hearing question...

December 31, 2009

Hi all,

Posted on the new site as well, but will post here as well. My 2 year old son

was diagnosed by his SLP as having verbal and oral apraxia a few weeks ago. He

began speech therapy and we're working on EI services. He also started his fish

oils. My question to the group is regarding his hearing.

Just to rule out hearing issues I took him to an audiologist, who said that he

was not hearing properly and that it looked like there was fluid in his ears. We

saw the ent who barely looked at my son and sent us over for surgical scheduling

of putting tubes in his ears. So, I went to my pediatrician who told me that he

had tons of wax in his ears and that would have made the tympanogram flat. So,

he cleared the wax out and said that his hearing was fine.

I made another appointment with a different ent (apprently the first ent has a

terrible reputation of scheduling surgery before you step foot into the

office!). Just went and he also said that his tympanogram was not normal and

that he had fluid in his ears. He wanted to try and put him on a steroid and

antibiotic for two weeks and recheck him to see if the fluid had cleared. If it

hadn't, then he would put tubes in given his speech issues, if it had then he

would keep him on allergy medications for a good part of the year until he

outgrew the problem.

So, I guess the question is, did anybody here have an issue like this, fluid in

the ears. By the way, my son has had no ear infections. So, that's not an issue.

I'm not sure which route to go. I really don't want to have my son on all of

these medications, but I'm not sure I want to do the surgery either. And, I've

been reading studies that show that even with speech delays, having the tubes or

not having the tubes hasn't made a difference. But, I'd hate to think that I

wasn't giving him the best and clearest shot at hearing and speech that I can

give him.

Any advice, experience or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Aliza

December 31, 2009

Aliza

My son had the same issue and he couldn't hear and he had tubes. The surgery was

five minutes long and he is definitley saying more words since the tubes. It was

definitkey harder on us than him

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

[ ] hearing question...

Hi all,

Posted on the new site as well, but will post here as well. My 2 year old son

was diagnosed by his SLP as having verbal and oral apraxia a few weeks ago. He

began speech therapy and we're working on EI services. He also started his fish

oils. My question to the group is regarding his hearing.

Just to rule out hearing issues I took him to an audiologist, who said that he

was not hearing properly and that it looked like there was fluid in his ears. We

saw the ent who barely looked at my son and sent us over for surgical scheduling

of putting tubes in his ears. So, I went to my pediatrician who told me that he

had tons of wax in his ears and that would have made the tympanogram flat. So,

he cleared the wax out and said that his hearing was fine.

I made another appointment with a different ent (apprently the first ent has a

terrible reputation of scheduling surgery before you step foot into the

office!). Just went and he also said that his tympanogram was not normal and

that he had fluid in his ears. He wanted to try and put him on a steroid and

antibiotic for two weeks and recheck him to see if the fluid had cleared. If it

hadn't, then he would put tubes in given his speech issues, if it had then he

would keep him on allergy medications for a good part of the year until he

outgrew the problem.

So, I guess the question is, did anybody here have an issue like this, fluid in

the ears. By the way, my son has had no ear infections. So, that's not an issue.

I'm not sure which route to go. I really don't want to have my son on all of

these medications, but I'm not sure I want to do the surgery either. And, I've

been reading studies that show that even with speech delays, having the tubes or

not having the tubes hasn't made a difference. But, I'd hate to think that I

wasn't giving him the best and clearest shot at hearing and speech that I can

give him.

Any advice, experience or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Aliza

December 31, 2009

My daughter had tubes put in around 1 1/2 for the same reason. She never had an

ear infection but she did have wax and fluid in her ears. It's such a quick

surgery. I would recommend it. Good luck

________________________________

From: Bonni Roseman <bonniroseman@...>

Sent: Thu, December 31, 2009 7:46:42 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] hearing question...

Aliza

My son had the same issue and he couldn't hear and he had tubes. The surgery was

five minutes long and he is definitley saying more words since the tubes. It was

definitkey harder on us than him

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

[ ] hearing question...

Hi all,

Posted on the new site as well, but will post here as well. My 2 year old son

was diagnosed by his SLP as having verbal and oral apraxia a few weeks ago. He

began speech therapy and we're working on EI services. He also started his fish

oils. My question to the group is regarding his hearing.

Just to rule out hearing issues I took him to an audiologist, who said that he

was not hearing properly and that it looked like there was fluid in his ears. We

saw the ent who barely looked at my son and sent us over for surgical scheduling

of putting tubes in his ears. So, I went to my pediatrician who told me that he

had tons of wax in his ears and that would have made the tympanogram flat. So,

he cleared the wax out and said that his hearing was fine.

I made another appointment with a different ent (apprently the first ent has a

terrible reputation of scheduling surgery before you step foot into the

office!). Just went and he also said that his tympanogram was not normal and

that he had fluid in his ears. He wanted to try and put him on a steroid and

antibiotic for two weeks and recheck him to see if the fluid had cleared. If it

hadn't, then he would put tubes in given his speech issues, if it had then he

would keep him on allergy medications for a good part of the year until he

outgrew the problem.

So, I guess the question is, did anybody here have an issue like this, fluid in

the ears. By the way, my son has had no ear infections. So, that's not an issue.

I'm not sure which route to go. I really don't want to have my son on all of

these medications, but I'm not sure I want to do the surgery either. And, I've

been reading studies that show that even with speech delays, having the tubes or

not having the tubes hasn't made a difference. But, I'd hate to think that I

wasn't giving him the best and clearest shot at hearing and speech that I can

give him.

