'Ear, 'ear!

So.

Eddie.

And her ears.

The poor girl seems to always have fluid in her ears after illnesses.  We don't actually know how often her ears have fluid.  All we know is nearly every time she's at the doctor for a snuffle, she's got fluid.  Sometimes when she's back a month later for a checkup, she's got fluid.  And on three separate checks since January 1st, she's had fluid.

She also gets ear infections rapidly, but never tugs at her ears or indicates that they are bothering her.  In mid-December she got a vaccination on a Friday.  Her ears were clear.  By Tuesday she was sick, and we took her to the doctor and found a double ear infection - her third (or technically, fifth and sixth) one in a little over a year.

I asked the doctor during that visit for a referral to get her hearing checked, to make sure all these infections had not caused damage.  After all, she was still only speaking about ten words.  She gave me one, but Eugene Hearing and Speech was booked up for over a month, and couldn't see us until January 26th.

Eddie also sees a speech therapist of sorts through a local program, so I asked them if they are equipped to give hearing tests.  They are, and she had one on January 6th.

She failed it.  But she had a cold, and probably had fluid in her ears.

So onward to Eugene Hearing and Speech, which was a much more detailed test.  They checked her ears first - filled with fluid.  I think she and Dom both had mild colds at the time.  They gave her various tests and she failed the air conduction ones but passed the bone conduction one.  This means that there is likely no nerve damage to the inner ear, but when her ears are full of fluid she hears as if she is underwater, and tests at a "moderate" level of hearing loss.  (The scale goes: none, mild, moderate, severe, profound.)

So she can't hear clearly when she has fluid, and she has fluid quite often.  The audiologist recommended a referral to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, which the pediatrician approved.  We had the ENT appointment two days ago and Eddie has been approved for ear tubes.  It'll probably be March before we can get them done, but we will hopefully see an increase in her ability to hear and in her interest in talking.

More information about ear tubes: http://www.kids-ent.com/pediatricent/ear_infections/index.html