Ear infections/verbal skills

lrn327

C has had lots of ear infections and will soon get referred to the ENT I believe.  I've noticed that C had started to say actual words a couple months ago but within the past 4-6 weeks (really the time we've had constant ear infections), he hasn't said much.  He consistently says mama and occasionally dada but also knows hi, bye, tickle, pup-pup (for dog), ball, duck, and hippo and just doesn't seem to say them any more.  We may have only heard each word once or twice though, not a lot.  He seems to understand the few signs we use with him and will sign "all done" pretty consistently.  Has any one else with a LO with lots of ear infections noticed any decrease/slow going in verbal skills?  I'm sort of starting to get worried.

1CINCYGIRL

I am a ped RN.  Yes kids that have frequent ear infections can have delayed speaking problems.  They often will have tubes placed in ears to help with infections and it allows the kids to hear better.  A close friend of mine has a 4 year old that needed a few sets of tubes.  He is now 4 years old and takes speech therapy, but is verbally slowly catching up with other kids his age.  Since you are being sent to an ENT,  they will prob want to place tubes in your LO's ears.  I hope everything works out with LO.

OhSewCrafty

My coworker's 2 year old had lots of ear problems between his first and second birthdays. His speech was slightly delayed as was his walking (balance issues), but after getting tubes, he's almost completely caught up.

I hope everything works out - ear aches/infections are the worst!

jnicolen1

im a speech language pathologist.  i also had recurring ear infections and tubes as a child.  the ENT can give you a referral to a speech therapist so they can monitor LO and make sure things develop as they should.  as long as you are monitoring and following tips...LO should be fine.

kj07

luckystarz:

jnicolen1:

im a speech language pathologist.  i also had recurring ear infections and tubes as a child.  the ENT can give you a referral to a speech therapist so they can monitor LO and make sure things develop as they should.  as long as you are monitoring and following tips...LO should be fine.

this. But also the recurrent infections can cause them to have trouble hearing so they don't always hear all the sounds, so yes it can cause some delays in speech. Usually when the infection is gone, or tubes are placed the speech comes back and in most cases (from my experience) improves a lot. 

this x2.  I'm not a speech language pathologist, but my mom is (and I had tons of ear infections and 3 sets of tubes as a kid).

If it makes you feel better, I'm wondering the same thing about B.  Since October he's had two ear infections, each of which lasted about 3 weeks.  Even now, his infection is going away but he still has a ton of fluid in one of his ears.  We're going to evaluate in 6 weeks and see if we should get a referral to a pedi ent too.

AFanch1127

I'm also an SLP!  I'm so glad that you have caught your LO's ear infections this quickly.  The earlier the intervention LO receives, the better.  PP is right, usually once tubes are placed, verbal skills begin to develop pretty rapidly, but if kids have been hearing impaired for a long time because of the infections, they may require some intervention to catch up on their verbal skills.  It wouldn't hurt to get a referral to a speech therapist just to evaluate where LO is at.  Since you are catching this so early, they may very well tell you LO is right on track, but for your own peace of mind and *just in case*, I'd ask for a referral.   GL!

kj07

Also, 3 cheers for SLPs!

lrn327

Wow, thank you everyone for all of the great info!  I guess I am grateful in a way that if he had to have all of these ear infections, at least they happened early before we got too far down the road.  Like everyone has said, I feel it is good we're catching it early.  It turns out my DH also have tubes and speech therapy.  Of course, he's just fine now.  :-)  Thank you SLPs for what you do!

chrisncassie

We are worried about this too.  LO had tubes placed Dec 7th, we went to the ENT a week ago for a check up, and because of his cold, his ears are all filled up again with fluid.  We are keeping a close eye on his talking.  He doesn't say much, "uh oh" is mostly it right now, but he is trying to say "up".  I will be bringing this up with the ENT when we go back next week to re-check his ears.