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What is the worst thing that can happen to a one year old with an ear infection?
25 Comments
keith100_adams asked:
What is the worst thing that can happen to a one year old with an ear infection?
Our one year old continuously get them in both ears and we are scared that he may go deaf, have a speech impediment or something major like that.. Is it possible?
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Published on January 2, 2010 · Filed under: Ear Infections; Tagged as: Ear Infection, Ears, Speech Impediment
25 Responses to “What is the worst thing that can happen to a one year old with an ear infection?”
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Betsy said on January 3rd, 2010 at 7:43 am
Yes, it is. Have him checked by a specialist.
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Jody G said on January 5th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
If it is just an ear infection most times they clear up on there own, but if it is becasue the fluid is not draing it can cause hearing loss and perment damage to the ear.
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Jessica said on January 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Yes.
My nephew had continual ear infections at a young age and suffered a permanent partial loss of hearing in one ear.
Make sure you are have him treated as soon as he shows signs of an ear infection. He may need tubes at some point to help his ears drain better.
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shannon said on January 8th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
see what the doc says he will give you antibiotics, the worst i thing would be no sleep for days
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tubes my son had tubes in his ears. it will do wonders. dont b scared
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Yes, it is possible. You probably need to take him to the doctor and then a specialist… some children get alot of fluid build up that calls to have tubes placed to drain the fluid and keep the child from repeat and worse ear infections that can damage the childs hearing.
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Depending on how many he has had the MD might recommend tubes. Too many can cause hearing damage. I think they have to have a certain amount in a small amount of time for getting tubes. Talk to his MD.
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Carla R said on January 13th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Figure out what is causing the infections! Usually it is caused by allergies (cow milk being the most common).
You could also try a chiropractor.
My favorite home remedy is Garlic ear oil drops.
Your sons body needs to be able to help fight off these infections. You need to incorporate some immune building foods in your childs diet.
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lisa p said on January 15th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Without doctor care deafness and other things can occur . I’ve never heard of anything bad happening as long as you take care of the infections as they come.my son was getting frequent ear infections when he was little doctors asked me if he lived with a smoker. being around smoke is a leading cause of ear infections in children i was told
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Persistant ear infections can lead to some of the issues you mentioned. Your only defense right now, is to keep an eye on him so that you can get him to the doctor at the first signs. You might see him tugging or rubbing at his ear. This is a tell-tale sign. You may want to invest in a crib wedge so that your baby can sleep on a slight incline. It helps prevent fluid build up in the inner ear. I would especially suggest this if you lay him down with a bottle.
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If your child has a ear infection you need to go to the doctors so they can treat it. And if always get them you need to talk to a doc about that. But don’t just let it go it’s very painful to the child.
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Tina B said on January 20th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Yes, all these things are possible. Has your child seen an ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor? If the child continuously has infections, it means there is always fluid in the ear which can cause hearing loss and speech delay. The ENT will likely recommend having ear tubes placed. The surgery only takes about 10 minutes.
My daughter has had ear infections since she was 4 months old. She recently got her 3rd set of ear tubes and had her adenoids removed at age 21 months and once the fluid problem was cleared up, she started talking alot more.
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it is possible for kids that are constantly getting them to have hearing loss. my husband has hearing loss because of lots of ear infections before the doctors put in tubes. my daughter suffered from the same thing and i was worried about her too. i kept asking about the tubes, but the dr. said her infections were spacing out and that it was better to wait and see. thankfully as she grew her small tubes did as well and the infections finally went away. i would just keep taking him in and asking the dr. and voicing your concern about what it might do to your son.
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If the doctor is concerned over the number of ear infections your son is developing, he SHOULD talk to you about putting tubes in your son’s ears.
Babies who have repeated ear infections generally have an underdeveloped ear canal which allows fluid to pool inside the ear. This stagnant fluid then grows bacteria and becomes an infection. Ear tubes hold the ear canal straight and prevent the fluid pools and therefore, the ear infections! If your child does end up with ear tubes, they are just temporary. They will be removed once your son’s ear canal has hardened. A LOT of children have ear tubes, it is nothing serious.
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Ear problems should always be taken seriously. I lost the hearing in my right ear and so I know from personal experience that it’s not something to take lightly. I also had a classmate who had chronic ear infections and ended up losing significant hearing in both ears. He also developed a speech impediment as a result. These may be extreme cases rather than the norm but it’s best to always take ear issues seriously.
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JLee said on January 25th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
YES!! My son has had horrible ear infections since he was 3 months old…his worst one was in January when his ear drum ruptured and it took 2 months to get the infection under control!! Yes it can cause scarring of the ear drum and cause hearing loss and in serious cases even deafness in the ear…many infections also lead to delays in speech development due to the hearing loss!!!
