Medical Health Encyclopedia

On rare occasions the doctor may need to draw fluid from the ear using a needle for identifying specific bacteria, a procedure called tympanocentesis. This procedure can also relieve severe ear pain. This is most often performed by an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist, and usually only in severe or recurrent cases. In most cases, tympanocentesis is not necessary in order to obtain an accurate enough diagnosis for effective treatment.

Determining Hearing Problems

Hearing tests performed by an audiologist are usually recommended for children with persistent otitis media with effusion. A hearing loss below 20 decibels usually indicates problems.

Determining Impaired Hearing in Infants and Small Children. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to test children under 2 years old for hearing problems. One way to determine hearing problems in infants is to gauge the baby's language development:

• At 4 to 6 weeks most babies with normal hearing are making cooing sounds.
• By around 5 months the child should be laughing out loud and making one-syllable sounds with both a vowel and consonant.
• Between 6 and 8 months, the infants should be able to make word-like sounds with more than one syllable.
• Usually starting around 7 months the baby babbles (makes many word-like noises) and should be doing this by 10 months.
• Around 10 months, the baby is able to identify and use some term for the parent, dada, baba, or mama.
• The baby speaks his or her first word usually by the end of the first year.

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If a child's progress is significantly delayed beyond these times, a parent should suspect possible hearing problems.

Determining Impaired Hearing in Older Children. Hearing loss in older children may be detected by the following behaviors:

• They may not respond to speech spoken beyond 3 feet away
• They may have difficulty following directions
• Their vocabulary may be limited
• They may have social and behavioral problems