hearing loss from fluid in ear--tubes?

[LBMarie9]

hi all- just wanted share what I found out today and hear other's thoughts.

DS was tested today and failed his hearing test--they aregoing to retest and I was told that he has fluid in the middle ear (technically an infection? not sure) they want to clear out the ear and see if they get different results (however I was whispering in my son's right ear all day later and he can hear me so I dunno- never suspected)

DS is 3 1/2 yo he had recurrent ear infections as a baby and is now allergic and/or unresponsive to anti-biotics because of giving them so much ( I learned later)- do you think this "resistant" bacteria has something to do with the possible "glue ear" that won't clear up. I called and got a referral to an ear, nose, throat specialist so we'll see himin 2 weeks.

it scares me to think he is still having fluid often - he used to have painful infections and then we took out dairy and I thought that was helping the problem since he hasn't had a "painful" infection since. He's also off egg (severely IgE allergic and gluten) his only environmental is dust (and tobacco but we don't smoke) and we do what we can around the house (hepa filter, etc)--I thought keeping himoffhis allergens wold fix the problem..does this happen often? so it must be a mix of allergies AND genetics of small tubes in ears, etc? or are we maybe missing some huge allergen?

I'm nervous to put my little boy under for a surgery!!

p.s.(my little half brother has a severe milk allergy andhas been off it his whole life basically and had horrible ear infections--even off allergens and getting tubes fluid would almost always run out his tubes and he got them 3times or more and still at age 11 has ear infections)-I don't want to go through this--especially since we don't have anit-biotics as a choice for my son!

(my DD 18mo has had the same problems--she's had 5+infections however we only needed to treat 1 with anti-biotics) she's off milk and that seemed to improve the nasty painful onesbut even she seems to have somekind of "fluid" in the ear everytime we see the dr! AH what can I do?!

I guess the further testing next Wednesday will show us what "hearing loss" there is--however atleast with my brother I think he had like 80% loss and that cleared up after removing the crap behind his ear drum so mostly it's reversible right? any help is MUCH appreciated

[sbgrace]

It sounds like you've got some ear structure issues in the family that hold fluid. I had one son prone to holding fluid and he ended up with emergency tubes. Best thing we did for him in that area and I wish I had done it long before. I had pulled all allergens (even though he had no evidence of allergy) and it was in that time frame he got the severe infection. We were also doing chiropractic and cranial sacral (both things you could try to work on the fluid issues). We were also not using antibiotics. But he still ended up with tubes. Never an infection since. He still has one tube. He's not my allergy kid--his brother has severe allergies. His brother has had one ear infection (Hib) in his life (almost 6 years old) and recovered in less than 48 hours.

To answer your other question when they culture the fluid of kids getting tubes most have resistant bacteria in there. Bacteria forms biofilms and the antibiotics can't get it. That's why, when you're in that mess, draining it (via tubes) is sometimes so helpful for kids.

[zjandosmom]

My ds3 also has dairy/soy allergies. He failed his hearing tests 3 times. I took him to an ENT because the wait and watch was NOT working. Poor kid really could not hear and the fluid was in both ears with a TON of wax build up. We got the wax cleaned out (the Dr) and then he had tubes. We were very fortunate in that he got to be part of a trial study for tubes being put in with NO GA!!! They numbed his ear drum, we got to sit right there with him during the procedure and he watched a DVD. He was not bothered in the least and he could hear!

[LBMarie9]

Originally Posted by zjandosmom

My ds3 also has dairy/soy allergies. He failed his hearing tests 3 times. I took him to an ENT because the wait and watch was NOT working. Poor kid really could not hear and the fluid was in both ears with a TON of wax build up. We got the wax cleaned out (the Dr) and then he had tubes. We were very fortunate in that he got to be part of a trial study for tubes being put in with NO GA!!! They numbed his ear drum, we got to sit right there with him during the procedure and he watched a DVD. He was not bothered in the least and he could hear!

wow-- is that common to do it without putting out? or amI probably just SOL wishing for that? wow--that would be great.

thank you for your experiences everyone-- I wanted to avoid putting my little guy out of major surgery but I think this is what we need to do (after putting us in this place with past decisions right?) or maybe it is just genetic--hopefully keeping DD off anti-biotics for her infections (while watching)- will keep her from this? I dunno. THANKS

[Deirdre]

My ds (6) is getting tubes at the end of this month. He never had a (known) ear infection but has had clear fluid in his ears since the summer. He has done pretty poorly on 3 hearing tests, including one where he could not hear a thing out of is left ear.

I hate the idea of GA, but given that he is in kindergarten I cannot go any longer with his hearing obstructed. I have no reason why this happened now, except that he swam A LOT this summer and discovered the thrill of putting his head under water. He just asked me if this is the "cause" of the "water" in his ears, to which I replied we just do not know and that it is still okay for him to put his head underwater

Good luck with your decision,

[zjandosmom]

I think we were just lucky to be part of a trial study. I would ask your Dr if they know anything about it. It really was neat. I was not wanting to use GA and was thrilled with this option. My son truly was not bothered or in any pain....ever. He didn't have anything to recover from and you would never have know he had had 'surgery' that day. I really loved that I could be right there with him during the procedure. Good luck!

[MissE]

My mom, my brother and I had recurring ear infections when we were little and now my children have it too. DS hat 9 ear infections before his 2nd birthday. I was tired of the constant abx and had him scheduled for tubes. He got them in on December 31, 2008 and hasn't had any ear issues since. DD had seven infections and a hearing loss of 40% (due to fluid) in her right ear. She got tubes in on June 27, 2009 and hasn't had any problems since. Her hearing is fine now. I'm glad we did go ahead and had tubes put in. Yes, it is surgery and they will be put under but it's minor and very brief. All together the procedure didn't even take 15 minutes and the anaesthesiologist didn't need to put any IV or breathing aids in. We went home about 30 minutes after the surgery and the kids have been fine ever since.

[KatWrangler]

Eventhough you were whispering in his ear, he could still have hearing trouble. I have mid tone hearing loss. I can't hear mid tones.

[LBMarie9]

Originally Posted by KatWrangler

Eventhough you were whispering in his ear, he could still have hearing trouble. I have mid tone hearing loss. I can't hear mid tones.

I didn't know that was possible--thank you for sharing- he gets rechecked this wed. so we'll see..glad to know tubes and such can usually fix the problem of loss.

[KatWrangler]

Let us know how things go.



Here I did find this.

http://www.pamf.org/health/toyourhea...aringloss.html

Another factor to consider when classifying hearing loss is the location of the hearing loss across the range of speech frequencies. Usually a hearing loss does not affect all frequencies the same. Frequently people will present to their doctor or audiologist with high- frequency loss, common with the aging process (presbycusis) or excessive noise exposure. Others may have predominantly low-or mid- frequency losses which affect speech understanding in different ways.