hearing problem (flud in ears?) for 1yr old

My DS at about 9-10months started saying a few words (cat, mom, dad)
and now he's back to babbling. He had an ear infection and we thought
his hearing went away.

We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

It's been 2months (son is now 1yr old) and he still doesn't respond
to loud noises. On occasion he does hear things. He's still not
using the words he had learned and we think he may have had another
ear infection but just didn't complain about it this time around.

This is the only doctor I can get a referal from because of insruance
restrictions. He's not a bad doctor, but sometimes you have to
force the issue with him. I called him this morning to bring my
son in this week.

Have other people had this experience before? I google'd this topic
and realized that some children can lose their hearing because of
fluid build-up from an ear infection.

He responds wonderfully to visuals. From across the room he can see
if the screen saver on our computer has a picture of him or one of
the cats and point to it. He points to people from afar that he
recognizes and is *VERY* playful so I don't think this is a cognitive/
developmental issue.

So I guess my question is what people can ask of our doc when we
meet with him. If this sounds like it could be fluid in the ears,
what's the best course of action (ear tubes?).

Any advice is appreciated.

wrote in message
...
My DS at about 9-10months started saying a few words (cat, mom, dad)
and now he's back to babbling. He had an ear infection and we thought
his hearing went away.

We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

We were in the midst of remodeling when we moved our baby into
our house. She didn't even flinch when they were using the nail
gun. I was sure she couldn't hear. But, as the pediatrician pointed
out, she would turn her head to look if you quietly called her name.
I think babies and toddlers are better at screening out really loud
sounds.

On the other hand, my older one had chronic ear infections from
3 months until we finally got ear tubes at 9 months. I was wondering
if she just heard jibberish, because she would talk in jibberish. Sure
enough, on the way home from getting ear tubes she could mimic our
words perfectly. (For those worrying about how old until they could
talk, yes she was an early talker, and a very, very late walker, and
now that's she's in high school everyone has caught up :-)

On Mon, 24 May 2004 09:58:39 -0500, wrote:

My DS at about 9-10months started saying a few words (cat, mom, dad)
and now he's back to babbling. He had an ear infection and we thought
his hearing went away.

We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

It's been 2months (son is now 1yr old) and he still doesn't respond
to loud noises. On occasion he does hear things. He's still not
using the words he had learned and we think he may have had another
ear infection but just didn't complain about it this time around.

This is the only doctor I can get a referal from because of insruance
restrictions. He's not a bad doctor, but sometimes you have to
force the issue with him. I called him this morning to bring my
son in this week.

Have other people had this experience before? I google'd this topic
and realized that some children can lose their hearing because of
fluid build-up from an ear infection.

He responds wonderfully to visuals. From across the room he can see
if the screen saver on our computer has a picture of him or one of
the cats and point to it. He points to people from afar that he
recognizes and is *VERY* playful so I don't think this is a cognitive/
developmental issue.

So I guess my question is what people can ask of our doc when we
meet with him. If this sounds like it could be fluid in the ears,
what's the best course of action (ear tubes?).

Any advice is appreciated.

Say this to your doctor:

"I am concerned that my son seems to me to have poor hearing and has
not progressed in speech development for several months since he had
an ear infection. I understand this may be a sign that he has middle
ear effusions with conductive hearing loss, and the best way to rule
this out would be to see an audiologist, qualified to test infants,
for a hearing test and tympanograms."

By the way, ignoring loud noises is, as another poster noted, seen in
infants with otherwise normal hearing. If you think about it, watching
response to loud noises is not really going to help you pick up subtle
hearing loss. You should look for response to soft noises. Things
sound muffled and soft noises get missed when you have middle ear
effusions. You don't go completely deaf to loud noises first.

PF

I read about a way to test a baby's hearing:
the parent hides in such a way that the baby can't
see the parent and doesn't know where the parent is.
The parent peeks out when the baby is looking the
other way, and says the baby's name (quietly, or
whispering, or whatever). I suppose you could
say the name louder and louder until the baby
responds. If there is no-one else in the room,
the baby is just about guaranteed to turn and look
at the parent if the baby hears. (I suppose one
way to work this is: one parent hides; then the
other parent puts the baby in the room and goes
away.)

For any sort of ear infection, I suggest it's a good
idea to make sure the baby is getting plenty of vitamin C.
People with infections usually need more vitamin C -- sometimes
a lot more -- than normal healthy people. It helps the
immune system fight the infection.

I'm trying to think what might help move the fluid
from the ears. Trying to get baby to make yawning movements,
perhaps. Playing a funny-faces game involving some
faces where the jaw is open wide. Maybe keeping baby
in an upright position most of the time so gravity can
help. (or raising the head of the bed somewhat.)
The motion of breastfeeding is supposed to
help open the Eustacian tube, so spending more time breastfeeding
or sucking on things might help I suppose. I would try
breastfeeding with baby in an upright position, or if
one ear seems to be more affected, then with that ear
slightly elevated. These are just my ideas. I would do
a number of things like these repeatedly over a number of
days and expect them to help gradually; I wouldn't expect
immediate noticeable results from any of them.

