Hi everyone,

After taking my 4 year old for a hearing test last week we discovered he has reduced hearing due to glue ear. The doctors are suggesting he may need grommets. Has anyone had this problem with their children and had success with treatments that don't involve surgery?

Hi Kazj,

a friend of mine had the same problem with her son and managed to avoid surgery. She saw a speech pathologist ( he had speech problems from the glue ear his ears were so blocked). His exercises were to blow his nose twice a day as hard as he could. If your 4 year old can't blow (mine took ages to work it out) put some talcum powder on your hand and get them to blow that, this teaches the right way to do it. Another exercise he did was to try to blow a balloon up with his nose, and guess what? he can do it now. I'm very impressed as I couldn't do ot LOL. These exercises are done because glue ear develops from blocked noses when they have a cold and can't clear them properly, this is why you most commonly hear of it in younger children. As for the surgery, it is your choice, but I would hold off for a while and see if there was any success from this

good luck Debbie

Hi Kazj,

Strangely enough, blowing a balloon up with his nose is something I was told for my sons too. It helps, I guess, if your child can manage it but four may be a bit young. Depends on the child of course.

Two of my sons were diagnosed with Glue ear, one so bad, under the age of two, his speech deteriorated (which is how I realised there WAS such a problem) and I had to take him for speech therapy to help regain his speech. Awful. He is now 17, 6ft 1 or 2 and strong as an ox. He was also badly asthmatic as a young child.

It can be a problem with little ones as when they're small the Eustacian/eustachian? tubes are small and more horizontal yet as the child grows they apparently grow less horizontal and fluid can drain away more easily. Correct me if I'm wrong, you anatomy studiers or medical people, but that's what the ENT guy said and it's stuck in my mind forever more!


Looking back and seeing what I did to alleviate or prevent the problem occuring, I would suggest the following:

Get him off dairy. Sorry if that's hard to do, but I realised this was a major factor with my kids. We switched to soy and rice milks.

Build up his health and general immunity so he gets less colds and sniffles. Garlic, vitamin C, echinaccea - the list is long! Eat wholesome, whole foods and cut out any junk and processed stuff. Take this as an opportunity to get him and his whole family healthy.

Visit a naturopth and/or homeopath and see what they suggest.

Investigate ear candling. The people in the line above can probably advise on how this can assist. I thought this was Very Strange twenty years ago along with moxa burning and Other Wierd Things but it seems to work.

Familiarise yourself with Tissue Salts. We use Nat Mur and Kali Mur for any sniffles (but don't need them much any more). Seems to bring things out very quickly and fast tracks you to recovery. Used to be in tablet form which you dissolved under your tongue but now in oral spray as well which is great for littlies. Available in health food stores. We use Martin & Pleasance.

My elderly mother swears by Vicks for a lot of things including clearing the nasal passages. I resisted for eons but am beginning to think she's right. I also used to put a few drops of a certain essential oil in a bowl of hot water and had my sons bend over that with a towel all around, breathing in and out steadily for a few minutes. An old remedy which will help, although I cannot remember what oil I used now!
:confused:

All the best. Let us know how you go...
Ree

Thanks for the suggestions so far. They are all very helpful especially the talcum powder for blowing the nose. I have heard of nose blowing and have been trying it with him but teaching a just turned four year old to blow is a challenge to say the least. I will try it with him tomorrow.

His speech is good but he keeps saying Huh? all the time poor little guy.

My twins (3 years 4 months) both have glue ear boy had it so sever he didn't talk at all, tried everything including decongestants, but the situation was getting worse not better, so 3 months ago we got grommets. It was the best thing we could have done, he now has a 50+ word vocab, and uses 4 word sentences, and with poeech therapy he will catch up with his twin sister.

Girl twin, also has glue ear, and also despite everything we are doing, it is getting worse. We have had audiologist input 4-6 monthly and he said if we don't reliee the pressure behind the eardrum soon, she may end up with permenant damage. So again of to the ENT surgeon.

Grommets serve a purpose, and ultimately their hearing is most important to us, and we also are satisfied we tried all alternatives.