Any advice, experience or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Aliza

December 31, 2009

Yes, I did have an issue with it. My son had his hearing tested 3 times and

it always came back normal. Imagine my suprise when I went in for our

transition to the schools and they did a hearing test and he failed! They

said it might be because of fluid in the ears as the tympanagram was flat.

I was so surprised. My son off and on runs allergies. Thinking back, none

of the other tests had been at a time when he had a runny nose/allergies.

However, quite often when I had been into my pediatrician he had commented that

my son had fluid in his ears but no signs of infection.

We decided to take him into an ENT about 3 weeks after this test and again, he

had a massive amount of buildup of wax/fluid. As we were already scheduled

to have his adenoids out for therapy we decided with the ENT that if he had

fluid in there at the time of surgery (which was another 3 weeks later) we would

go ahead with the tubes. We've had them in for 3 weeks now and I can't say

whether it's due to the tubes or the adenoid removal (he now is sleepign better)

but he has been talking more and more each day.

If you do opt for surgery don't stress yourself out too much. It's very quick

surgery. 5 minutes is probably pretty accurate estimate. Both of my sons

surgeries combined were like 30 minutes. Probably the part that scares people

the most is having their child get anestesia. It made me very nervous the

first time, but my son has had it twice now with 2 different surgeries and has

always fared well.

If it were me, I'd recommend trying the tubes. They are only in for I think

like 6 months, it's a very basic procedure done quite frequently and if it might

help your son's speech I'd say it's worth it. I decided not to do allergy

testing at this point in time because I've been told until about age 3 it really

isn't worthwhile. I'm not saying that's the truth just the direction I've

been steered in by more than one of my son's docs.

Best of luck!

Sue

[ ] hearing question...

Hi all,

Posted on the new site as well, but will post here as well. My 2 year old son

was diagnosed by his SLP as having verbal and oral apraxia a few weeks ago. He

began speech therapy and we're working on EI services. He also started his fish

oils. My question to the group is regarding his hearing.

Just to rule out hearing issues I took him to an audiologist, who said that he

was not hearing properly and that it looked like there was fluid in his ears. We

saw the ent who barely looked at my son and sent us over for surgical scheduling

of putting tubes in his ears. So, I went to my pediatrician who told me that he

had tons of wax in his ears and that would have made the tympanogram flat. So,

he cleared the wax out and said that his hearing was fine.

I made another appointment with a different ent (apprently the first ent has a

terrible reputation of scheduling surgery before you step foot into the

office!). Just went and he also said that his tympanogram was not normal and

that he had fluid in his ears. He wanted to try and put him on a steroid and

antibiotic for two weeks and recheck him to see if the fluid had cleared. If it

hadn't, then he would put tubes in given his speech issues, if it had then he

would keep him on allergy medications for a good part of the year until he

outgrew the problem.

So, I guess the question is, did anybody here have an issue like this, fluid in

the ears. By the way, my son has had no ear infections. So, that's not an issue.

I'm not sure which route to go. I really don't want to have my son on all of

these medications, but I'm not sure I want to do the surgery either. And, I've

been reading studies that show that even with speech delays, having the tubes or

not having the tubes hasn't made a difference. But, I'd hate to think that I

wasn't giving him the best and clearest shot at hearing and speech that I can

give him.

Any advice, experience or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Aliza

January 1, 2010

Aliza, My son had similar issues (negative pressure, fluid - w/ no infection)

for at least 4 years. I routinely took him to the audiologist that I work w/,

she would occassionally recommend going to see the dr to rule out ear

infections, finally we ended up at the ENT office, we did a hearing test (he

hears fine, but the tympanagram (sp?) was showing the neg. pressure, so the ENT

prescribed nose spray (the audiologist said she thought many ENT were now using

nose spray instead of antibiotics), we tried that for about a month, during

which time he came down w/ his first ear infection (he was 4), so the ENT

recommended tubes, the procedure was so fast (the ENT came out to speak w/

another family, saw us, said he was going to see Garret next and would be right

back). So far (it's been about 9 mos) everything ahs been fine. I have to

wonder how much that has affected his hearing different sounds (his SLP thinks

that he may have auditory processing disorder b/c he is not hearing the right

sounds, which if you're not hearing the sounds correctly, how can you say them

correctly?!)

Just an FYI - many of my students w/ speech issues have/had tubes, tonsils and

adenoids out. It's made a huge difference when they get the tubes (can't really

say anything about the tonsils/adenoids), some of them start sepaking so much

more after getting tubes. Obviously there could be other factors playing into

that as well- age, amount of tx, etc.

Good luck to you and your son.

Bonnie

January 3, 2010

Aliza

I wish I could turn the time and do the operation when my son was 2. He is 4,5

now and not hearing propely for so long has effected his speech development, his

tuning in to listening, his social interaction and self esteem. We are in the UK

and the doctors here are not doing so many of the tube operations as in the US.

Glue ear is a very serious condition for a child who is learning to talk. It is

also very confusing for the parents and other people working with the child

because is a fluctuation condition- it means that one week your child may hear

fine and very bad the next one. We have to fight to get grommets for our son but

I worry he may already some auditory processing problems because of prolonged

glue ear.

Don't wait...

Good luck

Kasia

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January 4, 2010

Hi Kasia,

Thank you so much for your response and advice. We have definately decided to do

the tubes. I want to make sure my son's hearing is perfect before we really

start pushing with all the therapy!

Thanks so much again and good luck to you and your family,

Aliza

>

> Aliza

> I wish I could turn the time and do the operation when my son was 2. He is 4,5