What should I do if I suspect my child has glue ear?
If you are a parent and you suspect your child has a hearing difficulty or glue ear, trust your judgement and consult your family doctor - if possible, get an appointment close to a time when you are fairly sure that your child's hearing is affected.
What will happen at the doctors?
If your family doctor suspects that your child has glue ear, (s)he will want to check first of all whether the eardrums show an acute infection. The doctor may then ask questions about your child's general health as well as about how the condition is affecting your child's hearing and the duration of the infection. (S)he may suggest a hearing test.
If the fluid does not seem to be clearing, the doctor may refer your child to a trained practice nurse, an audiologist or to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist, usually at a hospital, for further tests. You will be asked more detailed questions about your child's ears, hearing and development.
These are some of the tests your child might have:
Otoscopy
The doctor will look in your child's ears to see if any fluid can be seen behind the eardrums. It is not always easy to get a good look at the eardrum but if there are signs of acute infection, past or present, the level of suspicion will be raised.
Tympanometry
This is a test which shows how flexible the eardrum is. For good hearing it needs to be flexible so as to let sound pass through it into the middle ear space, and from there into the inner ear. If the eardrum is too rigid (for example, if there is middle ear fluid ('glue') behind it), the sounds bounce back off the eardrum instead of passing through it. The amount of sound bounced back shows whether your child has glue ear.
To perform tympanometry, the tester places a small tube with a soft rubber tip at the entrance to the ear. This allows gentle air pressure changes to be applied. If the instrument shows that most sound is bounced back, the tester will know that your child has glue ear.
Audiometry
Audiometry tests for the quietest sounds a child can hear - usually the sounds are high and low pitched tones (or whistles). Sometimes children are asked to listen to names of toys and to point out the toy they think they have heard.
A school-aged child will usually be asked to press a button when they hear a sound presented through earphones. Younger children respond by playing a game, such as putting a peg in a board when they hear the sound. Infants generally won't wear earphones but the tester can tell if they can hear sounds by watching the child turn towards a loudspeaker, or towards a sound-making toy.
By decreasing the level of the sound the tester can work out the quietest sounds that the child can hear.
