Ear tubes are a very common procedure; last I heard about 2 million are placed each year. Your story is very typical; if fluid was present beforehand, parents often report dramatic improvements in hearing and speech, and behavior too, after placement. However, studies show that kids who don’t get tubes during the crucial years for speech development usually catch up with those who do receive them. There is some debate about whether we are doing them too often; the indications now for the operation are that there must be a 30 dB loss on both sides for 3 months. I can tell you that if the average adult had that much hearing loss and you told him it would disappear with tube placement, he or she wouldn’t want to wait 3 hours, let alone three months.

Since she is only three, speech therapy may not be necessary, but you should definitely go for an evaluation and if necessary some followup speech therapy. It is amazing what a difference a few months of therapy can make in a child who needs it.

As you can see from many of the comments here, this is really not uncommon. It is sad that even educated parents don’t know this and can go through a lot of fear and worry over what usually turns out to be not very serious. You don’t say but I hope the doctor tried to reassure you about this. Even then, I can’t blame you for continuing to fear the worst. Glad it turned out well in the end, and I’m sure she’ll catch up quickly.

During this whole episode, I talked with my freshman roomate from MIT, who’s deaf in one ear. Apparently she was rejected from multiple private kindergardens because they assumed she was retarded. It’s amazing what hearing loss can masquerade as, and, as you and others pointed out, what speech issues can be a sign of.

I had one of my ears fill up with wax when I was about 25. I didn’t realize for a long time, then I noticed that I couldn’t hear when my good ear was down on the pillow in bed. This was nothing at all of course compared to your daughter, except that I still remember the 4 hours after I had the wax taken out as the most amazing time. Until my head figured out that it had to change its processing rules for noise from the previously blocked ear, sounds were much more intense than they ever had been or have been since. It wasn’t like tinnitus; there was a feeling of being much more intimately in contact with the world. A real high. It was also amazing how fast my head adjusted. I hope your daughter has a great first month. Three’s kind of young, but I guess she’ll remember this.

My Number One Son, Nathan, had similar hearing/communication problems, as well as chronic ear effusions (ear snot, in more direct language). Unfortunately, in his case, the ear tubes cleared out his middle ears, and stopped the recurrent ear infections, but his language did not get better.

Some time later–and after much emotional turmoil–we found out that Nathan is autistic. And it turns out that lots and lots of families with an autistic member started out on the hearing loss-ear tubes path.

I’m glad your daughter’s hearing improved–and I’m thrilled by all the similar stories shared above. But, as your readers think about this story and hear similar stories in the future, please remember be suspicious of other causes of communication difficulties. Autism is treatable with intensive therapy, and the earlier it starts, the better. If the ear tubes do not produce the expected results, stop and re-think the differential diagnosis.

[BTW, Nathan is 13 now and doing fine. But that's another story.]

One thing I wished I’d done was to get my hearing tested more regularly as a teenager and young adult, and not stopped going to the ENT doctor and audiologist after my second set of tubes was out. As a result of the many childhood ear infections before I had tubes, there was quite a bit of nerve damage, so I’ve got an auditory processing disorder that wasn’t diagnosed until I was 32 — and sure would’ve made work and university easier if I’d known I had it. Free advice from strangers is worth everything you paid for it, of course — but I thought I’d pass it on, all the same.