Ugh, When will it end?! My poor baby!!!

[love-my-wolves]

Well, my son will be 6 on the fourth of July. When he was about 2, we noticed he didn't speak too well. His favorite words weren't mama or dada or bahbah, it was hot. Hot this, hot that, it was kinda cute. Well, at 3 it was kinda annoying. At 4 it wasn't funny anymore. He pronounced all his words starting with "h" sounds. He called his sister Jojo - Dodo. We took him to the doctor to see what was wrong. He said my son had had severe ear infections, and had one at that time. He asked if I noticed any illness, fevers, anything odd. Nope, perfectly healthy. Except he couldn't talk right. Well, apparently, he had these recurrent ear infections since he was 2! He has severe unrepairable scarring on his inner eardrum. Well, we treated, sent him to a private pre-school where they worked with him daily, and when it was time for Kindergarten, he was close to "normal".

Yesterday, I noticed he yelled when he was talking. I immediately thought, "oh, no, not another infection". Last night he stayed with my FIL, and sure enough, he woke up complaining of bad earache. Then, today (stupid DR isn't open on weekends) I was having a conversation with him, looked at him, and he was spaced out! He didn't hear a word I said! I was less than 2-3 feet away. I just wanna cry! I feel bad enough we never caught the original infections, now this!!! I hope they have some options this time, I don't want this to affect him forever! Ugh!!!

(((end rant)))

 

[Dinos_rock]

I am so sorry! I hope things get better. A similar thing happened to my little sister. She had speech problems because she couldn't hear that well. She would always talk so loud without realizing it. Good luck.

 

[happyhen]

Try not to panic too much, it could be a normal ear infection that is causing him not to hear you right now (I found that one ear is usually both ears).

When you see the Dr on Monday, you may want to ask him for the name of an ENT or Otologist who has more specialized knowledge about ears and hearing.

My DD had what was supposed to be a permanent hearing deficit from repeated ear infections. When we had her rechecked a year later, her hearing was perfect.

 

[equine chick]

See a ear/nose and throat doctor. You need to get to the bottom of what's going on before permanent hearing loss develops. I would when he recovers see a hearing specialist as well to get his hearing checked.

 

[TT]

Poor baby-I know it makes you feel helpless when they are sick and you can't do anything (my youngest has asthma) Try not to panic yet. I would ask to be referred to a specialist who may be able to give you options to stop this cycle from causing any more damage.

 

[love-my-wolves]

Thank you all! I will definetely ask about the specialist! My sister, brother, and BIL all had to have tubes put in. Didn't want that for him, but might be best. We'll see. Thanks again! Steph

 

[happyhen]

BTW, my DD's also a Steph, and she did not have to have surgery. She did end up having a serum reaction to the anitbiotics that mimicked juvenile arthritis.....pretty scary time waiting for all the test results.

It's always hardest on us moms. Good luck and hold tight.

 

[Bren1222]

I am the uncertified expert when in comes to ears and hearing problems. My daughter, who is now 10 years old, developed one ear infection after another starting at the age of one. After fighting them for almost 2 years, when she was almost 3 we decided to go to an ENT. (Ear, nose, and throat doctor) He recommended tubes as there was quite a bit of fluid build up in her middle ear. After the surgery he told us that her ears were much worse then he even thought and to watch as her speech developed more to see if there were problems and if so then they would get her into speech therapy.

It was the most amazing thing. My daughter was always so calm and nothing seemed to excite her. Well it was because before the tubes she could not hear that well. After the surgery the first time I used the vaccum she freaked out. Kept yelling at me that it was loud.

As time went on, the tubes stay in for about a year if you keep the ears dry and use ear plugs at the pool, in the bathtub etc, after the tubes would come out she would be fine for awhile but the fluid would come back and we put in 2 more sets in the next three years.

Once she hit 6 yrs or so she seemed to grow out of it things were fine until she hit 9 years old. She caught a terrible cold and all of a sudden she couldn't hear. We would say something to her with her back to us and she couldn't hear it. Back to the ENT we went. Needless to say, she has terrible scar tissue from all her ear infections and her ear canals lay very low in her ears. It continued to get worse as she grew. She went back for the 4th set of ear tubes and it took them three surgeries to just get this set of tubes in. The first two surgeries they couldn't fit in the normal flexable tubes so on the third try they went with what they call a "bobbin" tube. They look just like a sewing maching bobbin but way smaller and they are stainless steel. They also tend to last longer then a year. They also did some reconstruction in the ear canals to try and lift the canals up some.

To this day the tubes are still in. We go to the ENT every 3 months to have any wax blockage cleaned out of her ears and make sure things look good. The longer they are in the better off she is. The only bad part about all of this is that her hearing is not in the normal range and probably never will be but doesn't have any speech problems etc. Her school knows to sit her in the front of the class. We also allow her to have the TV or music just a little louder then you or I would.

Get your son to an ENT soon. The sooner you get this treated the better off he will be.

We have some friends that swear by Chiropractors. Their little girl had a ton of ear infections and were recommending tubes but they read somewhere that Chiropractors can do some "adjustments" to cure ear infections so they took her there. From that day on she has never had another one and it has been 2 years. I sure would have tried this if I had known about it before I put her though everything she has been through. Just a thought.

Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions if you want.

 

[Reinbeau]

My son also had hearing/language problems from chronic ear infections from the time he was an infant (2-3 months old). He had severe hearing loss in one ear, 80%, and 50% in the other. Round after round of antibiotics would get rid of the infection only to have it return - that wa until I stopped taking him to my friend, who watched him for me the three days I worked. She smoked. The very week I took him over to preschool for those three days his ears cleared up. He was three years old. I read that smoking can exacerbate ear infection problems in children. I realize this is just my story, but it sure seems to be true for him!

 

[Love my Critters!]

My daughter constantly had ear problems, one infection to another, she was on antibiotics 3 weeks out of every month. If her allergies even acted up she got an ear infection. When she was a little younger than two, she could not talk clear or pronounce her words correctly. I took her to several ENT doctors. We put tubes in her ears, in 3 days she was speaking perfectly clearly. It worked great. The proceedure also doesn't hurt after they wake up from anesthesia, which is great. I know when she had an ear infection she couldn't hear us talking to her either, so don't freak out because if he has a lot of conjestion he won't be able to hear well at all. Good luck, I'll keep you all in my prayers.