Ear Problem - Tympanic "Flat Line"????

My grandson was deaf and the foster mom realized it after only a few days. I told my daughter something was wrong but she didn't believe me. The ENT checked the baby, he was just about 6-8 months old and he didn't even respond to the bass drum right by his head. Loud high noises, nothing. The ENT told the foster mom that he wanted to do the tubes and it was okayed by the state to go forth. The ENT took him into surgery and when he started going in the inner ear with his tools to look around he found debris from past ear infections that the antibiotic had not cleared up. He had to stop everything and start cleaning out the debris. The surgery lasted almost twice as long as planned. The doc came out and told them the tubes went in fine but there was a problem with the inside stuff. He explained what he had done and that he thought that was 100% of the hearing issue. It was.

My grandson came out of surgery and could hear perfectly. He was so scared by any noise, he hadn't ever heard so much before. His ears had built this debris up over some time since he was so young. They got all of it and he still has NO problems with his hearing and is developing normally now at age 2 1/2.

So, let the ENT do whatever he wants and try it all. I hope it all works out for your child and since he hasn't been having deafness all his life I bet it's debris from a past infection that didn't clear up.

.

I wish I knew something about this. We had Andy's ears checked but it turns out he was just ignoring us. :(

I hope it works out.

Flat tymps just indicates possible middle ear effusion(fluid trapped behind the eardrum). Usually it self-resolves. If it lasts more than two months or so that is when tubes are considered. Very commen in kids. Usually more of an issue if educational or speech and language issues.

Keep us posted on how he is doing and no matter what the results are you will handle it!

I actually did these test in the school I worked in. It is very common in kids his age. They will show flat line if they are congested, have a cold, seasonal allergies or fluid in the ear or just as simple as having wax build up in the ear(which your doctor would have seen this and not even attempted a tymp reading). If left untreated can cause permanent hearing loss.

My son when he was 1 going on 2 years was having a flat line in one of his ears. Took him to a Ent and of coarse the 1st thing he wanted to do was place tubes in his ears. Me being a peds nurse new what questions to ask before I felt this needed to be done. I took him to another ENT and questioned her about it being due to allergies. She agreed and put him on Zrytec everyday and if he got a cold to give him Rondec DM. He was only on this daily for a short period of time and it cleared him up. He is now 3 yrs and does great. But keep in mind he had only had one ear infection when I took him to the ENT. Kids who have lots of ear infection and flat lines usually need antibiotics and further treatments.

Best of luck and keep us posted on what the ENT had to say ;-)

if the tubes are still in he will flat line. It is not often they stay in that long but it is possible