11 m/o getting ear tubes Friday

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ourgodiswonderful

New member
Hello.

As the title says, Friday my 11 month old baby is getting tubes in his ears. Since I'm anxious, (I know it's very fast and he'll be fine, but you know.. parent anxiety lol) I've been reading everything I can.

I've been on many older reddit posts and other message boards (as well as a billion articles 😅). Mostly what I'm finding is people talking about how horrible their kids ear infections were before tubes and whether they helped or not. Some talk about hearing and communication improvements as well.

Has anyone had a child who was NOT getting ear infections, but had hearing loss? And did your child regain all of their hearing?

My son has never had an infection, but does have fluid. He did pass his newborn screening, but now has what the ENT said is, "severe hearing loss".

Not looking for medical advice, just any experiences! I'm sure he will regain his hearing, but I'm also trying to stay cautiously optimistic. I also posted in the parenting subreddit, but it didn't get much response.

Btw, send all the good vibes our way because he can't eat after midnight the morning of his surgery and this baby nurses around the mf clock, man

Thank you!
 
@ourgodiswonderful Hi! So I think sometimes ENTs can use certain vocabulary in ways that are misleading to patients and families. Fluid (“otitis media with effusion”) in the middle ear is- from a hearing standpoint- not really different than an acute ear infection (“acute otitis media” - aka the type a doctor might Rx antibiotics for). So the idea that he has “never had an infection” is somewhat irrelevant bc if the doctor has visually confirmed the presence of effusion (fluid of any type), then your child has the same physical abnormality (congestion/gunk!) in the ear keeping the sound from traveling through normally, if that makes sense.

Did they actually complete a preoperative hearing test? The doctor (or preferably, the audiologist) should clarify as to whether or not the hearing test they did showed a CONDUCTIVE hearing loss, a MIXED hearing loss, or a SENSORINEURAL hearing loss. The type of loss is a better indicator as to whether or not it is likely to resolve w the tubes, or if there may be an underlying problem unrelated to the fluid.

Every once in a while the fluid is a red herring, and there is an underlying hearing loss that needs to be corrected in other ways. They should retest post-op and if it persists after the tube placement then the ENT may order a CT scan or other imaging to double-check and move forward from there.
 
@byrd4god Thank you for explaining that! That makes so much sense.

They may have specified which type of hearing loss, but if they did, I don't remember. They did the test to see if his ear drums moved and they didn't, so they did the test to see if he turned towards sounds in a booth. The only sound he turned towards was when she said his name through the speaker at a loud volume.

They will have us back in February to retest his hearing, and the doctor did tell me that if baby shows hearing loss again at that point, they'll send us to place for more specialized testing.
 
@ourgodiswonderful Ok! It isn’t that unusual for the bone conduction hearing testing to not be performed on a child that age if the tympanogram (eardrum movement test) is abnormal. They are basically assuming that it is a conductive loss, or at least partially so, at this point. Good luck with the tubes and the follow up!
 
@ourgodiswonderful Hi! I’m a medical professional that works in peds ENT. It can be very common to have anywhere from a mild to severe hearing loss with chronic middle ear effusion (fluid on ears) or chronic and/or recurrent otitis media (ear infections). Usually it is conductive hearing loss but can be hard to determine in young children depending on the type of testing used. I explain to parents it’s similar to if we (adults) had a hearing test while we were sick with a cold, flu, or other respiratory illness—we would likely have some degree of hearing difficulty present. We all know it’s sometimes hard to hear when your ears are congested, however our Eustachian tubes function much better and can clear the fluid easily once the illness resolves. Babies, toddlers and young children are much more prone to keeping fluid on their ears due to narrow/immature Eustachian tubes. Speech and language development is key in this age group and hearing loss/difficulty hearing from fluid or infections is very likely to cause a speech delay if not treated (tubes or myringotomy without tubes). In my experience, the repeat audiogram testing after tubes, in your child’s age group, is almost always back to baseline. Some exceptions include sensorineural hearing loss or other inner ear abnormalities that are very rare. I have seen some older children (usually older than 4) have some degree of residual hearing loss still with the repeat audiogram; these are children that probably had chronic OM or effusions for extended periods of time in infancy and toddlerhood and it unfortunately never cleared, causing probable permanent damage to the hearing bones. I don’t see that often at all. I hope your child’s surgery goes well and that this helps them! I know it’s a difficult decision to make. All the good vibes your way!
 
@kylon Thank you so much! I truly appreciate the response from someone in the field. This has made me let myself feel so much more hopeful! I've been so cautious about getting my hopes up and I'm keeping in mind there's still that very small chance, but reading just how small it is brings me so much peace.

