his age he still does (like being unable to say "k"). I'm not particularly worried as such about this. I know it'll get sorted. We have an initial speech therapy appointment in a couple of weeks time (the Swiss are big on therapy of all kinds).

Along with this I also asked for his hearing to be checked and after much faffing about (on ds's part) they finally managed to do the full tests. dh took ds to the hospital today for a chat about the results etc. etc. Turns out that "His hearing is fine but they want to check if the imbalance in pressure is temporary and they have also prescribed a balloon which he must blow up with his nose." (direct quote from dh's email to me)

My questions:
What does that mean? are they talking about glue ear or something else? when they say hearing is fine, does that mean that it's actually perfectly fine now, or that it's fundamentally fine in the long run and will be ok when the pressure imbalance is resolved? And finally does this have any implications for his speech or are the two unrelated?

I've tried a quick google but am not finding specific answers very quickly. I could of course ask dh but suspect that responses from some complete strangers who neither know ds nor were listening to the doctor today may actually be more informative

They really are doctor type questions though, aren't they!!!

DS had glue ear for a number of years, which impacted his speech but not his balance.

Is there any point in you and dh making a list of questions, and phoning the doctor to run through them?

Yes they are aren't they? I am just being lazy

I really don't consider this important enough to phone him/her about but I'll ask when I take ds back in August.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

We always find it harder when one of us goes to the appt., because the other always has a list of questions that haven't been asked!

It sounds like they think your ds has glue ear, that's normally what the nasal balloons are used to help with. The problem with glue ear is that it can fluctuate greatly, especially if your ds has a cold. His hearing may be fine now, but could get worse when he has a cold. The fluid that builds up behind the ear drum is connected to the whole sinus system so when children are young it can be hard for the fluid to drain because the tubes are small and get bunged up easily iyswim. The pressure used to inflate the balloon is supposed to help clear the sinuses, although I think it can take some children a while to get the knack of how to use it. Hearing and speech are very closely related, if your ds is not hearing all the speech sounds clearly then it will be hard for him to learn to copy them. From what you have siad though, the doctor is not seeing this as a huge problem and will hopefully resolve itself, most children do grow out of glue ear.

The National Deaf Childrens Society (NDCS) site is fab and full of info written in a way parents can easily understand!

Thanks bigcar.

What you've said is the conclusion I was sort of coming to, although have been a bit confused since there was no mention of the word "fluid" (which is what I'd understood glue ear to involve) but instead the talk was about the "pressure imbalance". Could be a feature of the language difference though. Oh well we'll see what happens. I just like to know what they're thinking so I can ask the right questions next time. Thanks again.