Guest guest Posted June 7, 2012 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 3 out of 4 of my boys have had to have grommets..... with my youngest , I really tried to avoid it, he was glutein and casein free from birth, never had a single vaccination, I gave him homeopathy for glue ear, I did hopi candles on him every other day for nearly 6 months (from the first hearing test to the one before the op) and cranial osteopathy. The osteopath even did this internal (in the mouth) procedure and said he had only ever had one child before who he couldn't cure..... none of it worked and when he could only hear above 60 DBs we went ahead with grommets. He was 22 months and non verbal then and within a week he was able to walk (he couldn't let go of furniture because it was affecting his balance) and within 6 weeks or so he started to talk..... He has just had the glue ear cleared up again and more grommets as he was having his tonsils out so it meant we didn;t have an additional anaesthetic that way. His tutors (ABA/VB) were amazed the following week at how much clearer his speech was. Its a hard choice but if your child has ASD they are already disadvantaged by their autism, if you add hearing and balance problems to the mix, its even harder for them. They won't operate until the child has had 6 months of flat line hearing tests so you do have 6 months to try and clear it if you can in any other way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 8, 2012 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 Also from my experience and what I read there are lots of autistic like symptoms which may be caused by glue ear. I wonder how Kuba's language would develop if we did the operation earlier. I would advice anyone who has this problem to read Glue Ear: An Essential Guide for Teachers, Parents And Health Professionals by L.Peer (she expalins a lot of issues related to glue ear and Facilitating hearing and listening in young children by C A Flexer- an old but excellent book which gave us confidence and knowledge essential for fighting (Scotland has a wait and see policy for glue ear) for the grommets. In our case the grommets came out 2 months ago- almost 2 years after the operation and gave Kuba enough time for growing and chenging the position of the ear canals. We had an ear infection once while he had the grommets but there was no hearing loss during the illness. Deafness research were also very helpful :http://www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/content/your-hearing/children-deafness/glue-\ ear-in-children/ Kasia > > 3 out of 4 of my boys have had to have grommets..... with my youngest , I really tried to avoid it, he was glutein and casein free from birth, never had a single vaccination, I gave him homeopathy for glue ear, I did hopi candles on him every other day for nearly 6 months (from the first hearing test to the one before the op) and cranial osteopathy. The osteopath even did this internal (in the mouth) procedure and said he had only ever had one child before who he couldn't cure..... none of it worked and when he could only hear above 60 DBs we went ahead with grommets. He was 22 months and non verbal then and within a week he was able to walk (he couldn't let go of furniture because it was affecting his balance) and within 6 weeks or so he started to talk..... > He has just had the glue ear cleared up again and more grommets as he was having his tonsils out so it meant we didn;t have an additional anaesthetic that way. His tutors (ABA/VB) were amazed the following week at how much clearer his speech was. > Its a hard choice but if your child has ASD they are already disadvantaged by their autism, if you add hearing and balance problems to the mix, its even harder for them. > They won't operate until the child has had 6 months of flat line hearing tests so you do have 6 months to try and clear it if you can in any other way. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 5, 2012 Report Share Posted August 5, 2012 Yo Mark! long time no post, hope you and yours are well Mx Hi,I've been looking at this for my father recently as he has a blocked eustachian tube. Otovent looks very good by all the accounts I've read and is just a balloon that you place alternately in one nostril and blow up in order to open up your tubes and let the mucus drain, search 'otovent' on youtube to see it in action. Costs about £6 online from chemists and maybe takes 1-2 weeks using once or twice a day.You probably know of the valsalva manoeuvre - when you hold your nose and then try to breathe out against this closed airway to make your ears-pop on planes etc but there are other variations that apparently work better (some not very translatable/explainable for kids though, I have to admit):"One problem with the Valsalva manoeuvre is that it doesn't activate muscles that open the eustachian tubes, so it may not work if the tubes are already locked by a pressure differential. It's also easy to blow hard enough to damage something. Instead of using the Valsalva next time, try one of these:* The Toynbee Manoeuvre. With your nostrils pinched, swallow. Swallowing pulls open your eustachian tubes while the movement of your tongue, with your nose closed, compresses air against them.