What are the symptoms?
Most common symptoms:
Hearing loss: When children have glue ear their hearing levels can be similar to wearing ear plugs or putting fingers in their ears.
Common symptoms of glue ear include:
- Often mishearing what is said, especially in noisy environments
- Needing the television volume turned up
- Saying ‘eh what’ or ‘pardon’ a lot
- Appearing to lip-read.
Physical ill health: children with glue ear can show symptoms of physical ill-health such as:
- Repeated ear infections (glue ear often follows acute ear infections, colds and flu)
- Snoring, blocked nose or poor sleep
- Noises in the ear or dizziness
- Clumsiness or off-balance.
Long term or persistent glue ear:
If glue ear has been present for a long while you may notice some of the following symptoms:
- Children with glue ear can become frustrated, feel left out and become quiet and withdrawn.
- You may notice that your child is not doing so well at school as expected.
- Your child’s speech and language may appear to be behind other children of similar age.
These symptoms are less common as glue ear normally gets better in 3 months without any treatment. However, if you are particularly concerned about your child's behaviour, educational or speech/language development you can contact your child's GP or health care provider at any time.