Post- Otitis Auditory Dysfunction

This is my son too. One audiologist told me that intermittent hearing loss is the most destructive kind developmentally. We found out when my son was almost 4 that he had middle ear fluid. He had tubes put in at that point. Looking back, it is clear that this was not a one time event. The thing that is so frustrating is that he had even had a speech and language evaluation which including auidological testing a year earlier which had been totally normal. We think, in addition to fluid in his middle ear, that he had low grade undiagnosed ear infections—it would explain his grumpy toddler behavior. But they must too have been intermittent—he received regular medical care and noone spotted anything.

I have been told by both audiologists and slt that his intemittent hearing loss overlaid on genetic auditory weaknesses is responsible for his langauge based difficulties. (My daughter is a poor speller, having a hard time picking up spanish, and scored miserably on PACE test on word attack skills. But she reads all the time for pleasure and gets straight A’s in school. )

We have been able to make a major change in his health by using chinese herbs. Dreadful tasting stuff but it is like night and day in terms of his ears being clear. Before our NN therapist was always finding negative pressure in his ears.

Beth

What type of chinese herbs? My child had a high pain threshold as a toddler. Although he wouldn’t complain of pain, I would pick up on signs he displayed, such as tilting his head, or rubbing an ear. I would take him in and sure enough, he would have a full blown, and nasty, ear infection.

We have done alot of immune system building type of diets. She has been very healthy for 2 years now - hardly even gets a cold. (knock on wood) I had started to see a pattern with colds/asthma and when she had the flluid. Up until couple years ago (prior to immune system diets) she was getting colds about every month. In the winter months, she was sick more than healthy. I also saw a relationship with when she had a cold and how she was doing on her ‘digit span’ exercises. When she was sick - she would drop a level.

But we haven’t been very good with the vitamins and diet over past year(maybe longer now). I haven’t had her ears checked in quite some time. I’m only assuming it’s alot clearer now because she has been healthy - but have no idea if that is really true.

My son had ear infections too. My theory on it is that my dd has extremely small ears and ear canals. (Dr. and nurses always comment about how difficult it is to even see into her ears because of how tiny they are.) My son has huge ears.

I know it sounds kind of stupid - but if your ears and canals were small - it would seem to me that if I had the same amount of fluid buildup in my dd as my son - it may not block the whole hearing canal in my son as it would in my daughter?

I just think pediatricians need to be more alert to this.

I actually don’t know exactly what it is. The audiologist he sees for therapy recommended the practitioner after we could not get a handle on his negative ear pressure. She had taken her own son to see him for the same reason—her son has Down’s syndrome so there are structural reasons why he had ear problems. Prior to the Chinese herbs, we had used saline solution twice a day. It had helped but did not fundamentally change his health.

Beth

My daughter also has teeny tiny ear canals, and her problem has not been ear infections (thank goodness, they’ve been very rare) but wax buildup that affects her hearing.

she’s 12 now, NLD, actually has strong auditory processing, we knew from day one that she had tiny ear canals, but only discovered the wax buildup/hearing loss when she had a bad cold when she was 6 (and they couldn’t see anything). We take her 2-3 times a year to ENT doc to clean out wax, and treat with baby oil in between to try to keep the buildup down.

You are the first person I’ve ever heard of with a kid with small ear canals!

Both my sons had fluid in their ears even though they weren’t getting ear infections.

Some of the things that helped were:
removing all dairy products from diet
chiropractic adjustments
non-steroid nasal spray rx from pediatrician (Astelin)

I think the test for fluid in the ear is called a timpanogram.

The above work for many kids. Eventually my older son had his adenoids removed because he had pretty severe sleep apnea.

At any rate, it needs to be dealt with one way or another.

Good luck.

My friend is an MD in Ireland. When we were there for a family reunion my nephew got another of his many ear infections. We took him to our friend who told us that some kids have shorter ear canals and are prone to ear infections.

He said it was more common in boys. I never heard this in the states and neither did my sister.

Hi DEA,

Thanks for posting the website to that interesting article. I know my 15yo dd continues to have problems with middle ear fluid buildup. She had a bad sinus infection w/o ear infection Nov/Dec and again this month. Ever since the first sinus infection (treated w/oral antibiotics), she has complained about not being able to sing anymore! And it’s not a matter of being hoarse but I suspect it’s “clogged” ears. She even asked if she could do TLP again to help restore her singing ability. She also likes to use the ‘closed caption’ when watching tv. In the past, she has been treated w/additional rounds of oral antibiotics to help clear up the middle ear fluid but that is not done anymore. Does anyone know what other treatment(s) are available this problem?

Blessings, momo

The little printout is also known as a tympanogram.

The tubes don’t keep the pressure stable when she has any swelling or irritation. She probably has some kind of allergies which kick up first and then they develop into a sinus infection. Been there….What has helped me is to use a Nasal Spray with my ENT prescribed…And she should respond positively to a nasal spray that will help keep the swelling down and keep the tubes working properly.. Something prescribed like Rhinocort or Nasonex should keep those tubes working.

Our son had this problem, too. He’s outgrown the ear infections, has tubes inserted all of the time (if they come out, they’re re-inserted; has had the present ones for two years now).

However, here’s the big problem now. Apparently during that very important young child window when they are acquiring language, Kevin missed a lot of it. He’s a bright child who doesn’t know what a lot of simple words mean. This sucks when it comes to things like standardized tests, etc. He and his twin brother brought home a packet from school that is supposed to help them prepare for the CT-Terra Nova given at the end of third grade in our district, and one of the reading paragraphs actually contained the word “inconsequential”. Now how is a kid who didn’t know what “comb” was a couple of weeks ago supposed to decipher “inconsequential” (his “normal” twin didn’t know what the word meant, either, which made Kevin feel better).

We have Kevin enrolled in LMB therapy and he’s catching up. I don’t know if he’ll ever catch up completely, as some evidence suggests that the window does indeed “close”. But I’m confident he’ll be successful one way or another. We believe in him.

JAO