It's looking likely that my son may have to have grommits. He's failed 4 hearing tests & is being referred to a specialist. He seems to have normal hearing in every day life but fails the tests every time. He has had fluid in one ear since he was first tested so they think it's been there since birth. It never clears. He's also had fluid in the other ear for the last two tests. He has not had any ear infections yet. Touch wood, cross fingers, toes and everything else.... I've been told to expect them over winter. The only reason we had him tested was that he was in special care for 5 nights when born & my hospital referred me on for the testing as a routine matter. I seriously would not think he's got any hearing issues if I had not had him tested.
Anyway they can't tell if the hearing issues are from the fluid so that has to be treated first - maybe without grommits or maybe with them.
I'm just wondering what other's experiences with this were.
Would private health insurance be any advantage for getting this done? I'm presuming it would be to avoid waiting lists. I'm in Melb & I have no idea if this is just something you get done at your local hospital or if you have to go the the RCH for that type of thing. Tonsils & adenoids growing in the way was also mentioned as a possibility. We are on a health care card & my income will be reducing soon when I go part time so I don't want to take out PHI if there's no real need for it as it will be a struggle to pay for it.
A friends DS just got them due to the fact his speech was not clear at age 3 and 1/2. He had so much fluid in hi ears that they didnt even bother doing test, his normal day to day hearing was not majorily affected was slightly.
He had appt the monday and gromits put in the thurs same week, they had private insurance and saw private pead.
My DD will be getting gromits at 18 months (in November), she has a cleft palate and hearing difficulties and wears a hearing aid due to fluid in the middle ear.
Her surgery will be at RCH and she will be having it at the same time as her cleft repair, there are no charges for me, although she was an impatient for 3 months and has since been an outpatient in many clinics so I am not sure if this makes any difference $$$ wise, I doubt it would matter.
Good luck, I hope that the gromits clear up any hearing problems your DS has.
You may not notice any real prob with hearing until he really starts to talk.
My DS was very sick, each & every month with colds, infections etc & we got his ears checked to see if that was part of the prob. It wasn't until his daycare mentioned that he was behind all in his class with speech that I realised he prob hadn't been hearing us properly. He was hearing just not properly...he also got very cranky really easily as he got frustrated when he couldn't understand & vice versa. We got them done for this reason & to hopefully not spend another 12months on antibiotics etc. So far so good & he now talks the leg of a table very well. Winter can be hell for kids with fluid in their ears.
We had private health....we got in a couple months after finding out he needed them. The waiting list without can be very long. And it was still costly, we had to pay the ENT surgeon, the anetheasist (sp?) & the place where it was done. It was day surgery in & out in about 3hrs at a day surgery centre.
My Son Xavier is on his second lot of grommets. He has glue ear due to a immature ear canel however has good hearing and excellent speech and always had. It all started from a ear infection and it was that bad he had stuff coming out of his ear. So off to the specialist we went and he had his first lot of grommits. These last about 6 mths.. Then he had another ear infection again with yuk coming out of his ear so back to the specialist we went and he now has 18mth grommits in. I am crossing my fingers and toes we dont need any more. The specialist said that it should be ok by the time he is 6... I am hoping... We went private as we have PHI. But I do know my specialist does it public as well. The procedure is done day surgery too.
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Grommits due to hearing issues
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