Speech delay due to ear infection

mommabluej · July 2010

DH took DS to the pedis for his 1 year well visit and I was not able to go bc of work. The dr told DH that LO is behind in speech. I knew this was going to be brought up bc LO babbles and says Maa, Dat, bobba, up, uh-oh, but not too much else. He has had numerous ear infections, and I have learned this can affect hearing and speech. We have a referral to an ENT from April, but the childrens hospital who specialize in this were booked, we don't have an appointment until Aug. The pedi said we could see a specialist for the speech delay, or wait until the ENT sees him and decide what to do from there. We decided to wait to see the ENT first before being overly worried about the speech delay issues.

Did anyone's LO have a hearing problem due to fluid on their ears? How did they adjust after tubes?

BelleBaby · July 2010

It doesn't sound like your LO is behind in speech for a 1 year old. That's more than some 18 month olds say!

But to address your question about the ear infections and tubes, Eli had to have them back in June. Before he got them, it never seemed like he could hear us call his name and he never said much. The day after the tubes, he noticed the TV for the first time and started dancing to the music! His babbling has taken off since then and he's working on words. Since his tubes, he's added "all gone" "all done" "kitty" "dog" and "duck" to his vocab (he could say mama, dada, and baba for bottle before the tubes).

I think the tubes did a lot for his speech because before, I don't think he was hearing well at all. It was insane how much fluid was trapped in his ears.

eris1995 · July 2010

BelleBaby:

It doesn't sound like your LO is behind in speech for a 1 year old. That's more than some 18 month olds say!

I agree! DS has a speech delay but we just ruled out his hearing so I can't help there. Good luck!

wall0307 · July 2010

My son had 3-4 months of constant ear infections. We saw an ENT, and he said that it was affecting his hearing. They tested his ears (hearing). (DS was about 12 months and still wasn't talking.) He was about 50/50 on giving him tubes. He convinced us to wait and see if he got another ear infection. He did, so we got him tubes around 14 months. He still wasn't saying any words. We haven't gotten another infection since he got his tubes. He's 17 months old now, and he's still not saying a lot. He says uh-oh (a lot!), dadda, cat, duck, no, yeah and don't. I think some of it is because he couldn't hear for so long. He does understand a lot of what I'm saying. If I ask him if he wants to go outside, he walks to the door. If I say we're going to the bathroom, he walks to the bathroom. If I say it's time to change his diaper, he runs away screaming. The doctor said that if he wasn't talking at 18 months, he would recommend therapy.

mommabluej · July 2010

BelleBaby:

It doesn't sound like your LO is behind in speech for a 1 year old. That's more than some 18 month olds say!

But to address your question about the ear infections and tubes, Eli had to have them back in June. Before he got them, it never seemed like he could hear us call his name and he never said much. The day after the tubes, he noticed the TV for the first time and started dancing to the music! His babbling has taken off since then and he's working on words. Since his tubes, he's added "all gone" "all done" "kitty" "dog" and "duck" to his vocab (he could say mama, dada, and baba for bottle before the tubes).

I think the tubes did a lot for his speech because before, I don't think he was hearing well at all. It was insane how much fluid was trapped in his ears.

I feel like the pedi was jumping the gun, but I would rather have a more proactive dr than the opposite, but I agree that LO not speaking much is not really a major concern yet. Thanks for this feedback, I have heard this from others.

kellyncsu · July 2010

Delayed in speech? Am I missing something? Your DS is 12/13 months and says as much as my 15 month old...and I was told he wasn't delayed. Not exactly advanced...but at this point, his pedi is fine with where he is since his receptive is higher than his expressive (he says mama and dada correctly, ball, up (rarely), hi (rarely) and that's it).

PS - we got tubes at 10 months.

macchiatto · July 2010

Yeah, that's not a speech delay as far as I know. They look for 2-5 words at 12 months but usually as long as they're babbling, they're OK. My boys didn't talk at all until almost 15m and now at 18m they're ahead, so I would try not to worry yet. Obviously definitely get his ears taken care of as that might be delaying him from what he would be saying otherwise, but his speech sounds well within the normal range for his age. (And I've talked to speech therapists, read their milestone charts, etc., since I was concerned at first that my boys were only babbling at a year.)

Idhreniel · July 2010

I don't have any advice about tubes, but I agree with the previous posters - from what you described it really doesn't sound like your LO has a speech delay.

mommabluej · July 2010

wall0307:
My son had 3-4 months of constant ear infections. We saw an ENT, and he said that it was affecting his hearing. They tested his ears (hearing). (DS was about 12 months and still wasn't talking.) He was about 50/50 on giving him tubes. He convinced us to wait and see if he got another ear infection. He did, so we got him tubes around 14 months. He still wasn't saying any words. We haven't gotten another infection since he got his tubes. He's 17 months old now, and he's still not saying a lot. He says uh-oh (a lot!), dadda, cat, duck, no, yeah and don't. I think some of it is because he couldn't hear for so long. He does understand a lot of what I'm saying. If I ask him if he wants to go outside, he walks to the door. If I say we're going to the bathroom, he walks to the bathroom. If I say it's time to change his diaper, he runs away screaming. The doctor said that if he wasn't talking at 18 months, he would recommend therapy.

Glad to hear DS seems to be hearing well now even if he doesn't seem to want to say too much. Thanks for your feedback.

SCBride_Oct2004 · July 2010

This isn't to scare you, but to just give you a more extreme scenario than your own and to let you know that your son is probably doing just fine. My husband, who is almost 32 has 40 % hearing loss in one ear and 65% loss in the other ear. He also did not speak until the age of 3, at which point they discovered it was because of scar tissue from probably multiple missed ear infections. So his damage was from untreated infections. At least you've been seeking proper and timely treatment of your son's infections. He did end up w/tubes which I'm assuming helped with his speech. I still don't know how they weren't concerned before the age of 3 that he wasn't speaking at all yet, but then again this was 32 years ago.

At my son's 1 year appointment the pedi. said they only expect 2-3 words @ a year anyway. I was concerned because our 3 year old was actually saying about 40 words @ a year and 400 @ 2 years. She said that's amazing and certainly not the norm and that my 1 year old is right on track

MelBel82 · July 2010

My brother had the same thing (years ago). He had very limited hearing because of the fluids in his ears. He had numerous ear infections. When he was around 18 months old they put tubes in his ears. His speech took off at that point, but he did need speech therapy for a while because he'd gone so long without really hearing.

mexicomatch · July 2010

I don't currently work w/ kids that little- but I am a speech therapist. I used to work in a clinic and the earliest we would see kids was about 16-18 months (for normally developing kids). At 12 months old, that is jumping the gun- he has several words. They may not sound like our words, but they are the way he says them consistently.

On a positive note- most doctors are the extreme opposite. They have an 18 - 24 month old who doesn't talk and they say, let's wait. Which, I think is horrible. In your case, he is 12 months! He is doing fine.

Ear infections can lead to speech/language delays, my son got tubes at 9 months because of constant ear infections. Keep the ENT appointment, but don't worry about speech for now.

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