Potty training and glue ear

[pashmina696]

First time poster.. Long time reader but thought this may help someone else! I started potty training my son just before his 3rd birthday - After a week he started to get the idea but unless reminded was still having a lot of accidents. After a month we started to have perhaps one or 2 wee accidents a day but the poos just never made it on the potty. After 3 months I lost the will to carry on and we had a 5 week break in nappies where I never mentioned the potty or toilet unless he instigated the conversation. We had tried praise, rewards, sticker charts and bribery / encouragement - everything. So started again with some more success, a goal for him (sticker chart with picture of a toy he really wanted) he was often too lazy to go to the potty (even in the same room) DH eventually told him off and that his wees and poos were his to deal with. This actually helped and we only had poo accidents after that. In the mean time he had been suffering glue ear in one ear it then spread to both so eventually 5 months after I had started potty training him he had grommets inserted. 3 days later he asked to poo on the potty and self trained within a week. We still have the odd accident now 8 months on but I cannot believe it took an operation to potty train him. Must have been really bothering him. Thought this worth sharing as it was truly awful but wondered if anyone else experienced similar?

Grommets improve a child's speech and this makes them more cooperative generally.

My son had severe glue ear and was potty trained before he had grommets. I have met profoundly deaf toddlers who were toilet trained at the normal time. The profoundly deaf toddlers were BSL users and could communicate their need to their parents were also BSL users.

I don't think that bladder and bowel control have much coleration to glue ear or the ablity to hear. However a child does not need to understand what is is required of them and to be able to communicate their need to go inorder to be potty trained.

My first reaction was to dismiss it as coincidental BUT I did care for a child with server glue ear who went backwards with potty training. So while there is no connection to brain, bowel and bladder I do believe there can be behavioural issue that can cause such problems with kids who struggle to communicate.

It's amazing how much grommets can change a child, it can really open them up to engaging with others when before it was so tiresome for them they little by little pull away.

It seems there shouldn't be a link, but yes LittleBairn a totally behavioural issue as opposed to a medical one... He knew what he was supposed to be doing (he would repeat back) and the glue ear gave him "mild" hearing loss, the staff at his nursery couldn't tell he had any hearing loss at all though his speech has become clearer since the op and he is less tired and behaves better especially when in noisier environments etc. I guess glue ear will affect every child a bit differently but after what we have been through it doesn't surprise me another child regressed with glue ear. Glue ear must be pretty hard to live with and it's a shame it getting harder to get treated with grommets on the nhs.