* The Lowry Technique. A combination of Valsalva and Toynbee: While closing your nostrils, blow and swallow at the same time.* The Edmonds Technique. While tensing the soft palate (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of your mouth) and throat muscles and pushing the jaw forward and down, do a Valsalva manoeuvre.* The Frenzel Manoeuvre. Close your nostrils, and close the back of your throat as if straining to lift a weight. Then make the sound of the letter "K." This forces the back of your tongue upward, compressing air against the openings of your eustachian tubes.* Voluntary Tubal Opening. Tense the muscles of the soft palate and the throat while pushing your jaw forward and down as if starting to yawn. These muscles pull the eustachian tubes open. This requires a lot of practice, but some divers can learn to control those muscles and hold their tubes open for continuous equalization.">> hello all,> just wanting to know if anyone has had experience of recurrent glue ear in their child. my son who is now above 7yrs old has had at 6yrs old a grommet insertion but there was no great positive impact on speech development. after this first surgery. he is still mainly non verbal but i am in two minds for a second surgery. does anyone know if repeat glue ear surgery is recommended and useful? also if there is anything else that works to releave glue ear that anyone knows about. thanks tahira> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 5, 2012 Report Share Posted August 5, 2012 hello this is great stuff but i doubt my kid will be able to comply with instructions to do these manoevres. i will look up otovent though. thanks tahira Subject: Re: glue earTo: Autism-Biomedical-Europe Date: Sunday, 5 August, 2012, 23:01 Hi,I've been looking at this for my father recently as he has a blocked eustachian tube. Otovent looks very good by all the accounts I've read and is just a balloon that you place alternately in one nostril and blow up in order to open up your tubes and let the mucus drain, search 'otovent' on youtube to see it in action. Costs about £6 online from chemists and maybe takes 1-2 weeks using once or twice a day.You probably know of the valsalva manoeuvre - when you hold your nose and then try to breathe out against this closed airway to make your ears-pop on planes etc but there are other variations that apparently work better (some not very translatable/explainable for kids though, I have to admit):"One problem with the Valsalva manoeuvre is that it doesn't activate muscles that open the eustachian tubes, so it may not work if the tubes are already locked by a pressure differential. It's also easy to blow hard enough to damage something. Instead of using the Valsalva next time, try one of these:* The Toynbee Manoeuvre. With your nostrils pinched, swallow. Swallowing pulls open your eustachian tubes while the movement of your tongue, with your nose closed, compresses air against them.* The Lowry Technique. A combination of Valsalva and Toynbee: While closing your nostrils, blow and swallow at the same time.* The Edmonds Technique. While tensing the soft palate (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of your mouth) and throat muscles and pushing the jaw forward and down, do a Valsalva manoeuvre.* The Frenzel Manoeuvre. Close your nostrils, and close the back of your throat as if straining to lift a weight. Then make the sound of the letter "K." This forces the back of your tongue upward, compressing air against the openings of your eustachian tubes.* Voluntary Tubal Opening. Tense the muscles of the soft palate and the throat while pushing your jaw forward and down as if starting to yawn. These muscles pull the eustachian tubes open. This requires a lot of practice, but some divers can learn to control those muscles and hold their tubes open for continuous equalization.">> hello all,> just wanting to know if anyone has had experience of recurrent glue ear in their child. my son who is now above 7yrs old has had at 6yrs old a grommet insertion but there was no great positive impact on speech development. after this first surgery. he is still mainly non verbal but i am in two minds for a second surgery. does anyone know if repeat glue ear surgery is recommended and useful? also if there is anything else that works to releave glue ear that anyone knows about. thanks tahira> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 5, 2012 Report Share Posted August 5, 2012 Hey Mandi, Good here thanks - still plugging away. Hope your family all chipper there. I do catch the digests when I get chance - you still doing fab work! Mark > > > > hello all, > > just wanting to know if anyone has had experience of recurrent > glue ear in their child. my son who is now above 7yrs old has had at 6yrs > old a grommet insertion but there was no great positive impact on > speech development. after this first surgery. he is still mainly non > verbal but i am in two minds for a second surgery. does anyone know if > repeat glue ear surgery is recommended and useful? also if there is > anything else that works to releave glue ear that anyone > knows about. thanks tahira > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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