Why Parents Need to Watch For Signs of Glue Ear in Children

The middle ear is full of air through which sound waves are conducted to the ear drum. When your child gets a cold or other respiratory virus, it can cause the middle ear to become full of fluid or mucus. The fluid can remain there for up to a month but it usually drains away on its own without medical treatment. But it is good practice to have your doctor make sure that it is all clear and the best timing for that is 3 or 4 weeks after the infection. But if it stays for than a couple of months, the risk is that your child will have to be medically treated in order to prevent hearing loss.

Typical Symptoms in Children That Indicate Glue Ear

Loss of hearing is the most common symptom that may indicate your child could be suffering from glue ear.

Why Parents Need to Watch For Signs of Glue Ear in Children

Glue ear usually only affects one ear (unilateral) but it can affect both ears (bilateral).

If your child is affected with glue ear, the amount of hearing loss can range between mild and severe.

Depending on the level of seriousness, the doctor might choose to simply do nothing but wait as the condition usually will correct itself without the need for treatment at all. In extreme cases when medication fails to correct the condition, surgery may be necessary.

So as a concerned parent, what should you be looking for as clues pointing to glue ear?

The fundamental sign is when your child seems to be finding it hard to hear sounds clearly.

If your child is having problems with study, is not able to understand class lessons and displaying a drop off in their social skills and participation in general conversation, it would be a good idea to look out for these other indicators:

Do you notice that they don't seem to understand what others are saying when they have a soft voice or are at a bit of a distance?

Combined with that, you may also notice that your child is uncharacteristically showing signs of irritability or becoming tired a lot sooner than you would expect under normal circumstances.

When they have to strain in order to hear things that are usually easy to recognize, this tends to sap your child's energy. Loss of hearing has many effects.

When you are together in a shopping center or busy street, anywhere there is a lot of background noise, take notice of their ability to hear and understand what people are saying to them.

This struggling-to-hear will often lead them to give up on conversations simply because they cannot understand what is being said.

To you as a parent, it may appear that they are simply disinterested, distracted and preferring not to engage in normal conversations.

Glue ear will make it quite difficult for your child to properly grasp what people are saying if they are a short distance away. They may only be capable of understanding direct, face-to-face conversations.

It's easy for a parent to despair that their child is being difficult, but these effects will quickly turn around once the glue ear is healed and full hearing is returned.

There are other symptoms of glue ear that can occur less often, but you should also note these signs:

Is your young child showing signs of being slow to develop their speech and language skills?

Be aware of ear pain that seems to re occur from time to time -- irritability and problems with sleeping that can't be explained as the result of other obvious causes. The interference that glue ear causes to the middle ear can also show if your child is having problems with their balance or if they seem to be clumsier than normal.

As a parent, you will want to do whatever you can to help prevent your child from contracting ear infections. That's because they can go on to cause glue ear and potential hearing loss.

Do what you can to reduce your child's exposure to other children with colds and maintain a smoke-free environment; these are two areas that increase the risk of ear infection.

So when should you seek medical advice?

Hearing is always an important area of health that needs careful attention. So, naturally, if you're concerned that your child may be having problems with their hearing, you should contact your GP and get some expert medical advice to avoid the risk of damage.

Glue ear is the most common cause of hearing loss in children but it is not the only cause.

Be careful not to self-diagnose; the doctor may need to carry out other tests to make sure that other conditions are not causing the hearing loss or pain.

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