My pediatrician only ever wanted to put my son on oral antibiotics and the ear infection bacteria must have become resistant to it as the oral antibiotics stopped working! We had to take him to the hospital to get shots of antibiotics just to control it…after this I took it upon myself to get him in to an ear nose and throat specialist..he now has tubes and is doing great!!! He said with the seriousness of his infections he would likely have developed hearing loss from the infections….we were lucky to get him in when we did…(he’s 2 and a half now) so I advise you to seek a specialist if your little one is as bad as mine was (an ear infection every month)
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If hes continuously having them ,then you should see a doctor.My son had ear infection after another.Started when he was 6months,and he kept it.I had to constantly take him to the doctor.Then they said he needs tubes ,so he got the tubes put in.It took all of 5 minutes ,he had to be put to sleep.but he did fine.Dont let it get to the point where hes in terrible pain.My husband ,when he was 4 had an ear infection and didnt tell anyone ,his eardrum ruptured. My son still has an occasional ear infection but it goes away because it can drain the crap out now.Go to the doctor
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well the short term effects are that he can get a really high fever and have a seizure from it and obviously the misery he has to go through when he has an ear infection, they hurt! as for the long term effects he can have hearing loss if he gets a lot of scar tissue in his ears from infections. it can also cause speech problems because they cannot hear as well as they should with fluid constantly in their ears. you may want to look into getting ear tubes for him. I had to do that with my daughter and it was obvious that she could hear much better after the procedure. i was very afraid to have it done at first because they have to put the child to sleep, but it was much easier and better than i thought. the procedure takes about 15 minutes and there is no pain afterwards. my daughter was back to her normal self and playing like nothing happened about 20 minutes after the procedure. I would recommend it for children who have frequent ear infections.
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Robin R said on January 28th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
my son’s were 2-3 a year and the dr. said that was ok. Any more than that they need some tubes surgically installed. Get a second opinion from another Pediatrician if you don’t feel comfortable about what’s going on.
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The question you should be asking yourself is “Why”…what is
the root cause of these infections? Often, we have “weak spots” that get targeted, but there is still a reason for this…please see a Naturopath & delve a little deeper.Unfortunately, western medicals are not taught to treat the whole body, so they target only the part in question, which may only be the result of an underlying problem…a naturopath sees the body as a whole organism & is more educated in seeing this “big picture”…their medicines are definately more people-friendly, too.
1 yr.olds are quite resilient, and if strong otherwise, your fears are not hard-founded, though, depending on the root cause, no one can say off-hand what can come of not curing this ASAP.
By any chance, are you spraying your childs room, bed, toys, with Lysol-type or bleach-added products…big No-No, Mom!!! -
heather said on February 3rd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I constantly had ear infections as a child and as a result I had tubes put in my ears on my first birthday. According to my parents it helped a lot. I think you should call his doctor and ask what his/her recommendations are.
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ladi294 said on February 5th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
My oldest son had plenty of ear infections when he was a baby and I personally have never heard of anything like this. I don’t think that could happen but I really don’t know. Check out webmd.com and see if you can find some answers there.
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I would take your child to an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist. Pediatricians can tell you that your child has an ear infection and, most often, they can even tell you what caused the infection, but as far as being able to do anything more than give antibiotics they would have to refer you to an ENT anyway. Chronic ear infections can go away and not cause permenant damage, but in the case of any ear infection I would check with my Ped before deciding not to do anything about it. It is very possible that an ear infection can cause permenant damage.
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LBuffo said on February 9th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I don’t think he’ll go deaf but you may want to take him to the doctor, his inner ear may not be developing correctly. My neice used to get ear infections all of the time and she had to get tubes put in her ears.
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When you say continously – is there any time in between where he doesn’t have an ear infection? If not, he might have one of those drug-resistant “superbugs” that’s out there and might need the big gun antibiotics to get rid of it.
If there is time in between where he’s infection-free, he might just be one of those kids who picks up every ear infection. They usually outgrow it.
Deafness and speech impediments have a SLIGHT possibilty, but you might have a better chance of winning the lottery.
I had more than 30 ear infections from the time I was four till I was 8 years old. I remember telling the doctor I knew what it was and he asked me when I went to “doctor school”. (I was a little kid!) It was just a fluke thing. I got mono when I was 8 years old and haven’t had an ear infection since. (And that was over 20 years ago!) I’m not saying this is what is going to happen to your child – it’s what happened to me. I have no residual problems from that. (My hearing loss was caused by no earplugs with loud music at concerts and happened when I was 25.)
If it would make you feel better, speak to your doctor about a speech and hearing evaluation – it can be done on little kids, and many states offer it free of charge to children under 2 1/2 years old.