I'm very excited to see his "speech" and communication improve. I wanna hear my baby babble lol. Thank you!
 
@ourgodiswonderful Speech language acquisition is really at 18 months, that’s when it takes off. You’ll still see improvement. They will probably tug at their ears after (new sounds). Keep in mind if they are in daycare or exposed to viruses they probably will get some infections (hopefully less) and you can use drops to treat.
 
@ourgodiswonderful So I can tell you a little about my now 10 year old. He passed his newborn screening for hearing and everything seemed fine. But once he reached toddlerhood the tantrums and inability to listen/understand what I was saying, and communicate was getting really bad. He wasn't having recurring ear infections so the doctors didn't seem concerned. (In this regard, I wish I had known then what I know now and pushed harder for testing) He was later diagnosed with profound hearing loss in his left ear and autism. And the poor kid literally couldn't hear because he had so much fluid in both ears. We got the tubes put in and it was night and day. He was calmer, would communicate more. I could actually begin to get his attention.

We've had years of speech therapy and other behavioral therapy (due to autism as well). But I can say the biggest factor in his quality of life has been treating his ears. He was around 4 when the doctor brought up a hearing implant. I decided against it since he has sensory issues and I didn't want to permanently install/alter his body without him being educated on it. (This was a personal choice, and I don't regret it. I know that there are parents that opt in to having the procedure done for their child, and I think that's the right choice for them). He's now 10 and says he doesn't want one.

He did get prescribed a hearing aid (cochlear, that is placed on the bone behind his ear) that he can wear on a stretchy band around his head. He prefers not to. Every year he goes to an audiologist for a check up. He's still deaf in his left ear but his audiologist says that if he functions normally in his day-to-day life (which he does), then he is free to not use it.

All this to say, tubes were a great choice for him and our family! We do have to be mindful when he goes swimming (ear plugs) but otherwise it has been a net positive for him.
 
@aaron1990 Thank you so much for your response! I'm glad tubes improved his hearing and communication!

We noticed from videos it seems like our little guy started losing his hearing around September. We went back and watched everything when it all kind of hit us. He's our 4th so we're very "wait and see" people at this point. He wasn't communicating, but he was earlier than the rest of my kids with physical milestones. He also had stopped responding to his name, but his 4 year old brother and his 6 year old sister are both dx autistic, so I honestly just assumed that's where we were headed with him and didn't really think of it.

We were talking about it all one night, and it just hit us, so we started trying to test his hearing at home. Doing anything and everything, and there was absolutely no response.

I'm nervous, but excited to see how the tubes improve things for us! Thank you again for sharing your story with me.
 
@ourgodiswonderful I really hope everything works out for your little one and your family! I would give almost anything to have caught his hearing problems earlier, but it is what it is. I have 4 and my 5th on the way and it's crazy how each kid is so different and develops in their own way.
 
@ourgodiswonderful A friend of mine has a kiddo that was born at 27 weeks, and he got tubes for this reason. My oldest (now 9) had ear infections often, but also had perpetual fluid retention. She got tubes at 14 mos. I will never forget seeing her eyes widen when we talked to her the next day, she literally said Dada with a mind blown expression. She just couldn't hear the consonants we were using. 🥹 It was an amazing thing, I'm so grateful for modern medicine.
 
@ourgodiswonderful My son got tubes for mild to moderate hearing loss right after he turned two. His follow up audiogram was normal and his hearing has improved. He had maybe 30 words when he got the procedure and now, four months later, he has so many new words I stopped tracking and is stringing three words together at a time. The improvement to his language didn’t happen overnight but now it’s amazing to realize how far he’s come in four months.
 
@ourgodiswonderful My kid had repeat ear infections and so retained the fluid in the middle ear forever during/ after colds. Definitely had some hearing loss.

He just got tubes a couple weeks ago at 4yrs (and his ears were “clear” when they were placed - no infection, no visible fluid) and he can’t stop commenting “I can hear much better now!” and “mama, why do you talk so loud?”

His behavior is also waaay more mellow and he has many fewer meltdowns. Sleeping better.

Not hearing well and constantly having to try and decode what’s going on are exhausting. Takes a lot of energy that is then not available for emotional regulation.

Good luck! Hopefully it helps your kid feel better!

The only thing we wish we had gotten a heads up on is to warm the antibiotic drops to body temp and that those going in the ear can be very uncomfortable (more or less depending on the person). My kid dislikes them with a passion but is old enough to reason with. He tells me “they should have told us! I didn’t like being surprised!”
 
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