You can also teach your baby sign language. Many people
do this even if baby can hear perfectly well. Apparently
babies can learn sign language at a younger age than they
can talk. Sign language exercises most of the same parts
of the brain as are used in spoken language. That way, when
baby recovers his hearing, he won't be behind on language
development except the actual sound part.

--
Cathy

PF Riley wrote:
We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

I agree with the other posters about the loud noises thing.

DD has had FOUR hearing tests and failed ALL of them. However, on the final
test (at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing), the tester didn't look
for a 'normal' response but just looked for eye movement. She said that
DD's hearing was completely normal, but she was just screening out the
noises of the test because she was more interested in interacting with the
tester/doctor.

DD doesn't seem to have any hearing problems.

ROSIE

PF Riley ) writes:
Say this to your doctor:

"I am concerned that my son seems to me to have poor hearing and has
not progressed in speech development for several months since he had
an ear infection. I understand this may be a sign that he has middle
ear effusions with conductive hearing loss, and the best way to rule
this out would be to see an audiologist, qualified to test infants,
for a hearing test and tympanograms."

Excellent. With the jargon and everything. I don't see
how the doctor can argue with that!
--
Cathy

Thank you SO much for this post. I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow.

In misc.kids PF Riley wrote:
On Mon, 24 May 2004 09:58:39 -0500, wrote:

My DS at about 9-10months started saying a few words (cat, mom, dad)
and now he's back to babbling. He had an ear infection and we thought
his hearing went away.

We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

It's been 2months (son is now 1yr old) and he still doesn't respond
to loud noises. On occasion he does hear things. He's still not
using the words he had learned and we think he may have had another
ear infection but just didn't complain about it this time around.

This is the only doctor I can get a referal from because of insruance
restrictions. He's not a bad doctor, but sometimes you have to
force the issue with him. I called him this morning to bring my
son in this week.

Have other people had this experience before? I google'd this topic
and realized that some children can lose their hearing because of
fluid build-up from an ear infection.

He responds wonderfully to visuals. From across the room he can see
if the screen saver on our computer has a picture of him or one of
the cats and point to it. He points to people from afar that he
recognizes and is *VERY* playful so I don't think this is a cognitive/
developmental issue.

So I guess my question is what people can ask of our doc when we
meet with him. If this sounds like it could be fluid in the ears,
what's the best course of action (ear tubes?).

Any advice is appreciated.

Say this to your doctor:

"I am concerned that my son seems to me to have poor hearing and has
not progressed in speech development for several months since he had
an ear infection. I understand this may be a sign that he has middle
ear effusions with conductive hearing loss, and the best way to rule
this out would be to see an audiologist, qualified to test infants,
for a hearing test and tympanograms."

By the way, ignoring loud noises is, as another poster noted, seen in
infants with otherwise normal hearing. If you think about it, watching
response to loud noises is not really going to help you pick up subtle
hearing loss. You should look for response to soft noises. Things
sound muffled and soft noises get missed when you have middle ear
effusions. You don't go completely deaf to loud noises first.

PF

In misc.kids PF Riley wrote:

hearing loss. You should look for response to soft noises. Things
sound muffled and soft noises get missed when you have middle ear
effusions. You don't go completely deaf to loud noises first.

He's not responding to soft sounds either. It just seems cyclical
and already this morning my wife called and said he was responsive
again.

On Mon, 24 May 2004 14:49:16 -0500, wrote:

In misc.kids PF Riley wrote:

hearing loss. You should look for response to soft noises. Things
sound muffled and soft noises get missed when you have middle ear
effusions. You don't go completely deaf to loud noises first.

He's not responding to soft sounds either. It just seems cyclical
and already this morning my wife called and said he was responsive
again.

Maybe he just needs one of those buttons that says, "I'm not deaf, I'm
ignoring you." :-)

PF

On Mon, 24 May 2004 20:12:15 +0100, "Rosie" wrote:

PF Riley wrote:
We would make a loud noise behind him and he wouldn't respond. The
doctor said to use a bell instead saying that people often misinterpret
hearing problems. He did respond to that and the doctor said that meant
his hearing is ok.

I agree with the other posters about the loud noises thing.

DD has had FOUR hearing tests and failed ALL of them. However, on the final
test (at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing), the tester didn't look
for a 'normal' response but just looked for eye movement. She said that
DD's hearing was completely normal, but she was just screening out the
noises of the test because she was more interested in interacting with the
tester/doctor.

DD doesn't seem to have any hearing problems.

There is a difference between problems hearing and problems listening.
The latter are far more common.

PF